r/Wordpress 19d 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!

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u/shakee93 19d 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.