Object caching in Joomla plays a crucial role in boosting website performance. It accomplishes this by storing the outcomes of previous database queries, thereby minimizing the need for repeated queries. The result is quicker page loading, leading to an enhanced user experience due to the increased speed and efficiency in accessing website content.

Before we begin, please make sure that Redis is activated on your cPanel account as shown in this article, and have the socket path handy.

How to Enable Redis Object Cache in Joomla

1) Log into your Joomla Admin Dashboard and navigate from the left sidebar to Systems;

2) Under the Setup section, click Global Configuration;

3. Click the System tab;

4. Scroll down to the Cache section, and in the Session Handler list box and set:

System Cache: ON (Conservative Cache)

Progressive caching stores a unique version of website content for each visitor, meaning that each person sees a version tailored to their specific interaction with the site. On the other hand, conservative caching provides the same cached content to all visitors, regardless of their individual interactions. Therefore, if your website modules contain mostly static content that doesn’t change frequently, progressive caching would be the better choice. However, if your content remains largely uniform across different visits, conservative caching is the more appropriate option.

Cache Handler: Redis

Persistent Redis: Yes

Redis Server Host/Sock: Enter the Redis socket path from cPanel

Leave everything else as it is and click the Save button to apply the settings and activate Redis Object Cache.

You have now succeeded in setting up the Redis object cache with your Joomla website hosted at ChemiCloud.

Why enable Redis Object Cache?

Object caching in WordPress significantly improves website performance by reducing database queries. It stores the results of previous queries, leading to faster page load times and an overall better user experience.

Prerequisite:

Before proceeding, ensure that Redis is activated on your cPanel account by following the steps outlined in the next section.

How to Easily Enable Redis Object Cache in WordPress

For those using ChemiCloud web hosting, Redis object caching is available and working out of the box. Please find the steps below on how to activate Redis in cPanel:

Step 1) Login into your cPanel.

Step 2) Scroll down to the Software section and click AccelerateWP.

Step 3) Locate the WordPress Install you want to enable Redis object caching and click the gear icon ( “Feature Enable”) on the “AccelerateWP Premium” right side column.

Step 4) Toggle the Redis Object Cache feature to ON.

This will automatically install the Redis Object Cache WordPress plugin, activate it, and configure it for your WordPress website.

That’s it!

Enabling Redis Object Cache via the LiteSpeed Cache Plugin

If you prefer to enable Redis Object Cache through the LiteSpeed Cache plugin, follow these steps:

Step 1: In your WordPress Admin panel, navigate to the Object Cache option in the top header, then click on Settings.

Step 2: On the Redis Object Cache settings page, copy the HOST (path) information, as you’ll require it on Step 5.

You can also find the HOST details in your website’s wp-config.php file.

Step 3: Go to the Installed Plugins section and deactivate the Redis Object Cache plugin.

If the LiteSpeed Cache plugin is already installed and activated, follow these steps:

Step 4: Go to LiteSpeed Cache > Cache > Object tab in your WordPress Admin panel.

Step 5: In the Object Cache settings section, update the following:

• Object Cache: ON
• Method: Redis
• Host: Enter the socket path you copied earlier from the Redis Object Cache settings.
• Port: 0

Leave all other settings as they are. Click Save Changes to apply the configuration and activate Redis Object Cache.

Once saved, you should see a “Connection Test: Passed” message confirming the setup.

Enabling Redis Object Cache via the W3 Total Cache plugin

Step 1: In your WordPress Admin Dashboard, navigate to Performance > General Settings > Object Cache tab.

Step 3: In the left-side menu, go to the Object Cache section.

• In the Redis Hostname field, enter the socket path you obtained from cPanel > Redis Object Cache.
• Click Test.

If the test is successful, you should see a “Test passed” message. To complete the setup, click Save Settings.

Conclusion

By following these steps, you have successfully enabled Redis Object Cache for your WordPress website using the LiteSpeed Cache or W3 Total Cache plugin. This optimization helps improve site performance by reducing database load and enhancing page load times.

If you encounter any issues, double-check your settings or reach out to our 25/7 Support for assistance.

That’s called a FOUC, or Flash of Unstyled Content.

This happens when the browser loads the content of a page before it loads the CSS styles that go with it. As a result, the browser doesn’t know where to put the content on the page, so it interprets it as best it can, which is to display the text without any formatting at all.

If you recently enabled the Load CSS Asynchronously feature in the LiteSpeed Cache for WordPress Plugin and you’ve noticed an uptick in FOUC incidents, then you should know, this is actually a side effect of using the Load CSS Asynchronously feature.

Fear not, the problem has a solution, and that’s what we’ll be covering in this Knowledge Base article on Generating Critical CSS in the LSCache for WordPress plugin.

Above-the-fold refers to the information that loads in the browser window before the user has to scroll down.

Let’s begin!

How to Generate Critical CSS in LiteSpeed Cache for WordPress

What is Critical CSS?

First, let’s cover a little bit about what Critical CSS is and how CSS is typically used when it’s unoptimized.

The modern web browser requires a few things in order to properly display a page. At a minimum, two of these things are:

1. HTML Code, which includes the content, function, and structure of the content and other elements on the page being requested.
2. The CSS file sets how the content and elements on the page should look after they are loaded.

If you remember your HTML, you know the CSS typically goes in the Header which gets loaded before the Body. That means there’s a lot of waiting for everything to load. As a result, sites like GTMetrix will suggest you load your CSS Asynchronously.

Asynchronously means the CSS is loaded separately from the rest of the content on the page.

This creates the problem we talked about above — the dreaded FOUC.

So how can you load your site’s CSS asynchronously and avoid a FOUC incident? By using Critical CSS>

Stylesheets are often large and complex, as they contain styles for every element on your site… this level of detail increases the amount of time your browser needs to parse through the information and render out what is needed, which is why it takes so long.

However, only a tiny portion of the styles are needed for displaying information above the fold.

The tiny bit of the styles needed is what is called “Critical CSS”. If the Critical CSS can be quickly loaded, a FOUC issue won’t occur and the rest of the CSS and HTML can be loaded asynchronously, and the user will never know the difference, except the page will load a bit faster.

Exciting News: Introducing Our fastest WordPress Hosting stack Ready for speed? Try it for just $1!

How to Enable Critical CSS in the LiteSpeed Cache Plugin for WordPress

Enabling Critical CSS in the LSCache for the WordPress plugin is really easy, however, you need a Quic.cloud domain key to use this feature as QUIC.cloud handles the generation of Critical CSS and loads remaining CS asynchronously. The two features go hand in hand with each other, so it’s all built into one feature with the current version of the LSCache for WordPress Plugin.

Step 1: Login to your /wp-admin and in the menu on the left, hover over the LiteSpeed Cache option. Then, in the little menu that pops out, click General.

Step 2: When the General Settings page opens, look for the Domain Key Section.

Click Request Domain Key.

After clicking Request Domain Key, your page will reload and you will see this message at the top of the page:

If you wait about a minute, maybe two, then refresh the page again, you’ll note the Domain Key field is filled with ***. This means you have a domain key from Quic.Cloud!

Your domain key field will look like this when your key has been issued:

Step 3: Now to enable Critical CSS, click Page Optimization in the LiteSpeed Cache menu on the left.

Step 4: Once the Page Optimization settings load, look beneath CSS Settings for the Load CSS Asynchronously option and click the On toggle to enable the feature.

Then click Save Changes in the top right corner to save your changes.

And that’s it! Now your CSS will load asynchronously and Quic.cloud will handle the generation of Critical CSS for you!

The new Unique CSS feature, now available in the LSCache for WordPress Plugin, allows users to discard this code and load only the necessary CSS to make the page display properly.

What is Unique CSS?

If you’ve ever examined the CSS files that are included with your chosen WordPress theme and plugins, you may have noticed — they’re very large. Why is this?

Well, they must contain every CSS definition for every variant of every page on your site.

Let’s say you open your site in your browser and are looking at your About page. If you open up the code, most of the code being loaded for that page isn’t relevant to the page. This means your browser has to request all this code, then sift through it and show only the relevant bits. This takes time, even for a super-fast PC on a lighting fast internet connection.

With Unique CSS, a separate and single CSS file is created for each page on your site, where the only defined styles used are the ones required to load the content on the page being requested, thus lowering the amount of code the browser has to sift through, therefore lowering the load time.

Exciting News: Introducing Our fastest WordPress Hosting stack Ready for speed? Try it for just $1!

How to Enable Unique CSS in LiteSpeed Cache

Enabling Unique CSS is pretty easy, however, you do need a domain key from Quic.Cloud to use the Unique CSS feature of the plugin. Don’t worry, this is super easy to do and it doesn’t mean you need to change anything on your site or CDN.

Step 1: Login to your /wp-admin and in the menu on the left, hover over the LiteSpeed Cache option. Then, in the little menu that pops out, click General.

Step 2: When the General Settings page opens, look for the Domain Key Section.

Click Request Domain Key.

After clicking Request Domain Key, your page will reload and you will see this message at the top of the page:

If you wait about a minute, maybe two, then refresh the page again, you’ll note the Domain Key field is filled with ***. This means you have a domain key from Quic.Cloud!

Your domain key field will look like this when your key has been issued:

Step 3: Now, to enable Unique CSS, return to the menu on the left and look for LiteSpeed Cache > Page Optimization.

Step 4: Once the Page Optimization settings have loaded, look for the Generate UCSS option and click the On Setting.

Then click Save Changes in the top right corner.

Step 5: Now you need to enable Cache Mobile because CSS for mobile views is different than the desktop views. To do this, navigate to the Cache option in the LiteSpeed menu on the left.

Step 6: Once the Cache Settings page has opened, look for the Cache Mobile option. Click On to enable the feature, then click Save Changes in the top right corner.

Step 7: Now you need to Purge your existing Caches. To do this, hover over the LiteSpeed icon in the top menu and choose Purge All.

From this moment forward, anytime someone visits your site, the Unique CSS for that page will be served. If the UCSS hasn’t been calculated, it will be added to a queue to be generated via Cron later on.

Congrats!

One added bonus, the feature doesn’t just improve the website load speeds for people, it also improves them for search engine bots and page speed insight utilities, like GTMetrix or Google
PageSpeed Insights. This means you get better search ranking and improved page scores when benchmark testing.

In this Knowledge Base article, we’ll cover how to enable the Guest Mode in the LSCache for WordPress Plugin, as well as how the feature works, so you can know if you want to enable it for your site or not.

Let’s begin!

How does the Guest Mode for WordPress work?

When someone visits your site for the first time and you have Guest Mode activated, things will be a little different than if you had the feature disabled. The very first thing LiteSpeed Server will do is serve a default version of the requested page from cache. It won’t check to see where they are coming from, and no cache varies or ESI will be used.

The page they requested will be served super fast as well.

Following this, once the HTML on the requested page begins to load, an Ajax call will be made and then LiteSpeed will check for a bunch of things and serve the correct version of the page for that users, with ESI, cache varies, and all.

This creates a small delay between the default cache paged being served A& the correct, full content loading post-AJax call. On some super complex sites, this can mean the wrong language may show for a split-second, for example, but the page will display in the native localization once the Ajax call is made.

For this reason, you should really test this feature and decide if Guest Mode is for you.

Exciting News: Introducing Our fastest WordPress Hosting stack Ready for speed? Try it for just $1!

How to Enable Guest Mode in the LiteSpeed Cache for WordPress Plugin

Step 1: Login to your WordPress wp-admin. After logging in, look in the Admin menu on the left for LiteSpeed Cache. Hover over LiteSpeed Cache and in the little menu that pops out, click General.

Step 2: When the General Settings page opens, look for Guest Mode and click the On toggle. Then click Save Changes in the top right corner.

And that’s it, really, however…

Step 3: In order for Guest Mode to be the most effective, you should also enable Cache Mobile. To do this, look for the Cache option in the LiteSpeed Cache menu from the left-hand side.

Step 4: Once the Cache page loads, look for the Cache Mobile setting, then click the On toggle to enable the feature. Next, click Save Changes in the top right.

And that’s truly it. Congrats!

But why tinker when you could just follow our knowledge base article where we’ll cover the best settings to enable to get the best out of the plugin?

Follow along below to do just that. Let’s dive in!

How to Configure the LiteSpeed Cache Page Optimization Settings in WordPress

Step 1: Login to your /wp-admin and hover over the LiteSpeed Cache plugin in the menu on the left…. when the little menu pops out, click Page Optimization.

Step 2: When the Page Optimization settings load, you’ll see a few tabs at the top + a lot of different options for each tab.

Let’s review these options so you can enable the right ones to maximize your optimization and get the best out of the LSCache for the WordPress plugin.

First up are the CSS Settings.

• With CSS Minify, as mentioned in the Pro-Tip above, you should leave this off.
• For CSS Combine, also as mentioned above, you should leave this off.
• You can leave the CSS HTTP/2 Push setting off as well.
• Leave the Load CSS Asynchronously setting off or you can see some displeasing font issues on your website. Yes, having this on can help your website test scores, but it hurts your UX. Don’t make your visitors suffer from ugly FOUC/FOUT issues!
• For Generate Critical CSS, leave this setting off. We don’t recommend using Critical CSS unless absolutely needed.
• Leave the Generate Critical CSS in Background option alone, as it’s dependent on the Generate Critical CSS option.
• With the Separate CCSS Cache Post Types option, if you are using Critical CSS, you should list here every post type that has it’s own page and CSS. Otherwise, leave this alone.
  • An example of this would be WooCommerce category and product pages, along with pricing tables, etc.
• For Separate CCSS Cache URIs, this is similar to the above, Separate CCSS Cache Post Types and you should enter single URLs with CSS that is vastly different from other pages. Otherwise, leave this section alone.
• Leave the Inline CSS Async Lib off, or you will get weird font issues.
• And lastly, for Font Display Optimization, you should only use Default or Block. Don’t use Swap or Fallback as they can cause font issues, as well.

Once you’ve configured your settings, be sure to click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.

Next, click JS Settings. 

• As we mentioned for CSS Settings, leave the JS Minify option off. If you’re going to use minification, do it from your CDN.
• Do the same for JS Combine, leave it off.
• For JS HTTP/2 Push, you can leave this off.
• With Load JS Deferred, the off setting is the safest setting.
• The Default setting for Load Inline JS is your best option. Deferred or delaying until after DOM load may improve page scores or help other JavaScript optimizations, but it also contributes to altered site design or function on page loads.
• Finally, set Exclude JQuery to the On Setting.

Once you’ve configured your settings, be sure to click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.

Next, at the top of the page click the Optimization tab. 

• The default setting for CSS/JS Cache TTL is safe. You can use a lower TTL when you’re making a lot of development changes, if you want. Or you can use a higher TTL, if you aren’t changing site design as frequently.
• With HMTL Minify, leave this setting to off, as you have with the other Minify options.
• For Inline CSS Minify, you should also leave this setting off.
• Also, leave Inline JS Minify off.
• The DNS Prefetch field is useful if you want to preload the DNS queries for external assets on your website. You should list the URLs of each of those in the space provided.
  • If you aren’t sure what your external content URLs may be, you can find them by opening your website in a Chrome Incognito tab, then right-click on the page and choose Inspect from the context menu. Following that, the Developer Tools will open, and you should click the Sources tab. This will list all the external calls your website is making and their URLs.
• For DNS Prefetch Control, you can set this to on if you aren’t using the option above where you’ve listed URLs manually.
• The Remove Query Strings option doesn’t typically offer a speed improvement since most caching can now handle query strings. We recommend leaving this set to Off.
• For Load Google Fonts Asynchronously, you can enable this if you want, but keep in mind most Google Fonts are already cached in the browser from other websites using them.
• You can enable the Remove WordPress Emoji setting. Most browsers can now natively render emojis and this only removes a small JavaScript call.

Once you’ve configured your settings, be sure to click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.

Exciting News: Introducing Our fastest WordPress Hosting stack Ready for speed? Try it for just $1!

Next, at the top of the page click the Media Settings tab.

• A lot of people like lazy load, I’m not really a fan and recommend leaving Lazy Load Images set to off. Having it enabled can improve page load times a teeny bit, but it’s bad for UX to use the feature under certain conditions.
• For Basic Image Placeholder, you can specify the base64 of an image to be used as a placeholder until your actual images load.
  • If you aren’t sure how to encode an existing image you want to use into base64, there’s a great web encoder tool you can use by clicking here.
• If you are lazy loading images, we recommend setting Responsive Placeholder to on. Otherwise, you can leave this off. This option reserves the space on the page for images so that the layout doesn’t jump around when users scroll down.
• The prefilled text in Responsive Placeholder SVG should be fine for most sites, but you can customize the color using the {color} variable.
• For Responsive Placeholder Color, the default color is fine for most people, but if you select something, keep it grey-ish to be with the web standards.
  • If you choose to enable LQIP Cloud Generator, you will need to register and setup your site with QUIC.Cloud. We have a Knowledge Base article on how to do that which you can read by clicking here.
  • With this option, a very low-quality version of the image will appear during page load and will soon be replaced by a full-quality image. This is an excellent option for image-heavy websites as it gives them the appearance of loading quickly.
  • A setting of 4 for LQIP Quality should suffice for most users, but you can test other settings and use what you feel works for you!
• The Lazy Load Iframes option is helpful if you have iframes or video embeds on your page that aren’t used. Otherwise, you can leave this setting in the off position.
• Lastly, for Inline lazyLoad Images Library, you can leave this to off for better performance. If you turn it on, it will remove another HTTP Request which can improve page scores, if your site is super lean, however, most users will be okay with the setting to off.

Once you’ve configured your settings, be sure to click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.

Next, at the top of the page click the Media Excludes tab. 

Each of the options in this section are blank by default. In these boxes you will enter URI or UIRLs, depending.

• For Lazy Load Images Excludes, enter the URL of any images you want to exclude from lazy-load. This is a good idea for ATF-images or ones on pages that are constantly skimmed by users.
• For Lazy Load Image Class Name Excludes, enter the CSS Class of any image you want to exclude.
• On Lazy Load Image Parent Class Name Excludes, you can enter the parent class of any images you want to exclude.
• For Lazy Load Iframe Class Name Excludes, this is a handy way of excluding certain videos from lazy load, such as the ones that are nearer to the top of your web pages, or those which take a while to load.
• With Lazy Load Iframe Parent Class Name Excludes, you can enter the parent class name to exclude any iframes that don’t have a CSS class assigned.
• Finally, for Lazy Load URI Excludes, you can list URIs in the box to disable lazy load functions on certain pages, such as a landing page where you want videos and images to load instantly.

Once you’ve configured your settings, be sure to click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.

Next, at the top of the page click the Localization tab.

• The Gravatar Cache option is a great feature if your site is busy with tons of comments, but not necessary if your site doesn’t have any comments or use comments at alll.
• If you have set the Gravatar Cache option to On, you should have the Gravatar Cache Cron enabled, as well.
• Lastly, with the Gravatar Cache TTL, the default setting is fine, but you can probably go a lot higher, nearer to 3-6 months. How often does one really update their Gravatar?

Once you’ve configured your settings, be sure to click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.

Lastly, at the top of the page click Tuning Settings. 

• In the CSS Excludes box you should list all CSS files you don’t want to be minified or combined. You can enter their full string name, like elementor-builder.css, or a partial string, like elementor.
• For JS Excludes, list all the JavaScript files to be excluded from minification and combination.
• In Critical CSS, specifiy critical CSS rules for above the fold content. Use this only if you have Load CSS Asynchronously enabled.
• In JS Deferred Excludes, list JavaScript files or inline JavaScript code that will not be deferred on load.
• In the URI Excludes field, you can enter the URL of any pages where you won’t want the optimizations to apply.
• Finally, select Role Excludes if any roles should be excluded from optimizations.

Once you’ve configured your settings, be sure to click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.

The settings we’ve detailed above should be enough to get you going in no time with the LiteSpeed Cache Plugin for WordPress!

Please join us in the next tutorial, where we will walk you through the setup of QUIC.Cloud CDN in order to speed up your WordPress website.

This Knowledge Base article will explain how to use the various features in the LSCache for WordPress toolbox.

Let’s begin!

How to use the LiteSpeed Cache Toolbox in WordPress

Step 1: Login to your /wp-admin and in the menu on the left, hover over the LiteSpeed Cache plugin, and in the little menu that pops out, click Toolbox.

Step 2: You will be presented with a number of tabs each with its own options.

Let’s run thru each tab and their options so you can better understand what the features the LSCache for WordPress Toolbox have.

Purge Settings

The purge settings give you some powerful cache purging options. They include the following:

• The option to purge the front page.
• Purge all pages.
• Purge 403 error pages.
• Purge 404 error pages.
• Purge 500 error pages.
• Purge All – LSCache entries created by the plugin.
• Purge All CSS/JS Cache
• Purge All Opcode Cache
• Purge All
• and Empty Entire Cache

These can be great for cleaning things up after posting new content or making changes, but be sure not to purge the entire cache as it can result in your web server performance taking a hit as doing this to a busy site will cause users to reach uncached pages.

At the very bottom of the page, you have the option to do mass purges via a list.

You can purge by category, post ID, tag, or URL.

In the text box, you would list all the URLs or post/tag/category names, as a list, then you can purge them.

Exciting News: Introducing Our fastest WordPress Hosting stack Ready for speed? Try it for just $1!

Import/Export Settings

LiteSpeed wouldn’t be worth it’s salt if it didn’t have a built-in import/export tool, now would it?

The Export setting allows you to export a configuration file with your current LiteSpeed configuration.

The Import file setting allows you to import the very same file.

Ideally, you would use the Export function to make a backup of your LSCache configuration, and the Import function to import that configuration if you had to rebuild your site, for example.

The last setting on this page is the Reset All Settings function. This setting resets all LSCache settings back to their defaults. Be careful with this option!

Edit .htaccess

The Edit .htaccess tab allows you to perform 2 functions:

1. You can edit the path of the .htaccess file for your front and back end.
2. You can see the current .htaccess file without having to open it in another app, or your cPanel’s file manager.
   1. Within this view, you can also make changes to the file if you need.

Heartbeat

The heartbeat settings allow you to control settings related to the Heartbeat functions in WordPress. Enabling the heartbeat can cause increased server load.

You can control the following:

• Frontend Heartbeat Control. By default, this is off.
• Frontend Heartbeat TTL. By default, this is 60 seconds.
• Backend Heartbeat Control. By default, this is off.
• Backend Heartbeat TTL. By default, this is 60 seconds.
• Editor Heartbeat. By default, this is off.
• Editor Heartbeat TTL. By default, this is 60 seconds.

Report

The Report settings allow you to submit a report of your WordPress environment, along with any Notes you may have about it, to LiteSpeed Support. This tab is useful if you have opened a ticket with LiteSpeed.

Debug Settings

The Debug Settings are pretty helpful if you are trying to track down a particular problem. You can control the following settings with the Debug Control:

• Disable All (Debug) Features. This is off by default.
• Debug Log changes the output of WordPress’ log. To prevent filling up your web storage, this setting should be off when everything is working fine. The Admin IP setting of this option will only output log messages on requests from admin IPs. The logs will be output to /wp-content/debug.log.
• Admin IPs are where you would list the IP addresses of your Admins, should you be using the Debug Log > Admin IP Only feature.
• Debug Level – this allows you to change the level of detail used in the logs from basic to advanced.
• Log File Size Limit allows you to set and change the current max file size limit for log files.
• Log Cookies allows you to enable or disable the logging of cookies.
• Collapse Query Strings can be useful in the logs to improve readability.
• Debug URI Includes is where you would list the pages you want to log if you are logging manually.
• Debug URI Excludes is the opposite, where you would exclude pages from logging if any.

Log View

This setting lets you clear the Debug Log or View it, if enabled.

Beta Test

The Beta Test features of LSCache allow you to install the Beta Version of the LSCache for the WordPress plugin.

With the various buttons, you can use the latest build of the plugin. Depending on far on the edge you want to live, you can choose from dev, master, or the latest release version.

This is a really useful option if you want to test different versions of LSC (preferably on a staging site) and switch back and forth between BETA and STABLE versions. I imagine it could also be useful for rolling back to a previous version of the new ones are giving problems.

]]> https://chemicloud.com/kb/article/litespeed-cache-toolbox-in-wordpress/feed/ 0 https://chemicloud.com/kb/article/litespeed-cache-database-optimization-settings-in-wordpress/ https://chemicloud.com/kb/article/litespeed-cache-database-optimization-settings-in-wordpress/#respond Mon, 16 Aug 2021 13:06:23 +0000 https://chemicloud.com/kb/?post_type=ht_kb&p=6572 Your website’s CSS and Javascript aren’t the only things you should consider optimizing with the LSCache for WordPress plugin. You should also use its Database optimization features to improve the response time of database queries and more.

In this Knowledge Base article, we will cover how to use the database optimization settings in the LSCache for the WordPress plugin.

Let’s begin!

How to Configure the LiteSpeed Cache Database Optimization Settings in WordPress

Step 1: Login to your /wp-admin and hover over the LiteSpeed Cache area in the menu on the left and when the little menu pops out, click Database.

Step 2: When the Database Optimization page loads, you’ll have a few options, like the ones below:

Let’s explore what each of these options does:

• Clean All performs all of the optimizations listed alongside the Clean All button.
• Post Revisions deletes all post revisions in your WordPress site.
• Auto Drafts deletes all auto-saved drafts from your WordPress site.
• Trashed posts delete all trashed posts and pages from your WordPress site.
• Spam Comments deletes all comments marked as spam from your WordPress site.
• Trashed Comments deletes all trashed comments from your WordPress site.
• Trackpacks/Pingbacks delete all trackbacks and pingbacks from your WordPress site.
• Expired Transients deletes all transient options from your WordPress site.
• All transients delete all transients from your WordPress site.
• Optimize Tables is super helpful and you should run this maybe once or twice a month, depending on how frequently you add content to your website. This optimizes the tables in your database and makes them more readable to WordPress.

Next let’s look at the Database Table Engine Converter, which is below the 10 buttons at the top of the Database page:

If you don’t see any databases here to convert, then there’s really nothing to do here.

What would appear here are databases that are listed in the MySQL MyISAM format which is much slower than the newer InnoDB format. You would be given the option to convert them to InnoDB from within the WordPress Admin area, which is SUPER handy, let me tell you!

Exciting News: Introducing Our fastest WordPress Hosting stack Ready for speed? Try it for just $1!

Next, let’s look at the Database Summary area at the bottom of the page:

The most important thing you want to keep an eye on in Database Summary, and by keeping an eye on, we mean just periodically checking in on, is the autoloads.

You should try to keep the total autoloads below 1 MB, but the best is when it’s below 500 KB.

Step 3: Return to the top of the page and click the DB Optimizations tab.

• For Revisions Max Number, you can set a limit if you find your database is too big and you have too many revisions. For my site, I leave this at 20, but I tend to revise my posts a lot as a perfectionist.
• Revisions Max Age is an interesting feature that I don’t use as sometimes one of your posts can have an issue in a revision and by the time you get to it, the revision has been cleared out by the system.

Using the Database Optimization options in the LSCache plugin for WordPress will surely keep your website running smooth and keep your database clean.

We hope you enjoyed this Knowledge Base article. If you have any questions, be sure to open a ticket or Live Chat from your Client Area and we’ll be happy to help!

Please join us in the next tutorial, where we will walk you through the configuration of the LiteSpeed Cache Page Optimization Settings in WordPress

This Knowledge Base article will cover the different settings available and help you set up your LSCache for WordPress Plugin properly.

Let’s begin!

How to Configure the LiteSpeed Cache Image Optimization Settings in WordPress

Step 1: Login to your /wp-admin and hover over the LiteSpeed Cache option in the menu on the right. Next, in the little popup that appears, click Image Optimization.

Step 2: Click Image Optimization Settings at the top of the Image Optimization page.

When the Image Optimization page loads, you’ll see there are a lot of settings.

Exciting News: Introducing Our fastest WordPress Hosting stack Ready for speed? Try it for just $1!

Let’s review these settings so you can get your Images optimized!

• When enabled, the Auto Request Cron setting will run a Cron job to optimize your images each time you upload new images to your Media Library.
  • This is a great setting to enable as it saves you from having to manually optimize each image you upload.
• The Auto Pull Cron feature is enabled by default. This feature enables the use of a cron job to control the fetching of optimized images from LiteSpeed’s image server. If you disable this setting, you will need to fetch newly-optimized images manually using the Pull Images button.
  • We recommend leaving this set to enabled.
• The Optimize Original Images setting is set to On by default. This means that JPG and PNG images uploaded to your Media Library will be optimized and a backup of the original will be saved. The way this works is, if image.jpg can be optimized, a copy of it is saved as image.bk.jpg. Then, the newly optimized version is saved back into image.jpg.
  • We recommend leaving this setting to On.
• The Remove Original Backups feature is a feature you should be extremely careful with. This feature is disabled by default for a reason. When enabled, your original image will be deleted once it’s optimized.
• The Optimize Losslessly feature will utilize lossless compression when compressing and optimizing images. This can improve image quality post-optimization but may result in larger images than if you had used lossy compression.
  • This setting is purely up to you. In our professional opinion, the difference in file size between an image optimized with lossy vs lossless compression is negligible, however, when you’re talking about uploading a lot of images, that difference can quickly add up and eat away at your disk space in your hosting plan.
• With Preserve EXIF/XMP data, you can choose to retain or discard any EXIF or XMP data from the image. This information can contain details about the camera equipment used to take the picture, copyright date and photographer, GPS coordinates, comments, keywords, and more. Because this information does take up some space, the optimization process removes this information by default. You can choose to enable this if you wish, but this will increase the file size of the final optimized image.
  • We recommend setting this to enabled, not only for filesize reasons but for privacy. EXIF data can contain the GPS coordinates of the location you captured the image, which can reveal the coordinates of your home, place of work, family and friends’ houses, and other places you frequent. This information could be used against you.
  • If you do choose to leave this information there, consider using an EXIF data editor, such as ExifToolGUI for Windows, and edit out sensitive details, such as GPS data.
•  The Create WebP Versions will create a .WEBP file version of uploaded images as part of the Image Optimization Process. WEBP is a common file format which in many cases results in an image with quality optimization and a relatively small file size.
  • You can choose to enable this, if you wish, but bear in mind, the third copy of the images you upload will be created and therefore, these new WEBP files will be taking up additional space, even if they are small files. Over time, that adds up, and it also deducts from INODE availability.
• With Image WebP Replacement you can choose to use the WebP image format for optimized images in lieu of JPG or PNG, where available. Using WebP image format can result in up to 30% smaller image files.
  • This is a master switch, so you should be very careful of using this.
  • The WebP image format is not supported by all browsers. If an unsupported browser requests a page with WebP images on it, LSCache will serve a version with the original, unoptimized image file format to that browser.
  • Warning: Enabling this option will create additional cache varies. If you have crawling enabled on your website, cache varies can cause multiple crawlers to be created which consumes additional hosting resources, such as I/O and CPU.
  • We recommend leaving this option Off unless you have a very specific reason to use it.
• With WebP Attribute to Replace, you have the power to alter the behavior of WebP Replacement. The default values show where LiteSpeed Server automatically replaces JPG with WebP. The attributes listed are one per line using the format element.attribute, or .attribute (where element is optional).
  • Simply remove an attribute from the list if you do not want WebP images replaced there.
  • Add a new one to the list of your site has an attribute that the plugin doesn’t replace by default.
• Using WebP For Extra srcset is handy if you have custom code on your site which adds srcset elements, but bypasses WordPress logic to do so. If this is the case, you will need to enable this feature. LiteSpeed knows to look for srcset elements that are generated through WordPress, but it won’t replace WebP images in other srcset elements, unless you tell it to.
• And finally, using WordPress Image Quality Control, you can adjust the image compression quality. Any number smaller than 100 is accepted, but the smaller the number, the more noticeable the compression will be.
  • We recommend staying around 82.

Important: Be sure to click Save Changes in the top right corner of the page to save any changes you make.

Using the configuration we’ve recommended will get your site’s Image Optimization settings running great!

Please join us in the next tutorial, where we will walk you through the configuration of the LiteSpeed Cache Database Optimization Settings in WordPress

This Knowledge Base article will cover how to use this new feature.

Frequently Asked Questions

I am new to Litespeed Cache, which preset should I apply to?

We recommend using the Advanced Preset as it takes a balanced approach to Optimization and Speed, and you shouldn’t need to manually tweak any settings. That said, if you experience difficulty, you can always revert to your previous settings, or try the Basic Preset.

Can I modify Litespeed Cache settings after setting up this preset?

Yes, it is absolutely possible to edit any options after applying this preset. Standard presets are just an easy way to give you a good base optimization to start with. Most complex websites will need more fine-tuning to achieve their best possible score.

If my website breaks after applying a preset, can I change back to the setting I was before?

Yes, but only if you have previously saved a backup of your settings as instructed. A backup will provide you with a config file of your own website, which you can restore later if needed. Alternatively, you can always use the Basic Preset, which has the default settings.

How should I get more fine-tuning specifically for my website?

You can start with the Advanced Preset, and then go through the options in the Page Optimization section to see what more you’d need. Then try to enable them one by one to get the best for your website.

Are there any known bugs?

Yes. The Domain Key removes itself when you apply a new preset, and requires you to manually refresh your domain key from the General settings. LiteSpeed plans to patch this issue in an upcoming version.

Let’s begin!

Overview of the LiteSpeed Cache Presets

The new presets from LiteSpeed come in 4 stages:

1. Essentials
2. Basic
3. Advanced
4. Aggressive
5. Extreme

Let’s review what is included and pre-configured in each Stage, below.

Essentials

For those who are just starting out, or have a simple website, the no-risk preset is an ideal choice. It can be used on any website without requiring a Domain Key. However, it should be noted that only basic caching features are enabled with the preset.

This preset sets the following:

• Default Cache
• Higher TTL
• Browser Cache

Basic

This preset is a great starting point for those beginning their journey in website optimization. It provides basic optimizations that will help to improve the speed and user experience of your site, without taking any unnecessary risks.

This preset sets the following:

• Everything in Essentials, Plus
• Image Optimization
• Mobile Cache

To make use of this preset, you’ll need to have a Domain Key. If you are not familiar with requesting a Domain Key, we recommend the following steps:

Step 1: Login to your /wp-admin and click the LiteSpeed Cache Plugin, then access General Settings. To request your domain key, click the button called “Request Domain Key”.

After clicking the Request Domain Key button, you will see this notice:

You’ll need to wait a minute or two, then refresh the page. After the key is issued, you will see a congratulatory notice at the top of the page and you’ll see a bunch of *** in the key field.

Advanced

For the majority of websites, employing the preset is a wise decision and it is very unlikely to cause any issues. In the event that there are CSS or JS conflicts, Page Optimization > Tuning tools can be used to rectify them.

This preset sets the following:

• Everything in Basic, Plus
• Guest Mode and Guest Optimization
• CSS, JS and HTML Minification
• Font Display Optimization
• JS Defer for both external and inline JS
• DNS Prefetch for static files
• Gravatar Cache
• Remove Query Strings from Static Files
• Remove WordPress Emoji
• Remove Noscript Tags

You must request a Domain Key to use this. If you are not familiar with requesting a Domain Key, we recommend the following steps:

Step 1: Login to your /wp-admin and click the LiteSpeed Cache Plugin, then access General Settings. To request your domain key, click the button called “Request Domain Key”.

After clicking the Request Domain Key button, you will see this notice:

You’ll need to wait a minute or two, then refresh the page. After the key is issued, you will see a congratulatory notice at the top of the page and you’ll see a bunch of *** in the key field.

Tired of slow WordPress hosting? We use LiteSpeed + QUIC.cloud Enterprise CDN to deliver content almost instantly. Try our Managed WordPress Hosting plans for just $1!

Aggressive

This pre-set is for fairly experienced WordPress Administrators and we highly recommend testing it with your WordPress site before using this pre-set in Production.

Because of its aggressive nature, you might be required to exclude a few resources from CSS/JS combine, and you may need some advanced configuration for Critical CSS and Localization.

This preset sets the following:

• Everything in Advanced, Plus
• CSS & JS Combine
• Asynchronous CSS Loading with Critical CSS
• Removed Unused CSS for Users
• Lazy Load for Iframes

You must request a Domain Key to use this. If you are not familiar with requesting a Domain Key, we recommend the following steps:

Step 1: Login to your /wp-admin and click the LiteSpeed Cache Plugin, then access General Settings. To request your domain key, click the button called “Request Domain Key”.

After clicking the Request Domain Key button, you will see this notice:

You’ll need to wait a minute or two, then refresh the page. After the key is issued, you will see a congratulatory notice at the top of the page and you’ll see a bunch of *** in the key field.

Extreme

This profile stage includes ESI which can supercharge your WooCommerce Store. It might require some help from a developer to integrate ESI properly, as well. In addition to this, some images like logos and slider images might require exclusions from Lazy Load.

This preset sets the following:

• Everything in Aggressive, Plus
• Lazy Load for Images
• Viewport Image Generation
• JS Delayed
• Inline JS added to Combine
• Inline CSS added to Combine

You must request a Domain Key to use this. If you are not familiar with requesting a Domain Key, we recommend the following steps:

Step 1: Login to your /wp-admin and click the LiteSpeed Cache Plugin, then access General Settings. To request your domain key, click the button called “Request Domain Key”.

After clicking the Request Domain Key button, you will see this notice:

You’ll need to wait a minute or two, then refresh the page. After the key is issued, you will see a congratulatory notice at the top of the page and you’ll see a bunch of *** in the key field.

How to Apply a Standard LiteSpeed Cache Preset

Before proceeding, be sure you have installed the LiteSpeed Cache plugin from the WordPress Plugins repository. (Tutorial: How to Install LiteSpeed Cache on WordPress)

Step 1: Login to your /wp-admin and hover over the LiteSpeed Cache option in the menu on the left and click Presets.

Step 2: Click on the Import/Export tab. Take a backup of your current LiteSpeed configuration by clicking Export.

Step 3: After backing up your current configuration, click the “Standard Presets” tab and choose the desired preset:

Step 4) Click Apply Preset

Be sure you thoroughly test your site before going live with the new configuration! If something isn’t going as expected, you can easily import the old settings from the backup you’ve taken earlier.

That’s a wrap! Now you know how to use predefined LiteSpeed Cache Presets.