Benefit of Scheduled Cache Preloading?

Hi,

Currently if you do not schedule the preloader, a page will need to be visited for the cache to be regenerated once it expires.

So the benefit is to have a cached version of all pages and posts at all times. That way every visitor should be served the cached page.

If a site has a lot of posts and pages, and not a lot of visitors, the preloading operation requires a lot of resources from the (shared) webhosting server, right? And most of the preloaded cached posts and pages get visited very infrequently.

What type of settings would you recommend for the cache expiration and preload schedule in that kind of website?

The preloading uses a good amount of resources because it visits all pages in a short amount of pages. But WP-Optimize will slow the process down to process less posts at a time, so performance should still be good.

The cache expiration will depend on how often the content is updated, and if all the pages need to be regenerated. For example if you have some “last comments” or “latest posts” widgets on all the pages and you want them to be updated when new comments / posts are added, you’d have to preload everything after adding the new content.

If this is not the case, you could set the cache lifespan to 60 days (or more) and schedule the preloader every week. The preloader will only process the missing posts and those that are expired, limiting the amount of resources used.

Marc.

you could set the cache lifespan to 60 days (or more) and schedule the preloader every week. The preloader will only process the missing posts and those that are expired, limiting the amount of resources used.

Thanks! Very helpful, especially that last part!

And if we create a new post and, for example, the homepage (but not other pages) shows “most recent posts”, could I clear the page cache for the homepage after we post the new post, and still use your suggestion?

If we get a comment on a particular post, could we simply clear the page cache of the page where it appears, when we moderate the comment, and still use your suggestion?

And if we create a new post and, for example, the homepage (but not other pages) shows “most recent posts”, could I clear the page cache for the homepage after we post the new post, and still use your suggestion?

Yes you could do that.

If we get a comment on a particular post, could we simply clear the page cache of the page where it appears, when we moderate the comment, and still use your suggestion?

The cache for a post will be cleared automatically when a comment is approved, so you won’t have to do that by hand. You might want to purge it for a page that would have a “last comments” widget.

Thanks for your explanations!