FAQ

Why does speed matter?

Search engines like Google, measure and factor in the speed of web sites in their ranking algorithm. When they recommend a site they want to make sure users find what they’re looking for quickly. So in effect you and Google should have the same objective.

Speed is among the most significant success factors web sites face. In fact, your site’s speed directly affects your income (revenue) — it’s a fact. Some high traffic sites conducted research and uncovered the following:

• Google.com: +500 ms (speed decrease) -> -20% traffic loss [1]
• Yahoo.com: +400 ms (speed decrease) -> -5-9% full-page traffic loss (visitor left before the page finished loading) [2]
• Amazon.com: +100 ms (speed decrease) -> -1% sales loss [1]

Een duizendste van een seconde is niet lang, maar de impact is behoorlijk significant. Zelfs als je geen groot bedrijf bent (of er nog een hoopt te worden), blijft verlies verlies. W3 Total Cache is je oplossing voor snellere sites, gelukkigere bezoekers en betere resultaten.

Many of the other consequences of poor performance were discovered more than a decade ago:

• Lower perceived credibility (Fogg et al. 2001)
• Lower perceived quality (Bouch, Kuchinsky, and Bhatti 2000)
• Increased user frustration (Ceaparu et al. 2004)
• Increased blood pressure (Scheirer et al. 2002)
• Reduced flow rates (Novak, Hoffman, and Yung 200)
• Reduced conversion rates (Akamai 2007)
• Increased exit rates (Nielsen 2000)
• Are perceived as less interesting (Ramsay, Barbesi, and Preece 1998)
• Are perceived as less attractive (Skadberg and Kimmel 2004)

There are a number of resources that have been documenting the role of performance in success on the web, W3 Total Cache exists to give you a framework to tune your application or site without having to do years of research.

Why is W3 Total Cache better than other caching solutions?

It’s a complete framework. Most cache plugins available do a great job at achieving a couple of performance gains. Total Cache is different because it remedies numerous performance reducing aspects of any web site. It goes farther than the basics, beyond merely reducing CPU usage (load) or bandwidth consumption for HTML pages. Equally important, the plugin requires no theme modifications, modifications to your .htaccess (mod_rewrite rules) or programming compromises to get started. Most importantly, it’s the only plugin designed to optimize all practical hosting environments small or large. The options are many and setup is easy.

I’ve never heard of any of this stuff; my site is fine, no one complains about the speed. Why should I install this?

Rarely do readers take the time to complain. They typically just stop browsing earlier than you’d prefer and may not return altogether. This is the only plugin specifically designed to make sure that all aspects of your site are as fast as possible. Google is placing more emphasis on the speed of a site as a factor in rankings; this plugin helps with that too.

It’s in every web site owner’s best interest is to make sure that the performance of your site is not hindering its success.

Which WordPress versions are supported?

To use all features in the suite, a minimum of version WordPress 5.3 with PHP 7.2.5 is required. Earlier versions will benefit from our Media Library Importer to get them back on the upgrade path and into a CDN of their choosing.

Why doesn’t minify work for me?

Great question. W3 Total Cache uses several open source tools to attempt to combine and optimize CSS, JavaScript and HTML etc. Unfortunately some trial and error is required on the part of developers is required to make sure that their code can be successfully minified with the various libraries W3 Total Cache supports. Even still, if developers do test their code thoroughly, they cannot be sure that interoperability with other code your site may have. This fault does not lie with any single party here, because there are thousands of plugins and theme combinations that a given site can have, there are millions of possible combinations of CSS, JavaScript etc.

A good rule of thumb is to try auto mode, work with a developer to identify the code that is not compatible and start with combine only mode (the safest optimization) and increase the optimization to the point just before functionality (JavaScript) or user interface / layout (CSS) breaks in your site.

We’re always working to make this more simple and straight forward in future releases, but this is not an undertaking we can realize on our own. When you find a plugin, theme or file that is not compatible with minification reach out to the developer and ask them either to provide a minified version with their distribution or otherwise make sure their code is minification-friendly.

What about comments? Does the plugin slow down the rate at which comments appear?

On the contrary, as with any other action a user can perform on a site, faster performance will encourage more of it. The cache is so quickly rebuilt in memory that it’s no trouble to show visitors the most current version of a post that’s experiencing Digg, Slashdot, Drudge Report, Yahoo Buzz or Twitter effect.

Will the plugin interfere with other plugins or widgets?

No, on the contrary if you use the minify settings you will improve their performance by several times.

Does this plugin work with WordPress in network mode?

Inderdaad.

Does this plugin work with BuddyPress (bbPress)?

Ja.

Will this plugin speed up WP Admin?

Yes, indirectly – if you have a lot of bloggers working with you, you will find that it feels like you have a server dedicated only to WP Admin once this plugin is enabled; the result, increased productivity.

Which web servers do you support?

We zijn ons niet bewust van incompatibiliteiten met apache 1.3+, nginx 0.7+, IIS 5+ of litespeed 4.0.2+. Als er een webserver is waarvan je vindt dat we actief zouden moeten testen (bijv. lighttpd), dan horen we dat graag.

Is this plugin server cluster and load balancer friendly?

Yes, built from the ground up with scale and current hosting paradigms in mind.

What is the purpose of the “Media Library Import” tool and how do I use it?

The media library import tool is for old or “messy” WordPress installations that have attachments (images etc in posts or pages) scattered about the web server or “hot linked” to 3rd party sites instead of properly using the media library.

The tool will scan your posts and pages for the cases above and copy them to your media library, update your posts to use the link addresses and produce a .htaccess file containing the list of of permanent redirects, so search engines can find the files in their new location.

You should backup your database before performing this operation.

How do I find the JS and CSS to optimize (minify) them with this plugin?

Use the “Help” button available on the Minify settings tab. Once open, the tool will look for and populate the CSS and JS files used in each template of the site for the active theme. To then add a file to the minify settings, click the checkbox next to that file. The embed location of JS files can also be specified to improve page render performance. Minify settings for all installed themes can be managed from the tool as well by selecting the theme from the drop down menu. Once done configuring minify settings, click the apply and close button, then save settings in the Minify settings tab.

I don’t understand what a CDN has to do with caching, that’s completely different, no?

Technisch gezien niet: een CDN is een high-performance cache die statische assets (zoals je themabestanden, mediabibliotheek enz.) opslaat op verschillende locaties over de hele wereld om lezers in die regio’s snelle toegang met lage latentie te bieden. Gebruik Total Cache om je site te versnellen door je content dichter bij je gebruikers te plaatsen via onze vele CDN-integraties, waaronder Cloudflare, StackPath, AWS en meer.

How do I use an Origin Pull (Mirror) CDN?

Login to your CDN providers control panel or account management area. Following any set up steps they provide, create a new “pull zone” or “bucket” for your site’s domain name. If there’s a set up wizard or any troubleshooting tips your provider offers, be sure to review them. In the CDN tab of the plugin, enter the hostname your CDN provider provided in the “replace site’s hostname with” field. You should always do a quick check by opening a test file from the CDN hostname, e.g. http://cdn.domain.com/favicon.ico. Troubleshoot with your CDN provider until this test is successful.

Now go to the General tab and click the checkbox and save the settings to enable CDN functionality and empty the cache for the changes to take effect.

How do I configure Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) or Amazon CloudFront as my CDN?

First create an S3 account (unless using origin pull); it may take several hours for your account credentials to be functional. Next, you need to obtain your “Access key ID” and “Secret key” from the “Access Credentials” section of the “Security Credentials” page of “My Account.” Make sure the status is “active.” Next, make sure that “Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3)” is the selected “CDN type” on the “General Settings” tab, then save the changes. Now on the “Content Delivery Network Settings” tab enter your “Access key,” “Secret key” and enter a name (avoid special characters and spaces) for your bucket in the “Create a bucket” field by clicking the button of the same name. If using an existing bucket simply specify the bucket name in the “Bucket” field. Click the “Test S3 Upload” button and make sure that the test is successful, if not check your settings and try again. Save your settings.

Unless you wish to use CloudFront, you’re almost done, skip to the next paragraph if you’re using CloudFront. Go to the “General Settings” tab and click the “Enable” checkbox and save the settings to enable CDN functionality. Empty the cache for the changes to take effect. If preview mode is active you will need to “deploy” your changes for them to take effect.

To use CloudFront, perform all of the steps above, except select the “Amazon CloudFront” “CDN type” in the “Content Delivery Network” section of the “General Settings” tab. When creating a new bucket, the distribution ID will automatically be populated. Otherwise, proceed to the AWS Management Console and create a new distribution: select the S3 Bucket you created earlier as the “Origin,” enter a CNAME if you wish to add one or more to your DNS Zone. Make sure that “Distribution Status” is enabled and “State” is deployed. Now on “Content Delivery Network” tab of the plugin, copy the subdomain found in the AWS Management Console and enter the CNAME used for the distribution in the “CNAME” field.

You may optionally, specify up to 10 hostnames to use rather than the default hostname, doing so will improve the render performance of your site’s pages. Additional hostnames should also be specified in the settings for the distribution you’re using in the AWS Management Console.

Now go to the General tab and click the “Enable” checkbox and save the settings to enable CDN functionality and empty the cache for the changes to take effect. If preview mode is active you will need to “deploy” your changes for them to take effect.

How do I configure Rackspace Cloud Files as my CDN?

First create an account. Next, in the “Content Delivery Network” section of the “General Settings” tab, select Rackspace Cloud Files as the “CDN Type.” Now, in the “Configuration” section of the “Content Delivery Network” tab, enter the “Username” and “API key” associated with your account (found in the API Access section of the rackspace cloud control panel) in the respective fields. Next enter a name for the container to use (avoid special characters and spaces). If the operation is successful, the container’s ID will automatically appear in the “Replace site’s hostname with” field. You may optionally, specify the container name and container ID of an existing container if you wish. Click the “Test Cloud Files Upload” button and make sure that the test is successful, if not check your settings and try again. Save your settings. You’re now ready to export your media library, theme and any other files to the CDN.

You may optionally, specify up to 10 hostnames to use rather than the default hostname, doing so will improve the render performance of your site’s pages.

Now go to the General tab and click the “Enable” checkbox and save the settings to enable CDN functionality and empty the cache for the changes to take effect. If preview mode is active you will need to “deploy” your changes for them to take effect.

What is the purpose of the “modify attachment URLs” button?

If the domain name of your site has changed, this tool is useful in updating your posts and pages to use the current addresses. For example, if your site used to be www.domain.com, and you decided to change it to domain.com, the result would either be many “broken” images or many unnecessary redirects (which slow down the visitor’s browsing experience). You can use this tool to correct this and similar cases. Correcting the URLs of your images also allows the plugin to do a better job of determining which images are actually hosted with the CDN.

Zoals steeds kan het geen kwaad om je datase eerst te backuppen.

Is this plugin comptatible with TDO Mini Forms?

Captcha and recaptcha will work fine, however you will need to prevent any pages with forms from being cached. Add the page’s URI to the “Never cache the following pages” box on the Page Cache Settings tab.

Is this plugin comptatible with GD Star Rating?

Ja. Volg deze stappen:

1. Enable dynamic loading of ratings by checking GD Star Rating -> Settings -> Features “Cache support option”
2. If Database cache enabled in W3 Total Cache add wp_gdsr to “Ignored query stems” field in the Database Cache settings tab, otherwise ratings will not updated after voting
3. Alle caches legen

I see garbage characters instead of the normal web site, what’s going on here?

If a theme or it’s files use the call php_flush() or function flush() that will interfere with the plugins normal operation; making the plugin send cached files before essential operations have finished. The flush() call is no longer necessary and should be removed.

How do I cache only the home page?

Add /.+ to page cache “Never cache the following pages” option on the page cache settings tab.

I’m getting blank pages or 500 error codes when trying to upgrade on WordPress in network mode

First, make sure the plugin is not active (disabled) network-wide. Then make sure it’s deactivated network-wide. Now you should be able to successful upgrade without breaking your site.

A notification about file owner appears along with an FTP form, how can I resolve this?

De plugin gebruikt de WordPress bestandssysteem functionaliteit om naar bestanden te schrijven. Hij controleert of de bestands- en groepseigenaren van aangemaakte bestanden overeenkomen met de proceseigenaar. Als dit niet het geval is, kan hij geen bestanden schrijven of wijzigen.

Meestal moet je je webhost informeren over het machtigingenprobleem en zouden zij het moeten kunnen oplossen.

Je kunt echter proberen define(‘FS_METHOD’, ‘direct’); toe te voegen aan wp-config.php om de bestands- en mapcontroles te omzeilen.

Does the Image Converter extension use a lot of resources to convert images to modern formats like WebP or AVIF?

Nee. De Image Converter extensie converteert veelvoorkomende afbeeldingsbestandsformats naar moderne formats zoals WebP of AVIF met onze API diensten. De conversies vinden plaats op onze API-dienst, zodat het gebruik van gegevensbronnen geen invloed heeft op je site server.

Worden afbeeldingsgegevens bewaard door de Total Cache Image Converter API?

Afbeeldingsgegevens die door onze API worden ontvangen, worden vernietigd nadat een geconverteerde afbeelding is gegenereerd. De geconverteerde afbeeldingen worden vernietigd zodra ze door de Total Cache plugin naar je site zijn opgehaald of gedownload.

This is too good to be true, how can I test the results?

Je kunt de resultaten meteen zien bij elke paginalading, maar voor tastbare metrieken kun je overwegen het volgende gereedschap te gebruiken:

• Google PageSpeed
• Google Search Console Core Web Vitals rapport
• WebPagetest
• Pingdom
• GTmetrix

I don’t have time to deal with this, but I know I need it. Will you help me?

Ja! Neem contact met ons op en we zullen je inwerken zodat je het kunt “instellen en vergeten”.

Installeer de plugin om de volledige FAQ te lezen op het FAQ tab van de plugins.

Waar kan ik beveiligingsbugs rapporteren die in deze plugin zijn gevonden?

Rapporteer beveiligingsbugs die in de broncode van de W3 Total Cache plugin zijn gevonden via het Patchstack Vulnerability Disclosure Programma. Het Patchstack team helpt je met verificatie, CVE-toewijzing en brengt de ontwikkelaars van deze plugin op de hoogte.