Over the last couple of months, I have been dealing with some oddities that would go away and them re-appear on the web site…
Several times, I have “started virtually from scratch” with this configuration or that configuration… Â And I think, and hope, that I have finally solved the problems for now…
The Apache (web server) error log, is currently empty… Â So, what has been changing? Â Well, part of the blame comes from Google. Â Yes, I partially blame their recent changes where the speed of your web pages can affect your ranking on the search results.
Why? Â Simply because I started looking at optimizing the site. Â I have tried several different caching plugins for WordPress, and the majority of them seemed to work fine but develope quirks and issues.
W3 Total Cache, seems like a excellent product, and works reasonably well. Â But the error logs filled with issues, possibly I need a dedicated server to provide the power that it needs to work reliabily.
WP Super Cache is excellent out of the box, but the latest version makes it difficult to easily clear the cache…
I finally settled on HyperCache Extended, along with DB Cache Reloaded. Â Both products work well together, and have reduced the demand on the server.
Another small issue I ran into is that Akismet seems to have been dramatically slowing down the system. Â Akismet is a anti-spam package, which I have now replaced with another equivalent product…
Please let me know in the comments, if you have noticed any difference, or seen any issues within the last day or so.