Cached data is an important factor to consider when optimizing your website for search engines.
By taking steps to ensure that your cached data remains up-to-date and accurate, you can improve your website’s SEO ranking.
In this blog post, we will provide a definition of cached data, explain its importance in SEO, and share best practices when working with cached data.
Contents
- What Is Cached Data?
- How Does Cached Data Work?
- Different Types of Cached Data
- Example of Cached Data
- Does Cached Data Affect SEO?
- Process of Clearing the WordPress Cache?
- How to Clear Cache in WordPress
- Cached Data Best Practices
- Cached Data Tools To Save Time and Money
- Other Related SEO Terms To Know
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Wrapping Up
What Is Cached Data?
Cached data is information stored by a computer to improve speed and efficiency.
Cached data is typically stored on the hard drive of a computer and accessed quickly when needed.
There are two types of cached data: active and passive.
Active cached data is information actively used by the computer.
Passive cached data is information that is not actively used.
Instead, the hard drive stores this type of data for later use.
Difference Between Cached Data and Cookies?
Cached data is a snapshot of content stored on a server to load it faster the next time a request arrives for it.
Cookies, on the other hand, are small text files stored on a user’s device to save information about their preferences and activity.
How Does Cached Data Work?
When you visit a website, your browser requests content from a server.
The server then sends back the requested information.
Your computer stores the cached data so that subsequent requests for the same content load faster.
What Is the Purpose of Cached Data?
The purpose of cached data is to improve speed and efficiency.
Cached data allows your browser to load content quickly, without having to request it from the server each time.
The process works well for increasing page speed while improving a visitor’s browsing experience and reducing data usage.
Different Types of Cached Data
There are four main types of cached data.
Use this information to help you more effectively understand how to use cached data alongside your SEO plan.
- Site Cache: Site cache is when a website stores static files, like images and HTML pages, on the server Servers use this type of caching to help reduce load times. Websites load faster because the server doesn’t have to generate these files each time a user visits the site.
- Browser Cache: Browser cache is temporary storage on your computer for files downloaded from the internet. The next time you visit a website, your browser will use the files stored in the cache to load the page faster. Browsers use cached data to improve overall performance.
- Server Cache: Server cache is a type of caching that stores data on the server. The server type of caching can improve website performance because it reduces the amount of time needed to generate the page content.
- Micro Cache: The micro cache is a type of caching that stores data in memory. Memory is faster than disk, so this type of caching can improve efficiency and performance by reducing the time needed to access data.
Example of Cached Data
On Moz.com, the company performed a cache-related case study that revealed how you can improve page speed via cached data.
The study helped an eCommerce store load faster than 98% of other tested sites.
Does Cached Data Affect SEO?
Cached data does not directly affect SEO.
However, it will indirectly impact SEO for WordPress sites by improving website performance.
Cached data can improve your website’s speed, which helps to improve the user experience.
Why Is Cached Data Important for SEO?
Site speed is a ranking factor for search engines like Google.
Cached data can help improve site speed by reducing the amount of time it takes for a web page to load.
The user will more effectively enjoy the experience on their next website visit because they won’t need to wait for pages to load.
Google notices that your visitors easily navigate the site and stay on it longer.
Improving the user experience like this will improve rankings over time.
Is Cached Data Necessary?
Cached data is not necessary for SEO.
Some sites will run quickly based on other SEO techniques, such as using a fast “out of the box” WordPress host.
However, you should strongly consider using cached data correctly to improve WordPress SEO results.
How Long Does It Take for Cached Data to Work?
Cached data works right away.
Once you save a file to the cache, it is available on the user’s next visit to the site.
The improvement in website speed and performance will occur immediately.
However, it may take some time for Google to notice the improved performance and update rankings accordingly.
Process of Clearing the WordPress Cache?
Here are the general steps to consider when clearing the WordPress cache.
We’ll assume that you use a WordPress cache plugin to perform this action.
- Log in to your WordPress site as the administrator.
- Go to the WordPress cache plugin settings page.
- Find the “Clear Cache” button and click it.
- Navigate away from your plugin with the WordPress cache successfully cleared.
How to Clear Cache in WordPress
If you’re not using a WordPress cache plugin, then you’ll need to follow the steps specific to your caching solution.
For example, some WordPress hosting providers offer caching features that you can clear from your hosting account dashboard.
Here are the steps to take when using cPanel, for instance.
1. Log Into cPanel
The first step is to log into cPanel.
You can do this by going to yourdomain.com/cpanel.
2. Enter Credentials
After you enter your domain name, you’ll arrive at a login screen.
Enter your cPanel username and password.
These are the same credentials that you use to log into your WordPress site.
3. Click on the “Files” Section
Once you’re logged in, look for the “Files” section and click on it.
4. Find the “File Manager” Option
Under the “Files” section, you should see an option called “File Manager.” Click on that.
5. Select the Folder You Want To Empty
A pop-up window will appear. In that window, select the folder that you want to empty.
The WordPress cache is usually stored in the “wp-content/cache” folder.
6. Click on the “Empty Selected” Button
Once you have selected the folder, click on the “Empty Selected” button.
7. Confirm That You Want To Empty the Cache
A confirmation message will appear.
Click on the “Confirm” button to confirm that you want to empty the cache.
Another simple way to clear the WordPress cache is through your WordPress host’s dashboard.
Many hosts include an area in the dashboard where you can click a button to clear the website cache.
After logging into your WordPress hosting account dashboard, look for a caching option.
It is usually found in the “Performance” or “Cache” section.
Once you find the caching option, look for a button that says “Clear Cache” or “Empty Cache.”
Click on that button to clear the WordPress cache.
Cached Data Best Practices
Here are three of the most important best practices to keep in mind when dealing with clearing a cache in WordPress.
Avoid Caching Dynamic Pages
The first rule of caching is to avoid caching dynamic pages.
A dynamic page is a page that changes based on user input, such as a search results page or a shopping cart page.
Caching these types of pages can cause problems because the cached version may not reflect the most recent state of the page.
Use a Caching Plugin
If you are going to cache static pages, then the best way to do it is with a caching plugin.
A caching plugin will create static HTML files of your pages and serve those files instead of processing the heavier WordPress PHP code.
Don’t Cache Pages for Logged-In Users
Another best practice is to avoid caching pages for logged-in users.
If you cache a page that a user logs into, then they may not see the most recent version.
It can create confusion for your user and may even lead to data loss.
One last tip is to create a backup of your website before clearing the cache or making any other changes to your website.
It will ensure that you can always revert to a previous version if something goes wrong.
Cached Data Tools To Save Time and Money
It’s tough to deal with cache-related issues without the appropriate tools.
Let’s take a look at some of the available cached data solutions.
What Is a Cached Data Tool?
A cached data tool is software that helps you manage your cached data.
You can use these tools to view, edit, and delete cached data.
Cached data tools can also help you automate the process of clearing cache.
Our Favorite Cached Data Tools
Incorporating one or more of the following cache plugins for WordPress could prove beneficial for your business.
1. W3 Total Cache
W3 Total Cache is a WordPress caching plugin available as a free option.
You can also buy its premium version for $99 per year.
It is popular with WordPress website owners and makes caching simple.
The plugin speeds up your website by creating static HTML files of your pages and storing those files on the server.
2. WP Rocket
With WP Rocket, you get a premium WordPress caching plugin that starts at $49 per year.
If you need to use WP Rocket on more than one website, the company offers a $99 per year plan for three websites.
Its Infinite plan costs $249 per year and lets you use the plugin on an unlimited number of websites.
It will speed up your website by caching the static files.
In the process, it removes any requirement for server requests as pages load.
In addition, WP Rocket provides lazy loading of images, minification of CSS and JS files, and support for Cloudflare.
3. Imagify
Imagify is a WordPress image optimization plugin that starts at $4.99 per month.
It will help you optimize your images to improve your website’s performance.
Imagify can also automatically resize and compress images, convert images to the next-gen WebP format, and lazy load images.
You can start using Imagify via a free account.
Other Related SEO Terms To Know
If you’re looking to use cached data while learning how to improve SEO results, here are a few additional key terms you should know.
- Core Web Vitals: Core Web Vitals are a set of performance metrics that Google uses to measure the user experience of a website. The three core metrics are Largest Contentful Paint, First Input Delay, and Cumulative Layout Shift.
- Page Load Time: Page load time is the time it takes for a page to fully load. Factors that affect page load time include the size of the page, the number of requests made to the server, and the time it takes for the server to respond to those requests.
- Benchmarking: Benchmarking is the process of measuring your website’s performance against the performance of other websites. Benchmarking can help you identify areas where your website needs improvement.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are the answers to two of the most commonly asked questions about cached data.
What does deleting a cache do?
Deleting the cache will clear all of the cached data for your website.
One reason you would do this is to clear these files in an attempt to speed up the site.
Does clearing the cache delete photos?
No, clearing the cache will not delete your photos.
Cached data is a copy of the data stored on the server.
The original data is still stored on the server.
Clearing the cache will only delete the cached copies of the data.
Wrapping Up
Cached data is an important part of search engine optimization.
Take this SEO tactic into consideration when planning a website’s marketing strategy.
Cached data can help to improve search engine ranking, speed up the loading process for users, and provide a better overall user experience.
If you haven’t installed a caching plugin on your WordPress website yet, we recommend that you do this immediately.
