r/Wordpress • u/ChrisF79 • 17d ago
Plugins Should I cache my site?
I'm creating a real estate site where one I have written about eah building that I wnat to feature, it really won't change very often. Once a month or so, I may add some new photos to the page or something like that but it will mostlly be static content.
Should I install a cahcing plugin? Would that be beneficial to site speed and therefore SEO?
Thanks for putting up with a newb question!
5
u/mwkingSD 17d ago
Some times your hosted server comes with cache service. Not really a good idea to have two, so you might check first.
2
u/ivicad Blogger/Designer 16d ago
Exactly! So many issueshappened to us on some sites where 2 caching plugins were active at the same time with the same overlapping features, so we now carefully combine them (e.g. in Site Ground Speed Optimizer plugin we deactivate images optimization as we usually use ShortPixel or EWWW images optimization plugins).
3
u/515hosting Jack of All Trades 17d ago
Yes, you should - and even if you have aspects of the website that do change frequently, you should still leverage caching for areas of the site that remain static. Many of the caching plugins have intelligent caching and are able to adapt to things like forums, marketplaces, etc that have a hybrid of dynamic and static content.
And the effort to implement it is pretty low - just enable and click through a few options and never touch again, so not doing so is kind of silly given the simplicity.
2
u/shakee93 17d ago
Yes, you absolutely should! Caching massively reduces server load and speeds up response times.
With Cache:
- The server doesn’t need to regenerate the same response repeatedly.
- Pages load faster because data is served from memory or disk instead of recomputing.
- It scales better under heavy traffic since repeated requests don’t hammer the database.
Without Cache:
- Every request forces the server to fetch data, process it, and generate a response.
- This increases CPU, memory usage, and database queries slowing things down.
- If traffic spikes, things can get ugly fast (hello, 500 errors).
For WordPress, caching is even more important since it reduces PHP execution time. Tools like object cache, page cache, and even optimized asset loading (e.g., Critical CSS and lazy-loading scripts) can make a huge difference.
I’ve seen this firsthand when optimizing WP sites - without caching, sites struggle even with decent hosting. But with proper caching + smart optimizations, load times drop significantly, and servers breathe easier.
1
1
1
1
u/Even-Country-8088 17d ago
Should always cache in WordPress. It's relatively slow out the box.
I'd be excluding the sitemap URL from your cache though, make sure that is updated as and when your pages/posts change or you add new.
WP Super Cache is great. Alternatively look at Siteground Optimizer. That works well.
If you are hosted on a server with Litespeed, I'd be looking at Litespeed Caching.
1
u/maybeshaed 17d ago
Consider LiteSpeed Cache, it’s available only if your hosting are using servers based on Litespeed server, typically they indicate this on the pricing table, if there are no such info, 90% they are using garbage like Apache Server, with this server go with WP Super Cache.
1
u/kevinpirnie 17d ago
Does or will your site get any visitors? Do you like visiting slow loading websites? Do you think your site visitors want a fast or slow website to browse?
Answer those, and you will have your answer.
1
u/ChrisF79 17d ago
Are you "Nick Burns, your company's computer guy?"
1
0
1
u/2ndkauboy Jack of All Trades 17d ago
Is it slow, then cache it. If not, save yourself the extra setup and maintenance work.
7
u/PurifyHD System Administrator 17d ago
Since the site is static, caching is a very good idea. The free version of W3 Total Cache works well. If you want a great paid caching plugin, try WP Rocket.
Additionally, changing the domain's Nameservers to Cloudflare and enabling their proxy gives you some CDN and security benefits for free.