Instructing Browsers To Cache Static Files – (Step Three) — Increasing Page Speed, GT Metrix etc Scores – (Step Five)
To be able to complete this step you must at the very least complete step one to install the Litespeed plugin into WordPress!
As this is part of a series of steps we recommend you move through the steps one by one to get the most benefit.
How caching works is when a visitor to a page arrives if Litespeed does not hold a cached version then it builds a version using all the php and database calls to build the page.
It then serves subsequent visitors the cached version.
However the cached version will expire and after that point the page is built into the cache again on the next visitor.
This way it means visitors that build the cache will have a slower experience than if they were served a cached version.
Fortunately Litespeed and the plugin have a way to automatically generate cached versions across device types so no visitor has a slow experience.
Step up Litespeed Cache Crawler!
Configuration is easy to setup.
So go ahead and click on Crawler in the menu.
You will now be in the Crawler section of the Litespeed plugin.
At this point it is worth mentioning that the crawler facility is not enabled by default with Litespeed.
This is something your host would have to enable in the server settings.
Not a lot of webhosts do or will enable and there is no way other than asking them if it is enabled for you to know if it is before completing these steps.
That said please continue through because if it is then great and if it isn’t then asking they may enable it and if not well if they do in the future you’re all set!
Also worth mentioning that all our shared hosting and reseller hosting customers have this facility enabled!
You need to be in the general settings so click [4]General Settings
This will take you to the page where we can turn the crawler on!
Find the line to switch the crawler on and select ON.
No need to alter any other settings.
Now scroll right to the bottom and click Save Changes.
In order for the crawler to work you need to add your Sitemap URL.
Click on [6] Sitemap Settings.
Now enter the url to your sitemap in the box provided.
No need to alter any other settings here.
Click Save Settings
Now let’s see if the crawler meta data file has been created yet.
This is on the [1] Summary page go ahead and click it.
Find the area called Watch Crawler Status.
To begin with it will say No crawler meta file generated yet.
This will soon change.
Go and grab a coffee and then refresh the page by clicking: –
[2] Map and then [1] Summary again.
If you still see the same then just give it a while longer and refresh again.
Once the meta file is created you will see a button instead.
This button is marked Watch Crawler Status.
You will now see on this page something like in the image below.
Once the crawler runs you will begin to see numbers in the status columns.
You can see the legend for the statuses below that on your page.
Once you get numbers in you know the crawler is working.
They will look something like in the next image
As the crawler progresses you can see which types have been crawled.
This is on the [2] Map page so go ahead and click it.
The numbers in the crawler status correspond to the types on the [1] Summary page.
In the next image you can see which of the types have been crawled.
In the example below there are 8 types and 5 have completed.
As long as you are getting figures in the status and columns etc then your host has the cache crawler feature enabled.
If they don’t and won’t after asking them then you can find our uk web hosting here!
Make sure to complete the rest of this series even if they will not enable the cache crawler feature.
And that’s this part complete!
You will now benefit from a cache for every visitor to your website.
So onwards to part 5
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