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Zemalf.com Website Optimization Kung fu for WordPress HOMEABOUTCONTACTSITEMAPRESOURCESBEST OFARCHIVESSUBSCRIBE Zemalf.com » WordPress » WordPress Optimization » Install and Configure W3 Total Cache in 7 Easy Steps Install and Configure W3 Total Cache in 7 Easy Steps This guide will show you how to easy install and configure W3 Total Cache -plugi n on your self-hosted WordPress blog to make it work better and faster The extended version of the W3 Total Cache guide is available as a free eBook: Download the W3 Total Cache Installation and Configuration Guide from Scribd. Introduction Installing and configuring the W3 Total Cache -plugin for WordPress is part of a step-by-step process to optimize WordPress for speed that will make it easier t o retain readers and keep the site speed on a level that Google appreciates as w ell. The initial steps to speed up WordPress are laid out as the WordPress Speed Chal lenge here at my blog. Why W3 Total Cache? With this free guide, you can easily make your WordPress blogs pages load faster than before and save money on hosting bills as you can stay on shared hosting a nd still make your blog withstand huge amounts of traffic without compromising t he performance. Installing W3 Total Cache is just like installing any other plugin for WordPress (super simple via the Dashboard). The default options will make W3 Total Cache handle page caching, which it does similarly, and even a bit better, than the WP Super Cache. But with proper configuration, W3 Total Cache does much more, like combining and minifying (compressing & making smaller) JavaScript and CSS-files, and also cac he Database queries and make using Content Delivery Network easy (read: automati c). Because of all this, W3 Total Cache is the best caching plugin for WordPress . This guide is meant for WordPress blogs on shared hosting, who can't use more ad vanced caching solutions like Opcode caching and/or memcache, which are availabl e on dedicated servers and virtual private servers. With this guide, you can han dle loads of traffic with a blog on shared hosting, and you can stay on shared h osting until you can afford to pay for better (if you need it then). For blogs that do need more powerful hosting solutions, W3 Total Cache is even b etter. With the advanced options like Database Caching and automated use of Cont ent Delivery Network, W3 Total Cache is the ultimate caching solution (the "Tota l" in the plugin name is there for a reason) and this is why huge blogs like Mas hable use it. How to Install and Configure W3 Total Cache for WordPress The first step is to uninstall any other caching plugin you might be using, like WP Super Cache. We don't need (or even can't have) two caching plugins running, so you need to uninstall WP Super Cache before you move on. Installing and configuring W3 Total Cache is a simple step-by-step process... an d actually since you don't necessarily need to take one of the steps and one you can skip altogether, it's really 3-7 steps, depending on how you count it :) How to install W3 Total Cache Here's the installation in short (as installing any WordPress -plugin): (Uninstall WP Super Cache, or any other caching plugin you might have installed) Install W3 Total Cache -plugin: Go to 'Plugins', Click 'Add New', Search for 'W3 Total Cache', click 'Install now' for W3TC, confirm the installation and activa te the plugin. How to Configure W3 Total Cache W3TC - General Settings Page Cache: Enabled ('Enable' checked), Disk (enhanced) Minify: Enabled ('Enable' checked), Disk Database Cache: Disabled ('Enable' unchecked) Object Cache: Disabled ('Enable' unchecked) Content Delivery Network: Disabled ('Enable' unchecked) Browser Cache: Enabled ('Enable' checked) W3TC - Page Cache Settings Page Cache Settings - General Enable (checked) - Don't cache pages for logged in users Enable (checked) - Cache home page Enable (checked) - Cache feeds Disable (unchecked) - Cache URIs with query string variables Disable (unchecked) - Cache 404 (not found) pages Page Cache Settings - Advanced No need to touch these. Page Cache Settings - Cache Preload With Cache Preload, you can automatically "fill the cache", using a XML sitemap. This means serving pre-cached pages to all visitors, even if a page has not bee n visited recently. It's OK to leave this disabled, and keep it disabled if you run into performance problems when the preload activates, or lower the number of 'Pages per interval'. Enable (checked) - Automatically prime the page cache Update internal - 907 Pages per interval: 7 (increase/decrease as needed) Sitemap URL: Your blogs sitemap.xml URL, e.g. http://example.com/sitemap.xml W3TC - Minify Settings This is where the magic happens, and also, this is the hardest part of W3 Total Cache configuration. If you're uncomfortable to look into HTML source and find C SS- and JS-files there, skip this section. You won't have minify, but Page Cache will work just fine. However, for performance optimization and site speed, this is essential. Skip the General, HTML and JavaScript for now, and scroll to... Minify Settings - Cascading Style Sheets CSS Minify Settings: Enable: Enable (checked) Disable: Combine only (unchecked) Enable: Comment Removal (checked) Enable: Line break removal (checked) If you run into problems with badly coded CSS, try disabling the Comment- and Li ne break removal. Well coded CSS will still work, bad ones might get into proble ms. CSS file management Theme: The active theme should be chosen, but you can set configurations to all installed themes here (even for non-active ones, in case you ever activate them) . Open another browser window or tab, and open your blog. Open the page source (right-click, show page source). Open Find (e.g. CTRL+F or from menu: Edit > Find) Search for ".css" (without quotes) Copy the full URL of the first .css-file you find, e.g. http://example.com/wp-co ntent/themes/yourtheme/style.css (do not copy this URL, you must get it from YOU R BLOGS page source) Go back to the window/tab with W3 Total Cache settings and the Minify Setting -p age, click 'Add a style sheet' under Cascading Style Sheets... Paste the .css -file URL in, unless the css-file is specific to certain page/tem plate, choose 'All Templates'. Just in case, click 'Veriry URI' to see that the URL is correct Go back to the page source, hit next on the find to locate the next css-file. Co py the URL to the W3 Total Cache, Verify. Repeat until you've added all css-files from the page source to W3TC. Notes: If there is "version number" like "?ver=2.4.1" in the CSS-files URL, remo ve it. For example: /styles.css?ver=2.4.1 would go into W3TC as /styles.css - This way, W3TC will pick up the CSS, even if the plugin/theme updates and the CSS-version changes. After you 'Save changes', W3TC might remove part of the URL, this is normal. Minify Settings - Advanced Update external files every: 216000 seconds Garbage collection interval: 216000 seconds For high traffic sites, lower the Garbage collection to 86400, or just leave it there by default. Save Changes. Minify Settings - JavaScript TO AVOID PROBLEMS - DO NOT ADD AdSense, Chitika or such advertising code to W3TC !!! The process is similar to adding the CSS-files, but the problem is that many plu gin- and theme-authors are not very good JavaScript coders, so they code can't h andle minification. Enabled: Enable (checked) Disabled: Combine only after Disabled: Combine only after Disabled: Combine only before Enabled: Comment removal Enabled: Line break removal Go to your blogs page source, find ".js" files. Add them one by one to W3TC. Aga in, remove the "?ver=2.4.1" and similar version numbers if you see'em. For perfo rmance, it's better to Embed JavaScript to the bottom of the page = Embed before and use the "Non-blocking" -option Non-blocking can be used if the functionality of that script is not needed when loading the page, but only after the page is loaded. (In general, interface scri pts can be non-blocking, and scripts that modify the content usually need to be "blocking") If a script doesn't work correctly when embedded to the footer (before ), embed it to the same location you found it, e.g. Embed script located originall y in the , in = Embed in . If a script is only used/needed on certain pages, use the Template selector to c hoose the correct template from your theme, e.g. Page for page.php, Category for category.php, etc. Disable 'Comment removal' and 'Line break removal', if you're having problems. A nd if everything else fails, remove JS-file from W3TC (and seriously consider ge tting rid of that poorly coded script!!) Save changes. Test your site functionality before enabling the HTML minify! If you're on Previ ew-mode, test your site after 'Deploy' and change configuration if needed. Change the settings (e.g. Comment-/Line break removal, remove scripts from W3TC, etc.) if there's problems. Did you have a lot of CSS- and JavaScript -files to go through? Maybe you're run ning a few unneeded plugins, widgets and external scripts? Do you really need th em all? Remember - best performance optimization trick is to remove stuff. Minify Settings - General Enable: Rewrite URL structure (checked) Enable: Automatically upload mofified files (checked) Minify error notification: Enable this to get error notification if something go es wrong. Minify Settings - HTML Note: After enabling HTML, your page source will become somewhat difficul to rea d, so adjust CSS- and JS-settings before enabling this. And if you ever need to look into your blogs source, disable HTML minifying then. Best Performance: Enable: Enable (checked) Disable: Don't minify feed (checked) Enable: Inline CSS minification (checked) Enable: Inline JS minification (checked) Enable: Line break removal (checked) Best compatibility with HALF-ASS coded themes: Disable: Enable (unchecked) Add stuff to ignore-field as needed (Advanced stuff) Save changes. Skip Database Cache-, Object Cache- and CDN settings, as those are probably disa bled + the default options work OK, even if you do have opcode-/memcache running on your VPS or dedicated server. W3TC - Browser Cache The browser cache settings will change rules in your .htaccess-file if you have the Browser Cache enabled. Advanced users probably want to tweak their .htaccess manually, but this is an e xcellent way for non-techies to get .htaccess-based browser cache set-up. Go through the settings, and set'em like this... Browser Cache - General / Default Enable (checked): Set expires header Enable (checked): Set cache control header Disable (unchecked): Set entity tag (eTag) Enable (checked): Set W3 Total Cache header Enable (checked): Enable HTTP (gzip) compression Disable (unchecked): Do not process 404 errors Save changes. Browser Cache - Cascading Style Sheets & JavaScript (default = OK, no changes) Enable (checked): Set expires header Expires header lifetime: 31536000 seconds Enable (checked): Set cache control header Cache Control Policy: cache with validation Disable (unchecked): Set entity tag (eTag) Enable (checked): Set W3 Total Cache header Enable (checked): Enable HTTP (gzip) compression Browser Cache - HTML (default = OK, no changes) Enable (checked): Set expires header Expires header lifetime: 3600 seconds Enable (checked): Set cache control header Cache Control Policy: cache with validation Disable (unchecked): Set entity tag (eTag) Enable (checked): Set W3 Total Cache header Enable (checked): Enable HTTP (gzip) compression Browser Cache - Media & Other Files (default = OK, no changes) Enable (checked): Set expires header Expires header lifetime: 31536000 seconds Enable (checked): Set cache control header Cache Control Policy: cache with validation Disable (unchecked): Set entity tag (eTag) Enable (checked): Set W3 Total Cache header Enable (checked): Enable HTTP (gzip) compression Save changes. You might change the Cache Control policies if you have issues with proxies, but other than that, the above config is solid. You don't have to, but if you now go and check your root .htacces-file, you'll s ee that W3TC has added loads of rules there. W3 Total Cache and Mobile Browsers: User Agent Groups -settings This is where you'll do tweaks for different agents, e.g. mobile users, but you can skip these for now. W3TC - Content Delivery Network settings This is where you'll configure W3 Total Cache to use your CDN or (sub-)domain to server files in the Media Library, the Theme-files, minified-files, etc. W3 Tot al Cache does all this automatically. Preview Mode & Deploying the changes After you've done all the settings, go back to the General Settings -page and hi t 'Deploy'. You'll see 'Preview settings succesfully deployed' Hit 'Disable' to disable the preview mode and "go live" Hit 'Empty Page Cache' Hit 'Empty Minify Cache' (as noted at the start, the 'Deselect this option to disable all caching functio nality.' option seems to be broken, just ignore it, even if its unchecked by def ault) If you want, check 'Combatibility Check' for some info. If you're on shared host ing, these are pretty much out-of-your-control, but will give some clue in case you have problems with W3 Total Cache. It is normal that Opcode cache and Memcache extension are 'Not installed', unles s you have a Virtual Private Server or dedicated server and have'em installed th ere. But now you're done, you have succesfully installed and configured W3 Total Cach e on your blog. The Extended W3 Total Cache Guide Installing and configuring W3 Total Cache is not overly complicated, but there a re a lot of options in it (even that some are OK by default). I noticed that wit h all the step-by-step instructions, screenshots and additional tips, this guide started to bloat beyond a blog post - so I turned a detailed version of this po st into a PDF and uploaded the eBook to my Scribd (embedded below). W3 Total Cache Installation and Configuration Guide Don't be too scared about the 30+ 45+ pages, it's a simple step-by-step guide, b ut there are many options with the plugin and I wanted to include clear screensh ots of the settings to make things easy for you. Download the PDF version of the W3 Total Cache Guide for free from Scribd: W3 To tal Cache Installation and Configuration Guide Updates and Versions 2010-07-12: 1.0 Post published. 2010-08-15: 1.02 Minor updates and corrections. 2010-10-30: 1.1 Total post re-work and update to the PDF guide. Summary Installing and configuring W3 Total Cache is a simple 7 5 step process, which yo u can take right now to speed up your WordPress blog: (Uninstall WP Super Cache, or any other caching plugin than W3TC, like WP Cache, WP Minify or such) (Place the essential rules to your WordPress htaccess) Install the W3 Total Cache -plugin (Optional: Check the General Settings, defaults OK, can be skipped) (Optional: Adjust the Page Cache Settings) Adjust the Minify Settings Adjust the Browser Cache Settigs (No need to touch the Database Cache or Object Cache -settings, the easiest step !) Advanced: Configure the CDN settings if you're using one (or skip!) Download the W3 Total Cache Installation and Configuration Guide from Scribd for detailed step-by-step instructions. If you have questions or problems getting W3 Total Cache to work, comment on thi s post, or if you want me to help you - contact me and tell me what you need. p.s. I've been told I should be selling my own products, and ask money for eBook s like this one, instead of putting it out there for free... I don't know about that, but if all goes as planned, there'll be plenty of opportunities for you to buy stuff from me at some point, but for now, you'll just have to get it all fo r free. Sorry. p.p.s. If you like what I'm doing here, subscribe to this blog via RSS or email and connect with me on my Facebook -page. Bookmark and share this post: Here's more cool posts similar to this one: How to uninstall WP Super Cache WordPress htaccess: The Definite Guide Top 4 WordPress Optimization Steps for Speed Posted by Antti Kokkonen Published on Jul 12, 2010 (Last updated on Nov 03, 2010) Topic: WordPress Optimization Tags: eBooks, Free, Guide, How-To, Plugins, W3 Total Cache, WordPress Comments: View Comments « How to uninstall WP Super CacheWordPress htaccess: The Definite Guide » Comment policy: We're gonna be like little Fonzies here. And what's Fonzie like? Cool. Correctamundo, and that's how we roll here -- cool. Critical is OK, but i f you're rude, spam or otherwise misuse the blog comments, I will delete your co mment. Do not put your URL in the comment text. Use your PERSONAL, real name (yo urname@example is cool, example.com without your name is not). Have fun, be exce llent to each other and thanks for adding to the conversation! LikeDislike 4 people liked this. Community Disqus Comments for this page are closed. Showing 66 comments Sort by Subscribe by email Subscribe by RSS Andrew Rondeau 8 months ago Thanks, Antti. Today I uninstalled super-cache and installed W3-total-Cache following your exce llent guide. As a result my home page speed now loads in 6 secs (was 8 secs). Yslow scores still 'E' and went from 51 to 54. Google page speed from 67 to 74. I just now need to get wp-smush.it to work and it could be even faster! Thanks for the series - I've really enjoyed it. Andrew 1 person liked this. Like Antti Kokkonen 8 months ago in reply to Andrew Rondeau Awesome news Andrew. There are two more optimization steps, additional .htaccess rules (I think you have them already) and the WP Smush.it. With scores of 54/74 there's still stuff to do - I think I'll take a look at your blog to see what I 'm missing from my "steps" :) biggest decrease in loading times comes from decreasing components (e.g. less im ages). W3 Total Cache does that for JS- and CSS-files. Combining the background images (from theme) into a CSS sprite is a way to do that for images, but that g oes a bit beyond the speed challenge. Like Andrew Rondeau 8 months ago in reply to Antti Kokkonen Antti, I did notice I had several .css files ending in "?ver=x.x.x" in my source code. I didn't add those to the css groups. Plus some .css files messed up my design when I added them to the group, so I re moved them. Andrew Like Antti Kokkonen 8 months ago in reply to Andrew Rondeau In general, the ones with "?ver=x.x.x" can be added to W3 Total Cache without th e "?ver=..." and it should work (or if that doesn't work, add them with the "?ve r..." if the version doesn't change that often). With CSS-files that mess up the design, those CSS files might be poorly coded an d minify messes them up or they should be loaded in specific order for them to w ork. Like Andrew Rondeau 8 months ago in reply to Antti Kokkonen I added some more .css and .js files to the cache and I reckon I've knocked off another 0.5 secs. Now need to be ruthless and remove some plugins! Thanks, again. Andrew Like Andrew Rondeau 7 months ago in reply to Andrew Rondeau Forgot to mention - I removed 7 plugins. It all helps! Andrew Like Ted Rheingold 4 months ago in reply to Andrew Rondeau Hi Andrew and Antti. I was wondering if you worked out how to get smushit to pro cess before the file is moved to S3. I see my local file is smushed, but the s3/ cloudfront version is not, so I'm guess W3TC moves the files before Smushit can modify it. My wordpress add_action() knowledge isn't what it should be. Also I just found: https://github.com/tylerhall/A... which dives thru s3 and smu shes unsmushed files Like Antti Kokkonen 4 months ago in reply to Ted Rheingold Interesting. I thought W3 Total Cache would move stuff to CDN after it's in the media library, not pass it, and WP Smushit would process image when putting it t o Media library, but you might've proven me wrong... Answer to your question, I haven't worked it out. In fact, I hadn't even noticed :) This might be something to pass to W3 Total Cache / W3 Edge as suggested feature (= let WP Smush it do its magic before moving images to CDN). p.s. Autosmush might be a good solution on the long run thou, since then you'd g et smushed images even if you upload them directly to S3 from other sources. Like Ted Rheingold 4 months ago in reply to Antti Kokkonen Thx for the response. My tests kept finding the unsmushed version was moved to s 3/cf, yet the local copy was smushed. We've since modified the autosmuch script and have been running on our S3 bucket s to full success. I think you are right in your P.S. in that it's almost cleare r to not add the smush functionality to each upload or xfer process and just hav e it run on it's own Like gerlaine 8 months ago I've downloaded the w3 total cache. Now, I will use this guide to optimize. Than x. Like gerlaine 8 months ago I just downloaded your guide and will be working on using it later this evening. Wish me luck, huh? Like Antti Kokkonen 8 months ago in reply to gerlaine Awesome to have an active commenter here, thanks! :) Tell me how you do with the guide, I'd love to know if there's something to be improved there, or if you ha ve any questions/obstacles with it Like Dave Doolin 8 months ago If you worked out an arrangement with the author of Total Cache, perhaps you cou ld advertise these 34 pages on the admin page of the plugin. For, say, $5. You and he could split the proceeds. Like Antti Kokkonen 8 months ago in reply to Dave Doolin Good suggestion Dave - and one I expected from you too :) I'll look into such op portunity for sure... think of this free release as kind of a smoke test for the guide. Like Abhijeet Mukherjee 7 months ago Great guide, Antti. I am planning to install it on my site (www.guidingtech.com) . Now here's the thing - Few days back, I followed this article - http://daverup ert.com/2010/06/... to install WP-Minify, add a bunch of stuff to my .htaccess a nd change some other settings. As a result, the speed increased significantly. But I should still go for W3 Tot al Cache, right? And I know I need to uninstall super cache but what about wp mi nfiy plugin and other stuff in .htaccess? Do I need to get rid of them too? Finally, although I have heard praises for W3 Total Cache, I've also heard some horror stories. I have been told that it isn't for every site. Hence I have some apprehensions before going ahead. Hope you'll help. :) Thanks again, Abhijeet Like Antti Kokkonen 7 months ago in reply to Abhijeet Mukherjee As far as I know, W3 Total Cache takes care of the same stuff that WP-Minify doe s, so you don't need that one. Separate .htaccess rules are still needed for pro per configuration of compression (gzip/deflate) and browser/proxy caching, and y ou can find them from my post at http://zemalf.com/1343/htacces... W3 Total Cache is not harder than any other plugin, and if you've already manage d to get WP-Minify working, you'll have easy time with this one :) Like seo services 7 months ago I removed all optimized settings and speed-increasing plugins from the blog, thu s simulating a fresh WordPress installation. Like Ileane 7 months ago Hi Antti, this tutorial might seem easy for more experienced bloggers but for so meone like myself with minimal CSS skills and SEO knowledge its pretty intimidat ing. I would love to install this on my new Wordpress blog and create a screenca st based on your instructions. What do you think of the idea? Thanks for creatin g this guide for installing W3 Total Cache. Like Antti Kokkonen 7 months ago in reply to Ileane Screencast is a great idea. I was planning to do one to go with the guide but li fe got the better of me since last month went into moving to another city :) But speaking of tech-skills, all that is needed to configure W3 Total Cache is t he ability to find CSS- and JS-files from the source code - so not too hard. Twe aking CSS is advanced stuff and good themes/plugins should have that covered alr eady. But as said, showing things on video is great way to show how it's done. Like Shawn 7 months ago Thanks a lot, this helped a lot. Like Joshua Dorkin 7 months ago Thanks for the walk through, Antti. Much appreciated. Like Feerab 7 months ago WP Super Cache is better for my site Godaddy shared hosting work better for me The speed with W3 Total Cache is very slow but with WP Super Cache more speed ac hieved Thanks any way (Edited by a moderator) Like Antti Kokkonen 7 months ago in reply to Feerab I've heard GoDaddy sucks as a host, and if they can't handle W3 Total Cache, tha t proves it. I've understood they don't even have mod_deflate enabled for HTTP c ompression. This is quite sad since GoDaddy is so popular, and there are a lot o f people making fools of themselves recommending the service just because it's p opular. Christian liked this Like Kathy 6 months ago I did not realize that W3 Total Cache was supposed to be better than WP Super Ca che. I will give it a whirl. I am not afraid of the techie stuff either. I can s ee why some people would be intimidated though. Like Antti Kokkonen 6 months ago in reply to Kathy Awesome Kathy, let me know how it goes with W3 Total Cache. Like Superfishnz 6 months ago Thanks for the guide. Also to add too this, you can see the before and after spe ed differences after implementing W3 Total Cache from here as well: http://thisi shelpful.com/speed... Like Antti Kokkonen 6 months ago in reply to Superfishnz Awesome results! Configuring the plugin, minifications and all is not the simple st of tasks, but well worth it. Like TwentyEleven 6 months ago Wow, thats all I can say. From using this guide I got to Grade B (80) on Yslow a nd cut homepage loading time down to 2.5s. Still a few more things to be done bu t will bookmark this guide for future use Like Antti Kokkonen 6 months ago in reply to TwentyEleven 2.5 total loading time is an awesome result already! Good stuff :) Like hen dos 6 months ago Tell me how you do with the guide, I'd love to know if there's something to be i mproved there, or if you have any questions/obstacles with it ,Thanks for sharin g this blog with us. Like TheCuriosity 6 months ago Thanks for this, you are a life saver! A couple of clarifications: for minfying .js files, do we also do it to google adsense and google analytic f iles, too? RE: the guide.. there are a handful of differences in the new version of W3 Tota l cache, where some of the options you suggested to select either moved to a com pletely different spot, or no longer exist (eg js in footer is no longer an opti on, only header or body and their are now check boxes relating to the body) and there are a couple of options that are appear to be "new". I followed as best as I could and just left other stuff that was new 'as is'. Either way, it all did wonders. When I first attempted this prior to following t he tutorial, I managed to make my blog slower/worse! But by starting at the begi nning and following your instructions it has improved significantly. Like Antti Kokkonen 6 months ago in reply to TheCuriosity I wouldn't minify Analytics code with W3 Total Cache. The same with AdSense, I p ersonally don't minify it, and advice against it. Google does a relatively good job optimizing their scripts and leaving them out of the minification ensures th ey work correctly. With Analytics, just use the Google Analytics for WordPress -plugin, which uses the asynchronouos code correctly. Not so practical, but for true byte-crunching there's also the optimized async Analytics snippet, but plugins other features m ake it a much better option than copy-pasteing the code directly. p.s. I'll be updating the guide. As you mentioned, the updated W3 Total Cache is quite different, while it's a lot better now, it makes the guide a bit out-date d. p.p.s. almost forgot, thanks a lot for taking the time to leave a comment :) Like Tom 4 months ago when I check the box: "Deselect this option to disable all caching functionality " i get the error: "Content Delivery Network Error: The "Replace default hostnam e with" field must be populated. Enter the hostname of your CDN provider. This i s the hostname you would enter into your address bar in order to view objects in your browser." However when I uncheck CDN, the box "Deselct this option...." unchecks... What's happening? Like Antti Kokkonen 4 months ago in reply to Tom First of all, you don't need to touch the "deselect..." (= disable everything), unless you want to turn W3 Total Cache off. So, just think that option is not th ere at all... Secondly, disable the CDN (= uncheck the enable option on CDN) on the General Se ttings view and save. I'm assuming you don't actually have CDN to use, so go to the CDN settings and empty the fields, like FTP hostname, and save. I haven't updated my guide to the new version of W3 Total Cache, but you can use the Preview mode to finish the configuration before you take it into use to avo id issues like this. Like Tom 4 months ago in reply to Antti Kokkonen Oh, ok, thanks. However, i have some problems with certain options. When I minif y js files they simply don't work. The other thing is that in the footer I have a banner which is a link to stats4u but when the plugin is active it is not disp layed. Like Antti Kokkonen 4 months ago in reply to Tom True, the minify options are tricky, and the hardest part to configure as well. Especially because I can't give one advice that fit all blogs as all blog is uni que when it comes to combination of .js-scripts and css-files... What you can do is to have just the Page Cache enabled (making W3 Total Cache "j ust" WP Super Cache replacement) and run your blog like that. Then you can try t he different minification options one-by-one if you like and see if you can get' em to work. Like Tom 4 months ago in reply to Antti Kokkonen thanks, I just minified css files and the js files which do not cause any proble ms. I also added some exceptions to html minify and everything works fine. thank s for your help a lot of useful posts. Like cacher 4 months ago I have a very strange problem. I've installed the plugin. The site loads really decently and the plugin seems to work properly. However, when I checked stats I noticed that my bandwith is being "consumed" as rapidly as it used to.. Is it po ssible from a technical perspective that my hosting provider doesn't allow for a ny caching? Sorry for the question which may seem simpply stupid but I'm not a w ebmaster in the proper meaning of the word. I can add that the test described in one of your posts shows the following: MOD_mod_deflate=0 MOD_mod_gzip=0. Should I simply change hosting? Like Antti Kokkonen 4 months ago in reply to cacher What hosting you're on now? Anyway - Yes, as your hosting does not have any kind of compression enabled no d ata is "zipped"... As you checked for mod_deflate and mod_gzip, you verified thi s. W3 Total Cache can save bandwidth when you configure the minify settings, minify +combine css- and js-files and enable mininy for HTML, but the compression (mod_ deflate or the older mod_gzip) usually does a lot more... Nowadays, with a good hosting you should have mod_deflate and shouldn't even nee d to even need to worry about bandwidth. So yeah, I would definitely change host ing if I were you. My recommended hosting options can be found from the resource s-page. Like Increase RSS 4 months ago anyone can tell me how to measure loadtime of my site? Like Antti Kokkonen 4 months ago in reply to Increase RSS > anyone can tell me how to measure loadtime of my site Here: http://zemalf.com/1428/analyze... p.s. read my comment policy, your "name" is keyphrased = spammy. I prefer talkin g to people with their real names, so if you wish to comment on this blog after this, use a name instead keywords. Like Sascha Hillen 4 months ago Hi Antti, first of all: THANK YOU. Im not really familiar with all the functiona llity of W3TC but I found my way through because of your great summary here. But there's one big problem I have. When W3TC is activated some posts/pages are sho wing up very strange. This has something to do with german umlaut: "Neue Löcher in alten Schuhen" should look like "Neue Löcher in alten Schuhen". Im/We're still working on the site but it would be great to get your opinion on this. What am I missing? What could cause this problem. Cheers Sascha EDIT (combined two comments): Forgot to post this: http://itsplash.de (Edited by a moderator) Like Antti Kokkonen 4 months ago in reply to Sascha Hillen That's odd, I'm running W3TC on my Finnish blogs, and the Skandinavians (ä,ö,å) have w orked just fine... Looks that things look OK in the front page, but gets mixed i n the individual post... Yes, very odd. It might be some other plugin or script that gets it wrong (because W3TC minifie s it)... Have you tried removing some .js-files from minify settings, or do you have anything there? p.s. edited your comment (combined the two comments) Like Antti Kokkonen 4 months ago in reply I think I got it now. It's most likely database and WordPress. If everything ng somewhere a different charset is in Check this post for similar issue: http://www.ethannonsequitur.com/wordpress-dreamhost-utf8-character-encoding.html Check charset's in WordPress and in the MySQL Db. If there's conflict, I'm prett y sure that's the issue. I'd contact your hosting company support as well for as sistance. Like Sascha Hillen 4 months ago in reply to Antti Kokkonen Wow. Quick reply. Thank you Antti. Yes this UTF-8 problem is a pain in the a.. When checking it says that it is config. for iso-.. but I dont know how to chang e it to utf-8? I tried WP Super Cache but the loading time is not as it was with W3TC :o( Anyway. I'll figure it out. Somehow. Change back to W3TC and try again. Like Sascha Hillen 4 months ago in reply to Antti Kokkonen Found the bug: had to turn "add_default_charset" off in server settings. Like Antti Kokkonen Awesome! 4 months ago in reply to Sascha Hillen to Sascha Hillen a problem with charset conflict in MySQL, is UTF-8, it should be OK, but I'm guessi use/default... (I deleted that above comment of yours with the code, as it wasn't that relevant ) Like Hunter 4 months ago This is the best guide I have seen. I have a problem with the set expires not sh owing up when I run Y-Slow. Thanks Like Antti Kokkonen 4 months ago in reply to Hunter For expires, check that the rules are set correctly in the .htaccess. W3 Total C ache ads them there if the Browser Cache option is enabled. Of course, you might get expires warnings from files not on your server, so always check the details . 1 person liked this. Like Alfred Cabaltican 4 months ago Thank you so much for this real guide. Like Alfred Cabaltican 4 months ago Question, is it recommended to export media library and upload includes files, t hemes, minify files and custom files to CDN? I just created cdn folderwhere the files to be stored. Like Antti Kokkonen 4 months ago in reply to Alfred Cabaltican Hi Alfred! Yes, as you have CDN (what CDN you're usign btw?), you should export media library and the other static files there. After you set it up, do the manu al export/upload once, it'll be automatic, which is awesome. Like Mouad 3 months ago Thanx indeed for the great explanation. 1- I wanted to know, based on what are you giving these recommended settings ? A re you part of Total Cache dev team? or are you a shared hosting expert? I am as king since I have been looking for a tutorial that explains how to configure thi s very confusing and complicated plugin to work on my Hostmonster shared hosting . When I found it, I only wanted a reassurance that "this is what I need".. and it was important for me to know what are the basis of your recommendations. 2- I followed the whole guide. Now I want to know if this is working for me ! I want to know, want to notice and feel that my website is now faster. I browserd it normally, and did not notice anything different.. it is still slow as I saw i t before installign and following your guide. How can I be sure that it is actually working ? is there a tool or something ? the page I installed it on is http://personal.al-rasid.com Thanx ! Like Antti Kokkonen 3 months ago in reply to Mouad Short answer to "what are the basis of the recommendations" is my extensive test ing, tweaking and researching for the best possible ways to speed up WordPress b logs, even on shared hosting. I've tried and tested different settings, configurations and plugins on multiple WordPress blogs in order to find the optimization steps that work the best, tak e the least amount of effort to do, and are not too hard or technical to complet e. 1: I'm not developer for the plugin or anything like that, but as a WordPress co nsultant and a blogger, I've tested many ways to ensure good performance and fas t loading times as said above. And as many bloggers run WordPress on shared host ing, I wanted to find the best practices for speeding up WordPress with limited resources (= shared hosting). Using W3 Total Cache is part of that process. W3 Total Cache does the essential page caching, but what makes it exceptional is the ability to combine and minify CSS, JavaScript and HTML-files. W3 Total Cache also scales all the way to the h igh performance blogs, with database and object caching, in addition to managing and delivering static files via CDN. 2: Use tools like YSlow and Google Page Speed (Firefox addons) to check how your page loads. For loading time, use Pingdom Tools or WebPageTest. Here's my post which explains how to do all this: http://zemalf.com/1428/analyze... I quickly checked your site, and looks to me you could still add CSS- and JS-fil es to Total Cache to speed those things up, and personally I would clean the pag es from all the blinking and unneeded images (and optimize the images too). Page Cache alone does not do that much (but you'll definitely notice the differe nce if you disable it, and page cache is essential for managing higher number of visits). And it also might be that your host does not support server side compr ession, which is the single most effective thing to speed up a site. Check out t he post explaining all the optimization steps here: http://zemalf.com/1430/wordp re... Like Mouad 3 months ago in reply to Antti Kokkonen You are truly a great guy. I deeply appreciate that you took my questions seriou sly and answered them in detail. I will see all those links you have posted. Yet , what is "image optimization".. and "blinking" you referred to? Also, is there a way to test the speed of the blog with W3 active and in active, without having to disable the plugin? I think Yslow gives the speed of the blog Now (while under the effect of W3 Cache), but I want to see what it would be li ke without the plugin, but without disabling the plugin :) Thank you again. Btw , Do you provide paid WP services? I got some issues on som e of my blogs needs to be resolved. Do you do that? Like Antti Kokkonen 3 months ago in reply to Mouad Yes, you can just disable W3 Total Cache and test things. But do run test with W ebPageTest.org, pay attention to the difference between the first view and repea t view. It's the repeat view (someone re-visits, or checks another page) that be nefits the most from caching. Also, unless you minify the CSS- and JS-files, W3 Total Cache alone won't improve YSlow that much, but you can still check it. With the images, you can make reduce the file size of the images without losing the quality - when you read the post about image optimization you'll learn about that. And I think the "movement" in the header caught my attention, and I calle d it blinking :) I do consultation and support, yes. Use the contact form and give details on wha t kind of help you're looking for and we'll go from there. Like Mouad 3 months ago in reply to Antti Kokkonen Thank you again man. 1- I recently added most of the js and css files to the minifier. Only now I can see a speed change! Before, no change was noticed at all despite following your guide bit by bit. Now, I am really seeing a difference ! BUT: A- There are some js files that are external; not stored on my web space but loa ded by plugins, from an external address, for instance: (EDITED the URLs) Can I add these also to the minify ? B - Is it possible to add captcha js files, like: plugins/si-contact-form/captcha-secureimage/ctf_captcha.js 2- Regarding that template selection thing, I am not sure what it does, and no d escription is provided. Is it where and where not the minification of the releva nt js/css file is done? but why is ths important? I may select all files to be " all templates" just to be sure. is that okay? or is it performance costly? 3- Although pages now load faster, there is a delay between clicking the link an d starting to load the target page. Namely I have to wait for 1.5 - 3 seconds af ter clicking the link, until the loading of the called page starts, which now ta kes much less time than before. What causes this? Btw, I installed the FF plugins you mentioned and am experimenting with them now . Thank you for everything. (EDIT: removed the URLs from the comment) (Edited by a moderator) Like Antti Kokkonen 3 months ago in reply to Mouad 1: Usually you can add external JavaScripts to W3TC and minify them, but first y ou should think hard if you really need all those and only add the ones you need . Also, if the scripts are big, it might be better not to serve the script locally , so check how long it takes to load them (e.g. with Firebug) and then decide if you leave them external or minify them to the local file (big file might be slo wer when server from your own server). If one uses CDN to server the minified fi les, then this is not an issue and all scripts should be added to combine and mi nify them. I don't know about the captcha, you'll have to test and see. Well-coded scripts won't be affected by minification. Poorly coded ones might break and cause error s. 2: "All Templates" is the default and "safe" way. Individual templates can be us ed if you know certain script is only needed on specific page. For example, if c ontact form uses script, that script is only needed on the page with the contact forms. 3: It's hard to say, but since you listed so many JavaScript files, I'm guessing that's part of the reason. Again, think carefully if you really need them all. Although, minifying them with "non-blocking" setting will help too. Like Dave Radovanovic 3 months ago Anyone available for configuring a current installation, especially Amazon CDN? Like Antti Kokkonen 3 months ago in reply to Dave Radovanovic You're looking for someone to configure W3 Total Cache for you, including Amazon CDN? Like Robert S. Lawrence 3 months ago Very helpful. I just did this on my own two days ago after spending 3-4 hours lo oking through incomplete and/or contradictory "how-to" guides on the web. I post ed on another site that someone should really do a comprehensive guide for the n on-techie, and yours looks to fit the bill. Irritating that I didn't find it bef ore wasting Friday night reinventing the wheel. Like How2CentOS 3 months ago Great article - With the help of W3 cache, APC, Memcached and Cherokee web serve r I managed to reduce the load time of http://www.how2centos.com from +- 15 sec all the way down to 3 seconds. Like SiteOptimo 2 months ago Thank you for the clear howto. I'm wondering why W3 only exists for wordpress. I s it that hard to port it to something cross blogplatform? Like Rohit 2 months ago Its a nice plugin, but when i use it with thesis theme its showing "internal ser ver error", What should i do?? plzz help me!! Like Mike E. 2 months ago Great article. Very useful guide. Thanks for posting! Like dave 2 months ago Hi Zemalf I recently configure w3 total cache on my wordpress please bare with a newbie here. I use buddypress 1.2.7 wordpress 3.0.3 and my theme and so far it shines but I am looking for help to make this work for multisite. I want to create and host sites for users either via domain mapping or just let them have their own directory while taking advantage of this plugin. Is this pos sible? If so where do I get help to make this happen? I ma searching high and lo w but no success so far. Thanks Like Reactions danrippon 2 months ago From Twitter via BackType @JCDFitness W3TC? Sure can - and this is the most useful guide I've found to con figuring it: http://zemalf.com/1443/w3-total-cache/ themerepublic 2 months ago From Twitter via BackType Install and Configure W3 Total Cache in 7 Easy Steps Zemalf.com: w3 cache tuto rial wordpress buddypress memory... http://bit.ly/i8vzC7 wpblackbelt 3 months ago From Twitter via BackType Install and Configure W3 Total Cache in 7 Easy Steps http://ow.ly/3gxod guru_kscope 3 months ago From Twitter via BackType @billbennettnz I found this helpful: http://zemalf.com/1443/w3-total-cache/ davethackeray 6 months ago From Twitter via BackType One more retweet from davethackeray Best #wordpress plugin for miles: W3 Total Cache. Best guide to rocking your sit e with it: http://bit.ly/99qIAG // @zemalf - you're a legend FamousBloggers 7 months ago From Twitter via BackType RT @Zemalf Install and Configure W3 Total Cache in 7 Easy Steps http://bit.ly/8Z hzwM kevincumbria 7 months ago From Twitter via BackType RT @Zemalf: Install and Configure W3 Total Cache in 7 Easy Steps http://bit.ly/8 ZhzwM maresjohan 8 months ago From Twitter via BackType RT @pann1x . @Zemalf wrote a book: Speed Up #Wordpress - W3 Total Cache-Plugin Installation & Configuration #blog http://bit.ly/8ZhzwM pann1x 8 months ago From Twitter via BackType . @Zemalf wrote a book: Speed Up Wordpress - W3 Total Cache-Plugin - Installatio n & Configuration #wordpress #blog http://bit.ly/8ZhzwM Show more reactions Trackbacks Trackback URL Suspended due to high system resource usage 08/13/2010 12:06 AM [...] configuring some settings on W3 Total Cache to avoid using too much CPU. T his is a useful guide: http://zemalf.com/1443/w3-total-cache/ ... 20 Most Useful WordPress Plugins « This is Zemalf 08/27/2010 02:04 PM [...] for WP, making blog A LOT faster. (WP Super Cache only sees the rear light s of this one). To ... TwentyEleven 09/01/2010 02:48 AM How To Install & Configure W3C Total Cache... Installing and configuring the W3 Total Cache -plugin for WordPress is part of . .. BlogLiving » 4 Plugins to Super Speedup Your Wordpress Site 10/07/2010 12:10 PM [...] You must see and read this tutorial by Zemalf in details to configure the W3 Total cache to its ... The W3 Total Cache -guide gets a major update « This is Zemalf 10/31/2010 12:48 AM [...] and configured W3 Total Cache to the rest of my blogs today, and used the opportunity to tune my ... 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Share and [...] What is the optimum way to cache static content in Wordpress? - Quora 01/18/2011 11:14 PM [...] and W3 Total Cache is the best.I had the best experience setting up the pl ugin using this guide:http://zemalf.com/1443/w3-total-...It doesn t ... blog comments powered by DISQUS This blog has 536 awesome RSS subscribers: Subscribe now! ...or get free updates sent straight to your inbox by entering your email address: Delivered by FeedBurner Search this blog Custom Search Recent Posts A blog between something and everything The Fuzzy Logic of the WordPress (.com) Terms of Service Why Some People Never Make Money Online Disqus LOOPHOLE for SPAM Comments in WordPress WordPress htaccess: The Definite Guide Install and Configure W3 Total Cache in 7 Easy Steps How to uninstall WP Super Cache How to Backup and Optimize the WordPress Database How to automatically backup and optimize WordPress database Top 4 WordPress Optimization Steps for Speed Zem-what? Antti-huh? 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