With WP Rocket we have managed to optimize our site significantly. We present the current values in our PageSpeed Insights article.
WP Rocket is a caching plugin for WordPress websites. With caching, data is temporarily stored in a cache so that it can be accessed more quickly when required. WP Rocket creates a cache for the pages and posts of a website. When a user visits the website, the cached version is loaded instead of the website dynamically generating the page on each visit. This can significantly improve the loading time and overall performance of the website.
WP Rocket and its functions
The side caching
WP Rocket offers several functions to improve the caching performance of the website. The first and most important is page caching. This function saves the website's pages and posts in the cache and thus reduces the number of database queries and requests to the server. This leads to faster loading times, especially for returning visitors.
Browser caching
Another important function of WP Rocket is browser caching. This function caches the static files of a website, such as images and videos, in the user's browser. This means that when the user visits the website again, the cached files are loaded from the browser's cache instead of being downloaded from the server again.
Lazy Loading
WP Rocket also includes lazy loading, a technique that delays the loading of images and videos until the user scrolls to them. This reduces the number of requests to the server and improves the initial loading time of the website. Lazy loading also helps to reduce the amount of data transferred, which improves the website's performance on mobile devices with slow or limited internet connections.
Minification
Another function of WP Rocket is minification. Minification removes unnecessary characters and spaces from a website's HTML, CSS and JavaScript files, reducing the file size and the time it takes to transfer the data to the user's browser. WP Rocket can minify the website's files, reducing the website's file size and improving its performance.
Database optimization
WP Rocket also offers database optimization , which improves website performance by cleaning up the database and removing all unnecessary data, such as post edits, spam comments and transients. This reduces the size of the database and increases the speed of database queries, resulting in a faster website.
Content Delivery Network
Finally, WP Rocket offers the option of integrating a content delivery network (CDN) into the website. A CDN is a network of servers in different geographical locations that cache the content of a website and distribute it to users based on their location. By integrating a CDN into WP Rocket, the performance of the website can be significantly improved by reducing the time it takes to deliver content to the user's browser.
Be careful with the Rocket CDN!
A lot does not always help a lot. The Rocket CDN is good. However, when we checked our site with Pagespeed Insights, we found that it was making too many requests. Since we already use a CDN from Cloudflare, we were able to dispense with the Rocket CDN. And lo and behold: we scored above 90 in absolutely all important points in the mobile area.
The minimum settings of WP Rocket
WP Rocket has a user-friendly interface and is easy to configure with the following minimum settings:
- Page caching: This is the most important function and is activated by default. As soon as it is activated, the plugin saves all pages and posts of your website in the cache and thus reduces the number of database queries and requests to the server.
- File optimization: This feature includes the minification of HTML, CSS and JavaScript files, which helps to reduce the size of the website and improve its performance. By default, WP Rocket minifies the website's files, but you can also disable this feature if you have compatibility issues.
- Browser caching: This feature caches the static files of a website in the user's browser, reducing the number of requests to the server and improving the performance of the website. By default, browser caching is enabled in WP Rocket, but you can also disable it if you have compatibility issues.
- Lazy loading: This function delays the loading of images and videos until the user scrolls to them. This reduces the number of requests to the server and improves the performance of the website. By default, lazy loading is enabled in WP Rocket, but you can also disable it if you have compatibility issues.
- Database Optimization: This feature helps you improve your site's performance by cleaning up the database and removing all unnecessary data, such as post edits, spam comments, and transients. By default, database optimization is enabled in WP Rocket, but you can also disable it if you have compatibility issues.
In addition to these minimum settings, WP Rocket also offers some advanced settings and customization options that you can use to further improve the performance of your website. However, these settings are not required to get started with WP Rocket, and most users will be able to benefit from the plugin with the minimum settings enabled.