If you’re wondering the secret to fast-loading WordPress websites, this is of course caching plugins. When you want to speed up your website, you come across many WordPress caching plugins. One of these plugins is the W3 Total Cache plugin. With W3 Total Cache settings configured correctly for your WordPress website, you can get a fast website.
In our article, we will explain how to install the W3 Total Cache plugin, how to make the best performing settings for W3 Total Cache.
W3 Total Cache Installation
The installation of the W3 Total Cache plugin is quite simple, as with other plugins. All you have to do is search for WordPress admin panel > Plugins > New plugin to install it.
After installing the plugin, click the “Activate” button. Installing the W3 Total Cache plugin is that simple. You can also download the plugin on the W3 Total Cache WordPress plugin page.
W3 Total Cache Plugin Settings
W3 Total Cache is an important plugin among free WordPress cache plugins. If you understand how to configure plugin settings correctly, you can have a fast WordPress site.
For users new to WordPress, these settings and configurations can be quite difficult and confusing. In our article, we’ll go through each of these settings one by one.
General Settings
You can access it by clicking the > General Settings button under the Performance menu in your WordPress admin panel. In this menu, there are important settings such as page cache, minify, database cache.
1. Page Cache
Page Cache is the most important part of W3 Total Cache plugin. When you activate this feature, the performance of your site will increase significantly.
Page Cache: Page cache section is a section where page cache settings are made. Mark this field as “ Enable ” to use static cache pages .
Page Cache Method: This is the section where the method for caching is set. It should be set to “ Disc: Enhanced “.
2. Minify
Minify menu allows your website’s HTML, CSS and JS resources to be minified. You should use the features in this area for better performance.
Minify: Set to “ Enable ” to enable shrinking (compression) .
Minify Mode: When you set it manually, you can choose the files to shrink yourself in the Minify settings tab. If you set it to Auto, the plugin automatically predicts files to shrink. This setting may cause a malfunction in your theme in some cases.
Minifiy Cache Method: This is the section where the method of reducing (compressing) is set. It should be set to “ Disc: Enhanced “.
HTML Minifer: It is the HTML minification part. You can use the “ Minify (default) ” settings that come by default.
JS Minifer: It is the JavaScipt minification part. You can use the default ” JSMin (default) ” settings.
CSS Minifer: It is the CSS minification part. You can use the “ Minify (default) ” settings that come by default.
3. Database Cache
Database is where data is stored for your posts, pages, plugin and everything else. By enabling the database caching feature, you can improve the performance of your database.
Database Cache: Set to “ Enable ” to enable database caching.
Database Cache Method: Select the “ Disk ” property for the caching method.
4. Object Cache
It is the feature of caching objects. If you are using a shared hosting , this feature may not work properly. However, it’s still worth a try.
Mark the Object Cache field as “ Enable ” and then select “ Disk ” from the Object Cache Method section .
5. Browser Cache
Browser caching speeds up your site by caching static resources in users’ browsers, so the browser doesn’t need to load static content all the time. Check the “ Enable ” box to enable the feature .
6. CDN
CDN stands for content delivery network that allows you to serve your static content from multiple cloud servers instead of a single server. With CDN, it can reduce server load and make your website run faster.
If you have a CDN service, you can activate it from this section.
7. Reverse Proxy
Proxies are an advanced concept that usually requires a dedicated server. Therefore, disable this section and do not mark it.
8. User Experience
The user experience section improves your website experience and speeds up your page load times. You can mark all settings in this section.
Lazy Load Images: Lazy load feature is the visual feature that is loaded as the user scrolls the page, not loading the images in the lower part of the browser first. This feature makes your landing page load faster. Activate by ticking the relevant field.
Disable Emoji: Removes emoji support from your website. Mark this field.
Disable wp-embed script: Removes the wp-embed.js file from your website. The oEmbed feature will still work, but you cannot embed other posts on your WordPress site.
Disable jquery-migrate on the front-end: Removes jquery-migrate support from your website front-end.
9. Debug
Unless you are trying to debug your website, you should disable all of the options in this section .
The configuration settings of the W3 Total Cache general settings menu are as follows. You can leave the sections that appear in your current version or that we do not describe in the add-on with their default settings.
If you are looking for a paid caching plugin, the best WordPress plugin we can recommend is WP Rocket caching plugin. For more detailed information about WP Rocket, you can review the guide below.
We have come to the end of our W3 Total Cache settings article. If you have any questions to ask, please feel free to comment.
