How to Empty Your Site’s Cache

If you’re making a lot of content updates, you’ve likely experienced a situation where a change that you’ve made or someone else has made is not showing up and you’re pulling your hair out, because you know you published / updated your work. This is often caused by a caching problem.

Caching. It sounds complicated, but it really isn’t!

Did you know that high quality sites are often optimized for loading speed by having different servers all over the world serve up the page based on the location of the person using the site? Or, did you know that your browser stores a copy of the site so it doesn’t have to download the same information over and over again? It’s true, and these copies sometimes don’t always sync up. Without getting into a ton of detail, these options allow you to easily resolve that situation.

Step 1: Check the Browser’s Cache

First, make sure your browser isn’t the culprit by holding shift and clicking the refresh/reload button in your browser. This tells your browser to get a fresh download of everything on the page.

Alternatively, you can open a private or incognito window, and then load the page.

If you see the changes after either of these steps, rest assured your visitors do, too. No further action is needed.

If you don’t see the changes after these steps, head to Step 2.

Step 2: Ensure the WordPress Toolbar is Enabled

To do this, ensure you’re logged into your admin panel. Make sure your WordPress Toolbar is enabled. It should look something like this:

If it’s not showing, learn how to enable and use the WordPress toolbar.

Step 3: Click “Empty Page Cache”

Navigate to Performance > Empty Modules and click Empty Page Cache.

It’s that easy! You’re done. All those copies your website all over the world? You’ve refreshed them to ensure they show your latest updates. Wait a few minutes and then go back and check to verify the updates you made are showing up appropriately.