Introduction
When you run a website, you want it to run fast. Sluggish websites are always a no-go. One way this can be done is through caching. Caching works by storing the contents of a website and storing them some place so that they can be retrieved and used. This serves as an alternative to requesting the contents of a website whenever it is accessed through a web browser. As a result, the loading times are much faster. However as a result, when the site is updated, it may not reflect on your web browser. To fix this, we have to clear the cache on your web browser, plugin, host provider, or firewall.
Knowing that, let’s proceed to look at each of these ways.
1. Clearing the Web Browser Cache
Browsers cache websites, this helps the site to be rendered more quickly since the contents of the website does not have to be requested and retrieved repeatedly an is instead stored in memory for a specific period of time. As a result, when users try to access the site, they may not see any recent updates. This often happens but thankfully it’s easy to address since most web browser’s have a clear cache option.
Though differing in how it is done, the cache can is normally cleared through the configuration page. Let’s see how to do this in Firefox and Chrome, two of the most popular web browsers
Firefox
Here’s how to do it in Firefox. First we select the “Open Menu” button then choose “Options”.
From there we search for the “Cache” in the settings search bar. Once the search is done, we click on the “Clear Data” button, then click “Clear” when the “Clear Data” modal pops up. We then confirm it.
Once that is done, the web browser’s cache should be cleared.
Chrome
Here’s how to clear the Chrome web browser. First we click the “Customize and control Google Chrome” button. Then we choose “settings” in the menu.
Once in the settings page, we search for “Cache”. Then choose the tab for “Clear browsing data”. We then uncheck all the other boxes aside from “Cached images and files”, then we click the ‘Clear data’ button.
After doing that, Chrome’s cached files should be erased.
2. Clearing the WordPress Site’s Cache
It is not just web browsers that use caching, WordPress plugins do that as well. The plugin stores a requested page on a site This is done so that when a visitor of the site accesses a page, WordPress does not have to render them repeatedly. As a result, the WordPress site loads faster.
There are many different caching plugins in the market but all of them allow you to clear the cache in their configuration page in the admin dashboard. Let’s see how to do this in the most popular caching plugins.
WP Super Cache
Here’s how to clear the WordPress cache if you’re using the WP Super Cache plugin.
From the admin dashboard, hover over “Settings” then click ‘WP Super Cache’. This will redirect you to the “WP Super Cache Settings” page.
From there, click on the “Delete Cache” button on the page. Then click on the “Delete Cache” button again once the page redirects to the “Contents” tab
This will delete the cache on the page.
W3 Total Cache
The W3 Total Cache plugin offers many caching options, however what’s good about this plugin is that it allows you to clear all of these caches at the plugin’s main settings page with just a click of a button. Here’s how to do that if you’re using it as a plugin.
To delete the cache, we hover over “Performance”, then click on “Dashboard”.
Once redirected, you just have to click on the “empty all cache” button.
That’s all you have to do, and all caches are cleared.
WP-Optimize
If you installed WP-Optimize as your caching plugin, here’ s what you need to do to clear the cache. From the admin dashboard, hover over “WP-Optimize” then click “Cache”
Once redirected, to the “Cache” tab, search for the “Purge cache button” then click it.
That’s all you need to do, then the cache will be cleared.
3. Clearing the Cache from your Hosting Provider
If your site is published by a hosting providers also allow you to clear your website’s cache you should know that they provide built in caching support. Though the exact details differ for each hosting provider, clearing the cache can be usually done through the hosting provider’s control panel. Be sure to check the documentation and consult support of the hosting providers for your hosting provider.
4. Firewalls
Some firewall plugins also have caching options. Like the previous caching plugins, the cache that these plugins keep can also be cleared through the configuration page of the plugin. For instance, in Sucuri there is a “Clear Cache” option as can be seen below.
If you’re using a firewall plugin, be sure to check the documentation to see if it caches content.
Conclusion
Well that’s the end of our article.
We’ve seen the different places where caches – web, plugin, hosting providers, and even firewalls. We’ve also covered how to clear them. Now when you need to clear your cache, you just need to look up where it is stored and apply what you’ve read from this article. That’s all you need to do.
Thank you for your time and thank you for reading this article. We hope you learned a lot.
