How to Properly Install and Setup WP Rocket in WordPress

In this article, we will share all wp rocket settings that you have to for the best load time of your website.

Optimizing and making the blog faster is a dream of every blog owner. The faster the page load, the more traffic and conversion it will get. So optimization of your website with speed is necessary.

A survey observed that around 40-50% of the total traffic waits only for 2-3 secs on a web page. When your site takes more than three seconds to load, you are going to lose customers. It will also result in depletion of rank on SERPs.

Through WordPress caching, you can achieve all these facilities. For enabling caching facility, the WP rocket plugin is used. Most of the hosting supports WP Rocket. It is compatible with a variety of plugins and themes.

After using WP Rocket, you will see your website rank higher. From bloggers to e-commerce website owners, everyone can use this plugin. You need not write any kind of code again for optimizing your WordPress website. WP Rocket will automatically delete extra elements which are not required.

But is WP Rocket worth buying? Let us know in this article. Stay tuned, you will discover every secret soon.

Everything about WordPress caching

Yes, you know it right; WordPress caching makes your site fast. This work is done by WP rocket. Now you are indeed eager to know how this happens. Before you know about WP rockets, you must know the need to develop this type of plugin.

WordPress caching is used to develop a static view of a website. So here we got some keywords like caching, static version, etc.

What do they actually mean? Let’s know about them in layman’s language.

When an internet user enters your site immediately, the WordPress database and software start to exchange data between them. They do it in order to show a dynamic view of the webpage. But this procedure takes time.

But WordPress caching makes things faster. It is already ready with a static version of the webpage when anyone visits your site.

So how will you enable caching on your site?

Here you got two options.

  • First, you can buy a web host who will give you WordPress caching included in their plan.
  • Or you can also install a caching plugin for WordPress.

A quick insight about WP Rocket

Now you are aware of WordPress caching. So let’s discuss WP Rocket. Wp Rocket is a paid plugin used by widespread WordPress users.

The foremost work of this plugin is to decrease loading time by caching. But it gained popularity due to its ease of access. Anyone can use Wp Rocket without any deep knowledge of technology. WP rocket saves bandwidth by displaying images only when required.

The pricing starts from $49 for WP Rocket. There are some other plugins available for caching, but if you want good results, then you can use WP Rocket.

But before that, please go through every detail of WP Rocket maintained below.

This article is a complete guide to installing and configuring WP Rocket on your website. Without further delay, let’s dive straight into the main features and settings of WP Rocket.

Downloading and Installing WP Rocket

WP Rocket is a paid plugin, and you need to purchase it in order to use it.

For purchasing WP Rocket, first, go to their website (https://wp-rocket.me/pricing/) and choose the plan that suits you.

They have 3 plans, Single, Plus, and infinite.

  • Single Plan: For 1 website and 1-year support
  • Plus Plan: For 3 website and 1-year support
  • Infinite Plan: For Unlimited websites and 1-year support

After purchasing the plugin, download it. Install it as a plugin on your WordPress website, and activate it to use it.

Now, we need to configure WP Rocket. For configuring, go to setting -> WP Rocket. 10 tabs for customization will pop out. We need to configure it one by one.

Dashboard of WP Rocket

wp rocket dashboard

In the dashboard, you will be able to see the details regarding your license. You can also be a beta tester of WP Rocket ( Rocket Tester).

Apart from all the things mentioned above, You can Remove all cached files, start cache preloading and Purge OPCache content from the dashboard itself.

In short,

Remove all cached files removes all the cached files on the website. It is recommended to perform this action when you complete configuring WP Rocket.

Starts Cache Preloading creates a cache of your homepage and all the internal links present on the homepage.

Purge OP Content means removing the OP cache, ensuring that the issues during an update won’t occur.

Next, we have cache settings.

Basic Cache Options

wp rocket cache setting

Under Basic cache options, we have mobile cache, user cache, and cache lifespan. These settings allow you to create a cache for your website, which makes the website load faster.

Enable caching for mobile devices: You should always enable it to create a cache for mobile devices. Your website loads faster on mobile devices.

Also, don’t forget to enable a Separate Cache file for mobile devices. WP Rocket creates a separate cache for mobile devices when this option is enabled, thereby reducing the risk of website breakdown.

Enable caching for logged-in WordPress users: You are recommended to turn it on if you have a membership or subscription website. If you are the single owner of your blog, there is no need to enable it.

Cache Lifespan: Cache lifespan is the validity of the caches. By default, it is set to 10 hours, meaning after 10 hours, the caches will be purged, and a new cache will be generated. However, you can always tweak it as per your needs.

That’s all about Basic Cache Options. We will now head off to File Optimization settings.

File Optimization Settings

file optimization wp rocket settings

Before getting into the main configuration settings, it is essential to know what minify and combine are.

Minifying the files means reducing the size. When the size of things gets reduced, the website loads faster. Minifying is generally done in HTML, CSS, and JS.

Note: Minification of things can break websites sometimes.

Combining the files merges the files into a single file. If several CSS files present on your website, it will merge them into a single file that becomes easy to access.

I hope you got a clear insight about minification and combining. It is time to configure the settings.

Minify HTML files: Minification is the best way to speed up your website. Therefore, it is always recommended to activate it. Minification of HTML files reduces the white space in the blog.

Combine Google fonts file: As we have discussed, combining things becomes easily accessible. So it is always recommended to turn it on. It will significantly reduce the number of HTTP requests in your blog.

Remove Query strings from static sources: Most of the time, we measure our blog’s speed into GT Metrix. Removing query strings can improve the grades on GT Metrix. Hence enable it for better speed.

Minify CSS files: The minification of CSS files significantly improves your blog’s speed. CSS is Cascading Style Sheet, which contains all the designs of your blog. If CSS is minified, the number of stylesheet files will get reduced. However, if your blog has heavy designs, minifying CSS can break things in the front end.

Combine CSS files: Combining CSS files concatenates all the stylesheet files into a single one. Enabling it can reduce HTTP requests. However, if your site uses HTTP/2, it is not recommended to use these settings.

CSS delivery optimization: Optimizing CSS delivery speeds up website performance by eliminating rendered blocking resources. These factors are taken into consideration by Google Page Speed insights when assessing page speed. Enabling CSS delivery will make your site load without CSS. Which will remarkably improve the page speed.

This doesn’t mean that your site will not contain the CSS files. Your blog will not contain any CSS files for a few moments while loading, and then it will fetch all the CSS files gradually. CSS delivery can make your site look a little bit strange while loading. This phenomenon is also termed FOUC. You can avoid these phenomena with the help of critical CSS.

Minify Javascript files: This is just the same as CSS and HTML. Javascript is present at the front end of your website. Minifying things can improve the page speed by reducing the JS files.

Combine Javascript files: Enable this setting to combine the JS files and improve page speed.

Now, we will go to media settings.

WP Rocket Media settings

Media settings

Lazy Loaded images: Lazy load meaning the images will load only when they enter the viewport. Loading all the images during the loading of a website can increase the load time. So enable it to decrease the load time.

It is suggested to enable it for images, iframes, and videos.

Disable Emoji: Disable it. Emojis should always be accepted from the user’s end. If you enable it, the emojis of WordPress will get fetched and will increase the load time.

WordPress Embeds: These things have to be disabled in order to prevent anyone from embedding content from your blog.

Preload Settings

preload wp rocket settings

Activate Sitemap-based cache preloading: When the cache lifespan expires, the new cache is generated of those URLs which are present in the sitemap. You must enable it.

Yoast SEO/Rank Math XML Sitemap: WP Rocket automatically detects the type of sitemaps present in your blog. Preloading it will decrease the loading time.

Preload Bot: This is another most crucial feature of WP Rocket. It is better to activate it if you are using high-performing servers. Basically, when you add or update your posts, this preload bot will get triggered, and they will clear all the previous cache and will generate a new cache of those posts. Enabling this sometimes increases the load on the server; if you face it, change the mode from automatic to manual.

Prefetch DNS requests: In order to load some files while the website is loading, make sure that the files are uploaded to the prefetch DNS section. These things can be fonts or URLs.

Some of the most common URLs to prefetch are:

  • //maps.google.com
  • //www.googletagmanager.com
  • //fonts.googleapis.com
  • //platform.twitter.com
  • //cdnjs.cloudflare.com

Although you can run tests and check which elements need to be prefetched, these are some of the standard URLs that you can prefetch.

Advanced Rules (Fine Tune Cache Rules)

wp-rocket-advanced-rules-settings

These settings include advanced settings of WP Rocket.

Never Cache URLs: The URLs entered in this place will never get cached. They will be fetched from the original server.

Never Cache Cookies: You should specify the IDs of those cookies which will never get cached.

Never Cache Users Agent: Please list those user agents string with which a cached page should not be shown.

Always Purge URLs: This section allows you to mention those URLs that will get purged as soon as you update or add any new post.

Cache Query Strings: You might have people search things on your blog with the help of a search query. You can cache those strings with the help of this section.

Database Settings

database settings

Post Cleanup: You might have observed that minor things have a significant impact too. The Post Cleanup section allows us to clean the revisions, auto drafts, and trashed posts/pages.

Comments Cleanup: It cleans the comments by deleting the spam and trash comments.

Transient Cleanup: Sometimes, some transient data like social share counts get stored in the database and increases the load on the server. Transient cleanup cleans those files and keeps the server optimized.

Automatic Cleanups: This is one of the best features of WP Rocket. You can schedule automatic cleanups to keep your server lightweight. You must remember that once the database is cleaned, there is no way to undo it.

Our next step is to examine some of the other features of this beautiful plugin.

CDN Settings

The best part about WP Rocket is that you can integrate your CDN with WP Rocket.

Enable CDN: You must enable CDN if you are using any CDN. WP Rocket supports almost every type of CDN. Few popular CDNs that this plugin supports are Amazon Cloudfront, Max CDN, KeyCDN, etc.

CDN Names: Enter the CNAME provided by your CDN provider.

Exclude files from CDN: Enter the files that you don’t want to get served through CDN.

ADD-ONS (Cloudflare)

wp-rocket-cloudflare-settings

If you are using Cloudflare as a CDN, you can integrate it to make your website even more optimized and lightweight.

Here is a guide to integrating Cloudflare with WP Rocket:

Global API Keys: Enter the API key of your Cloudflare account. You can easily find the API key in your profile section of Cloudflare.

Account Email: Enter the email address of your Cloudflare account.

Domain: Enter the domain.

Development Mode: This mode is handy when we are making a lot of changes to the site. This development mode makes the website inaccessible to the users by putting up an under-development notice in the front end. However, the development mode will automatically turn off after 3 hours.

Optimal Settings: Optimal Settings will enhance your website’s performance by copying the Cloudflare configuration settings, such as minifying CSS, JS, and HTML.

That’s it you have successfully integrated Cloudflare with WP Rocket.

Tools

WP Rocket comes up with many exciting tools like export and import. Let me give you clear insights about them.

Export Settings: In many times, you may want to move your WP Rocket settings to other sites; this can be done quickly with the help of Export Settings.

Import Settings: It allows us to import the exported settings.

Rollback: Rollback features help us to get back to previous versions of WP Rocket.

This feature saves your life if you face any breakdown in the website by reverting back to previous versions.

Pros and Cons or WP Rocket

As we all know that every tool has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. The same thing is with WP Rocket. Although it is a great plugin. But we have examined it thoroughly and found out a few flaws, which are listed below.

Pros

  • Auto Speed Optimization
  • Supports Add-ons
  • CDN Compatibility and supports Media and database optimization.
  • The price to features ratio is incredible.

Cons

  • Expensive for beginners
  • Provides a lot of customization; without proper knowledge, things can break
  • easily.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):

below are some FAQs related to WP Rocket settings :-

Q1. Which Web Hosting servers support WP Rocket?

WP Rocket is a WordPress plugin, and it is compatible with almost every web Hosting service available. A few of the popular web hosting services that support WP Rocket are Bluehost, A2Hosting, Hostinger, Cloudways, Greengeeks, Hostarmada. If your web hosting is not here, it doesn’t mean that the web hosting does not support this plugin.

Q2. What does WP Rocket do?

WP Rocket is a speed caching and performance booster plugin. Basically, it will make your load faster by compressing and combining things. It also creates a cache version of your website, making the website accessible to your audience in a meager time.

Q3. Is WP Rocket free?

Unfortunately No. WP Rocket is not free. They provide 3 plans: Single, Plus, and infinite. You can choose a single plan if you are a beginner or having a short budget. Looking at the features they provide, it is totally worth paying.

Q4. Is WP Rocket good?

WP Rocket is considered one of the best caching and optimization plugins.

Q5. How do I uninstall WordPress Rocket?

Uninstalling WP Rocket is very easy. Go to your WordPress dashboard, and from there, head off to the plugins section; from there, you can deactivate or even delete your plugins.

Q6. How to remove the website cache?

In the dashboard section of WP Rocket, you get the option to purge all caches. This will remove all the active caches on your website.

Q7. What is the best alternative to WP Rocket?

WP Rocket is itself the best plugin. However, there are many caching plugins available for WordPress. Some of them are WP total cache, WP Fastest Cache, etc.

Q8. Which image optimization plugins work best with WP Rocket?

There are many image optimization plugins that you can use. But, WP Rocket recommends Imagify. You can use Shortpixel too.

Conclusion:

WP Rocket is a great caching plugin. With proper settings, WP Rocket can skyrocket your blog’s speed and efficiency. Considering the price point, it provides loads of features for optimization. It is always recommended to have prior knowledge of every element before using them.

Configuring everything won’t take more than 2 minutes.

You will always be one step ahead of the competition if you optimize your website. This is an incredible win.

Share your thoughts regarding WP Rocket in the comments below, and don’t forget to share this article.

Thanks for investing your precious time here, Hope you have a good day. 🙂 🙂

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Hi, I'm Mangesh Kumar Bhardwaj, founder of BloggingQnA. A blog that provides authentic information regarding blogging, SEO, affiliate marketing, and how to Earn Money Online with blogging.

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