Understanding Leverage Browser Caching to optimise your site

Through our SEO Agency Optimize 360

Leverage Browser Caching

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In the world of websites, loading performance is a crucial element in satisfying visitors and improving their online experience.

The principle of Leverage Browser Caching speeds up the loading speed pages by optimising the browser cache.

Here are 10 points to help you understand this concept.

1. What is the browser cache?

The browser cache is a sort of temporary memory that stores certain data from websites visited. This data can be images, files CSS or JavaScriptetc. When a user returns to a website they have already consulted, the browser uses this data stored locally instead of downloading it again from the server. This system reduces page loading times for Internet users.

2. How does Leverage Browser Caching work?

With Leverage Browser Caching, the server tells users' web browsers how long the cached resources are valid. In other words, the server dictates how long the browser should keep the various resources stored locally before updating them. This optimisation makes it possible to load pages visited later by the user more quickly by avoiding numerous return trips to the server.

3. Cache guidelines

To determine how long resources are valid, the server uses HTTP directives which are inserted in the response headers. These directives can be :

• Cache-Control This allows you to define the length of time cached items are kept (in seconds) or to enable/disable caching for certain resources.
• Expires which indicates the precise date and time after which a resource should be considered obsolete and therefore updated by the browser.
• ETag which allows the browser to check whether a resource is unchanged before updating it.

4. Types of file concerned

Leverage Browser Caching can be applied to several types of resource on a website:

• Images (JPEG, PNGGIF, SVG, etc.)
• CSS style sheets
• JavaScript files
• Customised fonts
• And so on.

5. Server configuration

To implement Leverage Browser Caching, you need to configure your web server correctly so that it can send the appropriate directives to browsers. This configuration depends on the type of server used (Apache, Nginx, IIS, etc.). Numerous online tutorials are available to help administrators configure their server according to the system used.

6. Test tools

It is important to test and check that Leverage Browser Caching has been effectively implemented on your website. To do this, there are several online tools that can be used to analyse page loading performance and detect any caching shortcomings:

• PageSpeed Insights from Google: which offers personalised advice on how to improve the performance of your site.
• GTmetrix: provides a detailed analysis of loading times and possible optimisations.
• WebPagetest: enables performance tests to be carried out from different geographical locations and with different browser configurations.

7. Versioning resources

To ensure that visitors have access to the latest versions of cached items, it is advisable to set up a "versioning" system. This involves adding parameters or unique file names for each new version of a file. In this way, when modifications are made to the files in question (CSS, JavaScript, etc.), the browser will be forced to download these resources again to store them in the cache rather than reusing those already saved locally.

8. Interest in user experience

The main advantage of Leverage Browser Caching lies in the improvement of theuser experience. By reducing page load times, Internet users are less likely to abandon their browsing and can take full advantage of the content offered on the website. This optimisation can also have a positive impact on the image of the site and its conversion.

9. Overall site performance

Although Leverage Browser Caching is not the only method for improving page load speed, it does make a major contribution to the overall performance of a website. It is therefore essential to include it as part of an overall optimisation approach, which can be based on other techniques such as file minifying, image compression or the use of a content distribution network (CDN).

10. Influence on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Finally, it's worth remembering that page load speed is one of the criteria taken into account by Google when evaluating and ranking websites in searches carried out by Internet users. So by implementing Leverage Browser Caching and improving the performance of your site, you can increase your chances of appearing in a good position in the search engine results, such as Google and increase its online visibility.