The first reason why I stress on optimizing a webpage is because most pages are poorly optimized.
And when I say the site is “poorly optimized” , I do not “always” mean that the website is a disaster.
Well It’s a shame, because many of these webpages could be much better with just the installation of some simple plugins.
Top of the chain among these plugins is W3 Total Cache, the best plugin to optimize a website.
Like any powerful weapon, one must know how to use it to it’s full capacity. It’s not enough “just to install” the plugin.
Therefore, in this article, I will explain step by step how to optimize your website and increase your website speed with W3 Total Cache.
W3 Total Cache: Why and what is it?
The W3 Total Cache is a WordPress plugin, which makes “Web Performance Optimization” very easy.
Surely you’re wondering “what is Website Performance Optimization?”.
It’s a crazy word that refers to all activities aimed at optimizing the performance of a website. (It was not so difficult after all, right?)
The great problem of “WPO”, is that it is very complex to implement; at least for those who know nothing about web development and servers. That is, for most people (novices)
Therefore, the W3 Total Cache comes in handy for those WordPress users who want to optimize their website and also increase the speed of their website..
First thing’s first
Before you dive into the plugin, you have first to install it.
For that, you have two options: install it directly to your blog, or download it from their page and then upload it via FTP or on your blog.
Installation guide
1.Head to Plugins -> Add New.
2.Search for “W3 Total Cache”.
3.Click “Install Now”.
4. Follow the prompts through and “Activate Plugin” once the install is complete.
5. Done.
If you want to download it from the developer’s site, and then upload from the plugin tab, instead of doing the search, be sure to touch the button “Upload” and then upload it like any other file.
The plugin’s popularity is largely due to its immensely powerful options, and it also speeds up your server performance and thus increase the speed of your website.
The W3 Total Cache Settings
W3 Total Cache is separated into 9 sections. Next, we will see each of these sections in detail, to understand what they are for, and how to configure them.
General
This is where we begin the configuration.
As soon as you activate the plugin, you will see each of the sections we will see in detail below, having the option to “activate” each of them. Some of you will have to set in the same menu, sometimes not.
Just in case, do NOT enable anything until you finish reading this guide.
1.Page Cache
The “page cache” (or page cache) allows you to create static pages from your dynamic content. Thus, when your users “ask” for the contents of your page from your server, page cache will send them a static version, thereby reducing the burden on your site’s servers.
W3TC – Page Cache Settings
Page Cache Settings – General
Enable (checked) – Don’t cache pages for logged in users
Enable (checked) – Cache home page
Enable (checked) – Cache feeds
Disable (unchecked) – Cache URIs with query string variables
Disable (unchecked) – Cache 404 (not found) pages
Page Cache Settings – Advanced
No for you need to touch these.
Page Cache Settings – Cache Preload
With Cache Preload, you can automatically “fill the cache”, using a XML sitemap. This means serving pre-cached pages to all visitors, even if a page has not been visited recently. It’s OK to leave this disabled, and keep it disabled if you run into performance problems when the preload activates, or lower the number of ‘Pages per interval’.
Enable – Automatically prime the page cache
Update internal – 907
Pages per interval: 7 (increase/decrease as needed)
Sitemap URL: e.g. http://roviarsguide.com/sitemap.xml
2. Minify
Minimization is the process of removing lines, comments and spaces of your CSS and HTML files to reduce their size, and thus its weight.
To use minimization you will have to enable it from the Setup menu. In the same menu there are two options, both quite particular. The first is “Auto”, which will automatically minimize each file. The second is the manual.
So just leave it at automatic.
Below, there is the option to “Minify cache method”. Not much to do in this case, just chose the only option you have: (Disk). The other three options Leave them as they are.
In the General section, enable the following:
-Rewrite URL structure (Be careful, this option did not help my pagespeed)
-minify for logged in users
-Minify Error notification (For Both Admin and Email notification)
3. HTML & XML settings:
enable:Inline CSS minification
enable:Inline JS minification
enable:Line break removal
4. CSS settings:
enable:Preserved removal comment
enable:Line break removal
In case you have chosen to “manual” is here where you put your files one by one .css to be minimized. Do it only if you know what you’re doing.
5. JS(java script) settings:
enable:Preserved removal comment
enable: Line break removal
6. Database Cache & object cache
Database Cache does pretty much of what it says, caching your database and thus lowering the amount of time it takes to load your site, and Object Cache goes a long way towards increasing the performance for highly dynamic sites with complex database queries.
Both these caching options are straightforward, and all you want to do here is tick the boxes which turn both of these settings on.
As with all of the settings in Total Cache, after activating and saving, test out your website to see how it loads faster than before.
7. Browser Cache
The browser cache works “telling” how long browsers have to keep using a certain object.
Browser caching is up next and this is another great way of reducing your site’s load time for returning visitors. Every time a visitor visits your site, your “static files” — that’s your CSS, JS and images — are cached by the visitor’s browser.
Under General settings you'll want to have all but "Set W3 Total Cache header" and "Disable cookies for static files" ticked, with the same repeated for CSS & JS, HTML & XML and Media & Other Files.
This is going to make sure your site is telling visitors' browsers to cache as much static content as possible, reducing load time and the bandwidth your site is using up.
Returning visitors are what makes your site "bubble", and having Browser Cache maxed out to store as much content in the browser as possible will go a very long way to making sure those returning visitors get the best user experience as possible.
Do you realize how much work you are saving your server with this? As it is recommended that you use this option.
8.CDN
Obviously, you can activate this section only if you use a CDN.
But since I do not use a CDN (yet), I’ll suggest you leave that section.
We’ll talk more about CDN in our next post.
9. Miscellaneous
Within sundries, there are 2 interesting options you should consider using: the option that says “Enable Google Page Speed”, and says “Verify rewrite rules”.
Conclusion
Once done with all the setup of the plugin, you must have seen some improvement in your performance.
To do this well, I recommend you analyze your page with an essential tool: Google developers Page Insight tools.
Now that you know how to use this powerful tool called W3 Total Cache, your page will be well above the competition with an excellent frame rate that allows higher position in search engines.
Did you notice an improvement in the performance of your website? I’d love you to tell me in the comments below!
source : http://www.roviarsguide.com/website-design/how-to-configure-w3-total-cache-plugin
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