Site Caching for Optimized Download Times

The faster your page shows up in a web browser the better!!!  If it loads to slowly, your potential visitor may well hit the back button to their search results page and try a different website.

Page download time can be enhanced with site caching.  With WordPress you can use an intermediate database caching program on a server to store frequently requested parts of web pages so that they are served up right away without the need for the user’s browser to talk to your database for each element of your web page.  This reduces lag time in loading a web page and helps keep your visitors from leaving your site.

Database Backup

For any dynamic site, a database is required and it will store all of your content and site settings.  Lose your data and you are dead meat.  Poof — thousands of hours of work are gone.  The site’s database must be backed up at regular intervals and stored at a different location from the server in case the server itself crashes.  In theory the database will also make your site portable between hosts, but might require an expert to tweak some of the tables for the move.  For disaster recovery it works well.  As a secondary failsafe, you should also have the backup program email a copy of the database backup to you for local storage.  This helps assure that you always have your data under your control and available if the worst happens.

Files Backup

Just as it is important to make sure that you have a backup of your database, you also need to have a backup of all of the files on your site including content files, images, scripts, application files, etc.  As you plan for your site, you will want to either have an automated backup of these files or arrange for your web developer to periodically download copies of your site via FTP to be stored separately from the web server.