Importance of Web Caching for Websites

Based on web statistics of 2021, 47% of site visitors expect a web page to load in less than 2 seconds or at least within 2 seconds. Moreover, it has been reported that a mere increase from 8 to 2 seconds in site loading speed can significantly raise (74%) the conversion rate of a website’s visitors and turn them into customers. Hence, it won’t be an exaggeration to say that any website, especially a business site, needs to be fast loading. It goes without saying that website loading speed turns out to be one of the most sought-after web hosting features in this day and age where there are innumerable websites competing for site visitors and online business.

A plethora of solutions exist for enhancing web pages’ loading times. One of these is known as web caching, which contributes substantially to increasing page load speed.

Web Caching

Caching, in general, refers to the process which is involved in storing files’ copies in a cache. It serves the purpose of accessing the files quickly. Caching can be of different types, such as web caching, distributed caching, data caching, application/output caching, etc.

JavaScript, HTML files as well as images of sites are cached by web browsers for the purpose of ensuring that websites load quickly. Web browsers or browsers are application software for accessing the World Wide Web and are used on a variety of devices that are connected to the Internet, such as smartphones, laptops, desktops, tablets, etc. Web browsers need to be installed on the devices of users for browsing the Internet. It is the web browsers that connect to the servers and initiate communication with them in order to display the content of websites.

Caching of the content of websites aids in enhancing the responsiveness of those websites. This is attained by bringing down the load on backend resources as well as by reducing network congestion. Web caching is carried out by retaining HTTP responses and web resources in the cache. This enables the quick fulfilment of future requests from the cache itself, rather than from the origin web servers. To understand it better, let us touch on the process involved in accessing a web page by a site visitor.

Websites are made accessible through the service of web hosting, which is provided by website hosting companies. Website hosting companies, such as HTS Hosting, which is popular as the “Best Website Hosting Company”, provide various web hosting plans for rendering websites accessible online.

In the service of website hosting, server space is provided on the web servers of web hosting service providers for storing the content of websites in the form of various files. These files are stored on the web servers, processed on the servers and are delivered over the Internet to the web browsers that request for these files. Every time that an Internet user looks for a certain site’s content, his web browser retrieves the content from the corresponding web server and subsequently displays the content (web page) to the user.

Now, every time that a web page loads onto the device of a user, the web browser downloads a substantial volume of data in order to display the content of the web page to the user. Page load times get shortened significantly by caching the content of web pages. This is made possible by saving a copy of a web page’s content on the hard drive of the user’s device. Whenever the user revisits the same web page, it loads much faster. That is because most of the content of that web page are already stored locally. These files, containing the contents of the web page, remain stored till their TTL (Time to Live) expires or the cache of the hard drive becomes full, whichever takes place earlier. The duration for which web content has to be cached is indicated by TTL.

Users have the option to clear their browser cache. When cache is deliberately cleared by a user, the web page despite being revisited, takes time to load; as was the case when it was first visited. The benefit of faster web page loading ceases to exist for the site visitor. But there is one distinct advantage of clearing browser cache. It has to do with web content that didn’t load correctly the first time and got cached. Such content might load correctly when cache is cleared.

Significance of Web Caching

Web caching proves to be instrumental in enhancing page load speed of websites that are hosted on the web servers of various web hosting service providers. The process of web caching brings down the number of requests sent to the web server and reduces the time that is needed for processing. Requests for web content sent to the web server take longer to process than cached responses. That is why web caching is used for significantly increasing site loading speed.

Web caching not only boosts page load speed but also reduces network costs by enabling fast and easy future access to temporarily stored website date. Web caching provides the possibility to cache a site’s content at different points between the browsers of the site visitors and the server. Too many resources are not used by a site’s data when the content of the site is cached closer to the site visitors. This diminishes the impact on the server and helps save money on network costs.

Web Caching Techniques

A web cache can be utilized effectively by employing various web caching techniques. Client-side web caching is one of those techniques and it is the most basic one among all the web caching techniques. In it, the embedded HTTP cache that is inbuilt in the browser is leveraged by a website visitor. This provides a simple solution for reducing the latency that is involved in requesting web resources from a site. The HTTP header directives, which are provided by the HTTP response from the origin servers to the browser, form the basis of this caching mechanism. The details regarding the duration for which the browser can fulfil future responses for the requested web content from the cache are provided by the HTTP cache headers.

A wide range of web caching techniques can be used on the server-side for improving websites’ performance. Web application accelerators or reverse proxy caches can be used to serve retained HTTP responses’ cached versions. Site administrators implement such caches, which function as intermediaries between the web browser and the origin servers. In this case also, the HTTP cache directives form the basis of it.

Conclusion:

Web caching proves to be an effective solution for speeding up the loading times of websites. Website speed is an important factor in ensuring a positive user experience of the site and it contributes significantly in ascertaining website revisits. This is supported by the well-documented fact that 39% of site visitors are not willing to browse a site in which images take too long to load or do not load at all. Web caching enhances site loading speeds by enabling quick and easy future access to website content that has been temporarily stored. Ultimately, web caching enhances user experience of websites by ensuring that web pages load quickly and easily.

Before concluding, it needs to be mentioned that HTS Hosting excels at providing all types of web hosting services that are fully secure and offer fast speed. All the web hosting plans offered by HTS Hosting are priced affordably and provide round-the-clock technical support and phenomenal performance along with outstanding service.

Source: https://www.htshosting.org/knowledge-base/web-hosting/303/importance-of-web-caching-for-websites