There are many reasons that WordPress has risen to its current position of preeminence in the content management system marketplace. It is easy enough for novices to get to grips with, yet flexible enough to meet the needs of die-hard developers. It has an awesome community of both users and developers, which has lead to the evolution of a thriving market place of themes and extensions to add almost any functionality imaginable. In short, WordPress is a fantastic platform for building a site.
But, on the list of WordPress’s virtues, speed is conspicuously absent.
It’s not that WordPress is egregiously slow compared to its competitors, but that the way WordPress works necessarily makes it slower than a static site.
WordPress is a dynamic content management system. That means it builds the pages it serves on the fly. By default, every time a user requests a page, WordPress executes a number of PHP scripts, which in turn make a number of queries to a MySQL database, the results being combined together to create the web page that users see. Every database hit and PHP function takes time, which is why WordPress is not as quick as a static HTML site.
Speed is important for maximizing conversions on a website. Every second a user has to wait for the page to load is an opportunity for them to abandon the site and go in search of alternatives. Internet users are not patient, and they will not wait for longer than a few seconds. Conversion rates are inversely proportional to load times. If you want users to click on your ads, buy your products, or fill in a form, you need to make sure that your site is super speedy.
But, no one want to go back to static sites. They are a pain to manage and without knowing HTML, it can be challenging to add content.
Caching is the solution that sits between a completely dynamic site and a static site. Imagine a user loads a page on your WordPress site, which is dynamically generated in the usual way. When the next user comes along and requests the same page, there is really no need to generate it again dynamically, provided nothing has changed. The site might as well keep the results of the first page generation and send it to the second visitor, bypassing all that time consuming script execution and database querying.
In a nutshell, that’s how caching works. Pages generated by the site are cached in memory or on disk so that they can be served repeatedly. Caching can make a WordPress site very much quicker, which makes users happier. Happy users means more conversions.
Implementing Caching On A WordPress Site
There are several plugins for WordPress that add caching functionality, but there are three that WordPress users should definitely take a look at.
WP Super Cache
If you want to add caching to your site without delving too deep into the details of the process, this is the plugin for you. It is easy to use, with a straightforward interface.
W3 Total Cache
On the other hand, if you want to take control of every aspect of your site’s caching, you’ll want to take a look at W3 Total Cache. It is very configurable, and will let you tweak caching options, minification strategies, and content distribution network hook-ups to your heart’s content.
Really Static
Really Static is different to the other two plugins, in that, as its name suggests, it takes your WordPress site and makes a static set of HTML files from it. It’s not for everyone, as it removes some of the benefits a dynamic sites offers, but if your really want a very fast site, check it out.
Implementing caching on your WordPress site can make it up to 80% faster, which may have a huge impact on the experience of your users and their likelihood of conversion.
via Business 2 Community http://www.business2community.com/tech-gadgets/arent-using-caching-wordpress-site-youre-throwing-money-away-0665672?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=arent-using-caching-wordpress-site-youre-throwing-money-away
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