Clear WordPress cache is standard advice you will get during the WordPress troubleshooting.
Web browser, hosting servers, caching plugins, and even proxies store cache and serve content from there. Caching improves the loading speed of web pages, but it loads the outdated content.
You need to clear WordPress cache after updating the content, so the updated content loads from the webserver, instead of the user’s browser.
In this quick tutorial, I will show you how to clear the WordPress cache with the popular caching plugins.
How Does Cache Work?
When you put an URL to the browser and loads it, the browser sends the request to a web server for the content to load on the URL. Web server read the request and responds with the files.
The file contains all the necessary data to load that URL page on the browser, such as HTML, Javascript, CSS, images, and text.
Caching reduce the time it takes in the request-response cycle of web browser and the webserver. The data is stores as cache files in the browser, on the server, and some time in proxies. So for the next visit, only the fresh and dynamic data is fetched from the web server, while the static and repetitive data loads from the cache.
This way, the web page loads quickly due to the reduce network latency.
Browser and web server do not have to transfer the same data every time the page is fetched, and it saves the user’s time. Caching is a standard web optimisation technique.
Setting a time range for cached content is possible. You can select a different type of content to get deleted after some time. For example, images rarely get updates so that the cache life could be in months. Similarly, the text is frequently updated so that you can set the cache life for weeks.
After the set time, the cache will automatically be deleted, and the browser has to fetch the content directly from the web server, which means updated and fresh content.
When a site owner makes changes to the webpage, some times, the user loads the outdated content due to the cache. The webmaster should purge the cache so that the fresh content could be fetched instead of old copies.
How to Clear WordPress Cache?
Using a caching plugin is the most popular method to enable WordPress caching. WordPress hosting providers also have a caching option on their platform. Then there are firewalls, and CDN providers, that provide proxy caching.
In this article, I will be showing you how to delete WordPress cache using popular WordPress caching plugins.
If you are using any of the plugins on your site, you can go ahead and check out how to purge cache on that specific plugin.
- Clear Cache with WP Super Cache
- Clear Cache with W3 Total Cache
- Clear Cache with WP Fastest Cache
- Clear Cache in WP Rocket
Clear Cache with WP Super Cache
WP Super Cache is a popular caching plugin for WordPress. With lots of functions, and features, like cache scheduler and cache compression, it allows you to delete the WordPress cache in a single click.
Follow the steps to clear WordPress cache with WP Super Cache:
- Navigate to the WP Super Cache from the Settings. (Settings >> WP Super Cache)
- Press the ‘Delete Cache’ button that you can find under Delete Cached Pages section.
Now, WP Super Cache will purge all the cache.
Clear Cache with W3 Total Cache
W3 Total Cache is another known WordPress caching plugin. The plugins make it easier to delete the cache and offer custom cache deleting. You can choose to delete the entire cache or a single page cache/disk cache.
How to clear the cache using W3 Total Cache:
- Find the W3 Total Cache performance tab in the sidebar of the WordPress admin dashboard.
- Open the Dashboard
- Press the ‘empty all cache’ button from the top bar.
That’s it, W3 Total Clear cache will clear the cache now.
Clear Cache with WP Fastest Cache
WP Fasted Cache automatically delete the cache when you update a page or post. You can also do it manually in any case you need to do it. It is also a popular caching plugin used by thousands of sites, due to its modern UI.
How to delete cache with WP Fastest Cache:
- Find the WP Fastest Cache tab in the sidebar of the WordPress admin dashboard.
- Go to the Delete Cache section from the top bar.
- Click on the Delete Cache button.
WP Fastest Cache will clear the WordPress cache now.
Bonus: Clear Your Browser Cache
It is critical to clear your browser cache, as all the modern browser store the static content. All the Javascript, stylesheets, CSS, images etc. are saves in the browser.
Sometimes, a browser does not get that the page is updated, and there is fresh content to fetched. Browser keeps loading the saved cache copy of the content stored on the computer.
You need to clear the browser cache so it can begin loading the content from the server.
How to delete browser cache from Chrome?
Chrome is the most popular browser and holds nearly 70% of the market share.
Follow the instruction to clear Chrome’s cache:
- Click on the menu icon to load the tray
- A menu will pop-up, ding the More Tools
- Click More Tools >> Clear Browsing Data
- Tick the content you want to remove
- Choose the time range (All-Time)
- Press ‘Clear Data’ to clear all the cache
You have successfully deleted the browser’s cache.
Take Away
Caching indeed improves the site performance and speed. But it should not come between user and fresh content.
Failing to clear the cache could lead the visitors to the outdated site, and could hurt your bounce rate.
In this quick tutorial, I showed you how to clear the WordPress cache with 3 most popular WordPress caching plugins.
If there is any question or queries, leave it in the comment box.
