What Is Website Caching? — AGM Solutions

According to Mozilla, an “HTTP cache stores a response associated with a request and reuses the stored response for subsequent requests.” This means that when you visit a website, it saves assets like content and images so that when you re-visit the page or site, it does not have to download the asset again. This dramatically increases your website viewing experience.

What Do Web Browsers Cache?

Since loading a web page requires your browser to download a lot of data from the server, it will cache a lot of this data to shorten future page loads. Assets commonly cached are images, HTML files, stylesheets, and JavaScript files.

Think about some websites you visit constantly, maybe Google or YouTube. Then, think about some standard files that may be loaded each time you visit – the stylesheet, the primary logo of the website, and your profile picture. These are assets that, if cached, would greatly benefit your user experience.

How Long is Data Cached For?

Browsers will store these files until their Time to Live (TTL) has expired. This is defaulted in the browser or can be manually set by the server or developer. Depending on various factors, such as disk space on the viewer’s computer or device or personal preference, the cache could be stored for years or minutes.

Can You Clear/Delete a Cache?

Sometimes, cache assets can cause issues. For instance, if a website has been recently updated but is still caching the old version of assets, your system may still be showing the outdated version. This can be very frustrating. One example where we see this commonly is on restaurant websites where a food menu has been updated but keeps the same file name as before. If a visitor has downloaded the PDF menu previously, they may get the old, cached version when they revisit. This can be an issue because the food, pricing, and other items may have changed, and the viewer will get the wrong information.

How to Clear a Cache

There are many ways to clear the cache manually. If you view a website and want to reload the page without using cached assets, a quick way is to hit CTRL + F5 on Windows or Command + R on Mac. Here are some helpful articles on manually clearing your browser’s cache.

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About the Author

David May

Dave is one of our Front End Web Developers. When he's not keeping up with web development trends and furthering his knowledge of all things code, he's probably playing a video game, reading a book or sitting on the beach.