How to Clear WordPress Cache: 6 Easy Methods

Having a fast loading site is essential for user experience and SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Websites with optimized speed tend to have lower bounce rates, which translates to higher engagement and conversions. Google also favors fast websites and ranks them higher on the search results page.

Many components affect website speed, from coding standards to hosting provider. Consequently, there are many ways to , and web caching is one of the most effective.

The web cache stores copies of your site’s data for future requests. Instead of downloading the original data from the server, web caching retrieves these cache files for your website visitors. Thus, your content is displayed faster.

However, cached files may expire, preventing visitors from seeing the updated version of your website.

To fix this problem, we’ll show you how to clear the cache using the most popular . We will also include the steps to clear the browser cache for more effective results. Let’s start with an explanation of what the cache is and how it works.

What is the WordPress cache and how does it work?

A cache is a temporary storage place for static content, such as HTML, Javascript, CSS, and media files.

Every time you visit a website, your browser sends requests to the site’s server. It may take a minute or two for the server to fetch and display the requested content; web caching makes this process faster.

The web cache downloads the static content of the site and stores it as cache files. As a result, your browser can create fewer requests to the server, since it has the content cached.

There are two main web caching systems:

• Client side cache: Also known as a browser cache, this type of cache stores static content in local storage. When a user revisits the website, it will load faster because the cached version is already stored in the browser’s cache folder.
• Server side cache: It is similar in concept to the client-side cache. However, it uses a server to cache data for a website. The server cache can store various site data from various databases, making it a great solution for high-traffic websites.

In short, web caching reduces requests to your server by storing a static version of your website, thus increasing its performance.

It also reduces your network resources, since processing fewer requests requires less bandwidth, which can benefit websites with limited resources.

Clear the cache in WordPress

Sometimes you change and tweak your WordPress website, but your content doesn’t update on the front-end. This can happen because your WordPress server keeps displaying the cached version of your pages.

Fortunately, clearing the WordPress cache usually fixes this problem. When your website cache is empty, the caching system can store the updated data and display it to your visitors.

The easiest way to clear cache on WordPress websites is . The next section will explain how to clear the cache using four popular WordPress caching plugins and show how to clear the cache when your domain is pointed to Cloudflare.

Clear cache with LiteSpeed

Use the plugin (LCWP) to effectively manage your cache storage and usage. This caching plugin uses LiteSpeed’s server cache to improve site load time and comes with exclusive LiteSpeed ​​optimization features.

All plans are compatible with , and the plugin comes pre-installed on all hosting accounts. However, if you use a different web host, just go to the WordPress plugin directory to download the plugin.

The plugin offers multiple ways to clear the WordPress cache. From setting an automatic cache purge based on specific conditions to including specific website URLs for a scheduled purge. To do this, follow the instructions below:

1. Once you have installed and activated the plugin, access your WordPress admin panel. Then go to Lite Speed ​​Cache.

2. Choose the menu Toolbox and the LiteSpeed ​​Cache Toolbox window will appear.

3. There are various types of cache that you can purge, from page cache to CSS/JS cache. Choose which type of cache purge you want to perform.

4. If you want to clear the WordPress cache completely, choose purge all. Note that this will not clear critical data from your WordPress website – you can go ahead and clear the cache.
5. However, if you only want to clear the cache for certain parts of your site, scroll down to the section purge by. From there, enter your content using the category, tag, or URL.

In addition to accessing your WordPress dashboard, you can also clear the cache for a specific page by visiting it; you just have to keep in mind that you must be logged in as an administrator. Simply hover your mouse over the LiteSpeed ​​icon in your admin bar and choose purge this page.

Clear cache with WP Super Cache

Modify the caching system of your WordPress site using three caching modes: WP Cache, Simple Y Expert.

The Expert and Simple methods serve supercached files, making them excellent solutions for high-traffic websites. The only difference is that the Expert method involves rewriting rules in your file for faster performance. For its part, the WP caching method caches registered users, such as visitors who leave comments or store personal information on your site.

This WordPress cache plugin can also empty cache files with one click. Just follow the steps below to do so:

1. From your WordPress admin panel, go to Settings -> WP SuperCache.

2. On the WP SuperCache Settings page, scroll down to the section Delete cached pages. Then click the button delete cache.

Additionally, the WP Super Cache plugin provides a wide range of caching features, the most prominent being garbage collection. Users can set a cache timeout, and the system will clean cache files accordingly. To do this, follow these instructions:

1. go to Settings -> WP Supercache -> Advanced. Then scroll to the Expiration Time and Garbage Collection.

2. Set the cache timeout and interval as you need.

If you don’t update your WordPress site often, ideally you should set it to 3600 seconds. However, website owners with a lot of dynamic content, such as an e-commerce site, should set this to 600 seconds to avoid slow performance.

3. then click Change expiration to save the changes.

4. If you want to disable garbage collection, simply set the cache timeout to 0 seconds.

Clear cache in W3 Total Cache

is one of the most popular caching plugins, known for its customization and bandwidth saving features. This plugin saves up to 80% bandwidth through minification, feed optimization, and HTTP compression. It offers multiple caching capabilities, including browser caching, database caching, and site caching.

This caching plugin also comes with AMP support which helps improve SEO performance. Additionally, users can use its WP-CLI support to the command line interface to perform various tasks like purging the cache and updating the query string.

Here we explain how to clear the WordPress cache with W3 Total Cache:

1. Once you have installed this caching plugin, login to your WordPress admin area and go to Performance -> Control Panel.
2. Click on the button flush all caches located at the top of the page.

3. The system will start cleaning your WordPress cache. Once it’s done, you should see this message.

4. Apart from the button flush all caches, there are other buttons to clear various types of cache, including clearing just the Memcached cache from the database. Simply click the button to initiate the corresponding action.

Clear cache in WP Fastest Cache

is another popular caching plugin, famous for its various caching and optimization features, such as minifications, cache preloading, and GZIP compression. It comes with an intuitive control panel and uses mod_rewrite to provide the fastest caching solution.

Users can enable cache timeout to save themselves the hassle of manually clearing the cache. The plugin can also automatically delete all cache files every time a new page or post is published, preventing stale data from being displayed on your WordPress site.

Follow these steps to perform automatic cache purging with WP Fastest Cache:

1. From your WordPress admin area, navigate to WP FastestCache. The WP Fastest Cache options page will open.

2. From there, check the box next to the settings of the Cache System. Once you enable caching, the plugin will regularly clean your cache.

3. If you want to clear the cache files every time a post or page is published, just check the settings of New Entry Y update entry.

4. To enable more features, go ahead and check the box for each setting. Make sure to click the Submit button to save your changes.

To manually clear your WordPress site’s cache:

1. go to WP FastestCache and select the tab clear cache.
2. From there, press the button empty all cache.

3. In the meantime, choose the button Remove cache and minified CSS/JS if you just edited CSS or JavaScript files.
4. At the bottom of the page, you will find the settings for the Expiration Rules. Just click on add new rule to set an expiration time.

5. A popup window will appear. There you can configure the condition of the pages or posts you want to cache and how often you want to delete them. click on Save to add the rule.

Clear cache with Cloudflare

In addition to using WordPress caching plugins, you can use them to clear your cache. It is a (CDN) service that includes numerous functions to improve the performance of your website, such as cache control, purging…