To know the importance of the cache in SEO.
It is first necessary to know very well how Google works.
Since it is he who first indexes the contents of a website, and then shows the results.
Search engines like Google work in such a way that, when the user enters a keyword, their bots are able to find the pages that contain those keywords.
Order the results according to an algorithmic index, and display them to that user.
But, in addition to displaying the results, it backs up the website, called a cache.
A bit messy?
Relax, we are going to explain in this article the importance of the cache in SEO so that you understand it perfectly.
Not without first clarifying well, so that you have no doubt, what is the cache.
Cache Definition
The cache is a term that refers to the process of temporarily storing data so that a future request can deliver it more quickly.
In the case of Google, the cache is a copy of a web page stored on the servers of this search engine, which is automatically activated when a user makes a query.
The cache operates faster, giving extra time to access data.
This process allows users to see a preview version of the web page and access the information they are looking for more quickly.
The Importance of Google Cache for SEO
The Google cache is very important for the SEO of a website since it improves performance, loading speed, and, with it, the user experience.
Why’s that?
Because being a copy of a web page stored on Google’s servers, and taking into account that the loading speed of a website is a factor that Google takes into account.
It is a beneficial aspect of positioning.
In addition, an up-to-date cache helps search engines better understand the content of the cache and quickly identify changes made to the website in question.
How to Measure the Loading Speed of a Website?
We are talking about the fact that the cache improves the loading speed of a web page.
And for this, it is necessary to measure it and identify the technical aspects to improve.
You can use Site Audit, a valuable feature of the Seo tool to audit a website, which gives you a performance report so you can identify the main problems that you need to fix.
The Site Audit tells you the state of the website’s health, based on up to 140 different errors.
Some of them have to do, precisely, with performance and Google’s Core Web Vitals, aspects in which cache and SEO are closely related.
Site Audit gives you a score, the higher it is, the better the status of the website, the better optimization for search engines, and the better the loading speed.
There are other very reliable free tools such as PageSpeed Insights, from Google itself, essential to be able to measure the loading speed and evaluate the performance of a URL in question.
PageSpeed Insights provides you with a diagnosis of performance issues, so you can fix them, such as enabling caching on the website.
The Browser Cache and the WPO of a Website
In the same way as a web cache, there is also a browser cache or any CPU cache that temporarily saves recent data, instead of downloading it from your server every time the page is loaded.
When a user accesses a web page, in his browser there is a cache that stores the files, to avoid downloading them on future visits, thus saving time and resources.
We give you an example so that you understand it better:
The image of the logo of your website is always the same, right?
So it does not make much sense that the servers of each user who visits your site have to download it.
The browser cache then stores that logo file on the visitor’s local server, thus speeding up site load times and reducing bandwidth usage.
Thus, the browser cache is a file database, which stores the resources downloaded from websites.
The most common resources in a browser cache include images, text content, HTML code, CSS, etc.
How to Search for a Website in the Google Cache?
As you know, the WPO, or Web Performance Optimization, is the set of strategies and optimizations to improve the loading speed of the pages, the performance of a website, and, ultimately, the user experience.
And the cache is a basic component of one of the WPO techniques that you should use.
You can search your website in the Google cache to find out the last date on which it has been cached, that is, the last copy of your web page that Google has.
Searching your website in the Google cache is very easy.
To do this, you must search for your website on Google and click on the three dots that appear next to the result, choosing the “Cached” option.
In this way, your web page will be loaded in its version cached by Google and you will be able to check how this search engine displays your web page.
What is Cache-Control?
In order to activate the cache of the resources of our website, it is necessary to use the cache control or cache control order.
The cache control is an HTTP header that gives the necessary instructions to know how the web should be stored (cached) in browsers, both requests and responses.
The cache control is used to ensure that the data stored is accurate and updated, that is, each time the user makes a request to a server.
In addition to returning the information requested, it will return additional information in the form of headers with a series of values related to caching.
You can view the cache data by right-clicking on “Inspect Element” and filtering by “Network”.
Cache control is very important in SEO as it serves to preserve and protect resources and thereby improve loading speed and user experience on the Internet.
Cache-Control Guidelines in SEO
Although this topic is more for developers, so that it at least sounds familiar to you, we are going to give you a brushstroke, so that you can consolidate the concept.
If all resources on every website were subject to the same caching rules, sensitive information would be cached the same as public information, or resources that are updated frequently would be cached for the same amount of time as resources that are not, they change.
That is why there are different cache control guidelines :
- cache-control: private: The resource can only be cached by the client. It is usually used in cases of websites that display private data.
- cache-control : public: The resource can be stored by any cache.
- cache-control : max-age: indicates, in seconds, the time to live in the cache. If the resource is requested again after that time, a fresh copy will be downloaded from the origin server.
- cache-control : no-cache: indicates that the response can be cached but has to be validated by the origin server before each use.
They are all made up of key values separated by colons:
- The key is always the part before the colon.
- And the value is to the right of the colon (one or more values separated by commas).
Cache Tools
There are tools and plugins to help us manage the cache of the website, with its well-known benefit in SEO.
Wp Rocket
WPRocket is a powerful WPO plugin for WordPress that is used to improve website performance.
Thanks to optimization techniques, such as caching settings, image compression, and improving loading speed.
When you configure it on your website, one of its main functions is cache optimization for SEO, but it also has other functions, such as minification of HTML code or CSS and Javascript files, or image optimization.
WP Rocket not only speeds up loading times but helps you meet the most important recommendations that Google gives in PageSpeed Insights.
GTmetrix
GTmetrix is a tool similar to PageSpeed Insights that is also used to measure loading speed and provides insight into how a website is loading and improvements that can be implemented to improve those loading times.
By measuring your website in GTmetrix you will be able to find out interesting metrics for the loading speed of web pages, and Core Web Vitals and find interesting data such as the load cascade or the weight that each type of resource has within a URL.
Conclusion
Making good use of the cache is important in SEO because it helps to improve the loading speed of a website and therefore to improve the user experience so that the user does not leave the page if it takes several seconds to display on the screen.
The cache also improves the understanding of the content of a web page by search engines, which can help improve organic positioning.
Thanks for Reading.