How to Increase Website Performance with LiteSpeed Cache

Web site speed is critical to web success, search engine positioning, and user satisfaction. You will miss business, destroy SEO rankings, and send visitors packing if your web site is slow. If your web site is hosted by a LiteSpeed Web Server, LiteSpeed Cache is an excellent plugin that can accelerate and enhance your web site. This tutorial will walk you through optimizing your web site performance with LiteSpeed Cache, including setup, configuration, and best practices.

Why to use LiteSpeed Cache?

LiteSpeed Cache (LSCache) is a high-performance enterprise-grade web server plugin with server-level caching. There are other plugins that cache the pages, but LSCache caches at the server level, i.e., at a higher speed and with more optimized output. Even page loading time is optimized by a great extent as it caches the most viewed pages, compresses the files, and does a lot of other optimizing tasks.

Major Advantages of LiteSpeed Cache for Site Speed

Server-Level Caching: Merges server load and accelerates response time by maintaining content cached at the server level.

Less Page Load Time: Shortens page loading time by saving static page copies and displaying them immediately.

Better SEO: Faster sites receive improved search engine rankings.

Enhanced User Experience: Fast page loading improves user satisfaction, lowers bounce rate, and increases engagement.

Step 1: Installing LiteSpeed Cache

To begin using LiteSpeed Cache, host your site on a LiteSpeed Web Server or OpenLiteSpeed-supported server.

Install the Plugin:

For WordPress: Plugins > Add New and search for LiteSpeed Cache. Click Install Now and then Activate.

Activate Your Domain: Go to LiteSpeed Cache > General after installation and activate caching for your domain.

Step 2: Configuring LiteSpeed Cache for Optimal Performance

On installation, take time to set up the plugin so as to optimize your site for the best performance. The following is the explanation of the most significant LiteSpeed Cache settings:

1. Cache Settings

Enable Caching: LiteSpeed Cache > Cache and activate the caching of your posts, pages, and categories.Purge Settings: Configure Purge Settings to auto-purge cache upon updating content. For instance, purge home page, categories, and tags when publishing fresh content.

2. Object Cache

Object caching stores database query results so data can be obtained faster, and this can come in handy particularly for dynamic sites.

Activate Object Cache in LiteSpeed Cache > Cache > Object.

Choose Redis or Memcached for best performance, depending on your server setup. It can reduce the server load and response time.

3. Browser Cache

Enable Browser Cache in LiteSpeed Cache > Cache > Browser to cache files locally on the client side so repeat visitors load the page faster.Cache life can be adjusted based on your website requirements. At a month setting, it usually meets static content requirements.

4. Image Optimization

LiteSpeed Cache has an Image Optimization feature. You can enable Auto Request Cron under LiteSpeed Cache > Image Optimization so that image optimizations are automatically performed when new.

Save images as WebP in order to compress and load faster.

5. CSS, JavaScript, and HTML minification

Go to LiteSpeed Cache > Page Optimization and enable CSS, JavaScript, and HTML Minification. This removes unnecessary characters, comments, and whitespace from your files, making them smaller.

Enable CSS and JS Combine to bundle several JavaScript and CSS files into bundled files in order to reduce HTTP requests and faster loads.

6. Lazy Load Images

Enable Lazy Loading on images such that the images load only when the user is going to enter the viewport. This reduces page loads on page initialization and is extremely helpful for image-heavy pages.

Find this under LiteSpeed Cache > Page Optimization.

7. Database Optimization

In LiteSpeed Cache > Database, you're able to automatically clean up the database. It's removing unrequired data such as post revisions, trashed posts, spammy comments, and transient data.

An optimized database can help delay query times as well as increase site speed.

Step 3: Employing LiteSpeed Cache CDN for Access Across Countries

LiteSpeed Cache also provides integration with a Content Delivery Network (CDN), which is cacheing your content at hundreds of sites globally.

Enable QUIC.cloud CDN: LiteSpeed's own content delivery network solution, QUIC.cloud, is specifically designed to be used in conjunction with LiteSpeed Cache.

Modify CDN Settings: Go to LiteSpeed Cache > CDN in order to turn on the CDN settings, which will deliver a global visitor's experience faster.Image Optimization and Caching via CDN: QUIC.cloud CDN comes with image optimization and caching, making it ideal to distribute the optimized content globally.

Step 4: Testing and Examining Performance Enhancements

After LiteSpeed Cache is installed and set up, it's important to test your website's performance to determine if optimizations are working as intended.

Use PageSpeed Insights: Google PageSpeed Insights provides a general overview of page load times and performance metrics.

Use GTmetrix or WebPageTest: Both provide detailed breakdowns of load time, cache usage, and areas for improvement.

Monitor Performance Periodically: Periodic monitoring will keep your site optimized in the long run, especially after any update or modification.

LiteSpeed Cache Optimization Tips for Performance Enhancement

Avoid Over-Optimization: There is a risk of conflicting optimizations that are already enabled, so only turn on necessary features.

Utilize Exclude Feature: Do not cache pages like login and checkout to prevent any functionality-related problem.

Be cautious of Mobile Optimization: Mobile shoppers should feel the same speed boost that desktop shoppers experience, so use Separate Mobile Cache wherever possible.

Conclusion

Using LiteSpeed Cache, you are able to transform the speed, SEO ranking, and end-user experience of your site. With server-level caching, image optimization, and database management using LiteSpeed Cache, you have everything you need to speed up and fortify your site.

For LiteSpeed Web Server host customers, LiteSpeed Cache is one of the most powerful caching technologies available. Accelerate now and see your site take off.