Caching in WordPress

The idea of caching is to speed up the loading process of a website. That is, if we know that the user is about to go to a page, we can store future download information in a place so that it is already collected and can be retrieved faster.

All this is similar to accessing the hard drive of the server that hosts the site every time the site is visited.

Because at the end of the day, the database, files, and all the data needed to run the site resides on the hard drive. And yes, things like SSDs can speed up this process, but it’s still not as optimal as it can be.

This is where caching comes into play. We know that site speed affects a page’s ranking in search results. While this may not be the main reason, it is an important reason.

The benefits of caching come in at least two main areas:

User experience
Loading time.

How it works

There are many types of caching available, but I keep this particular series on the high end. That is, I will not distinguish between browser cache, page cache, object cache, etc.

Perhaps in a future post. But for now I’m talking specifically about high-level caching.

Anyway, here’s how it works:

During the first visit to the page, all the information necessary to load the page is collected.
Instead of being reset when the user leaves the site (or page), the information is stored in an easily accessible location, such as server memory.
When the next user comes to the page, they don’t have to go to the database to get all the information, collect it, and then return it to the user. Instead, it pulls the fully collected information from the server’s memory (which is, in most cases) faster, and then returns it to the user.

There are a lot of caveats to consider, such as custom user data, partial page loading, etc., but the principle remains the same.