WHY TO and HOW TO install & setup WP Super Cache plugin

Let’s first talk about WHY should you install the WP Super Cache plugin and then go on to the next part – how to install it.

“WP Super Cache is a static caching plugin for WordPress. It generates html files that are served directly by Apache without processing comparatively heavy PHP scripts. By using this plugin you will speed up your WordPress blog significantly.” – Definition from the plugin homepage

What it essentially means is that WP Super Cache plugin makes a copy of your web page on the server which leads to speeding up of the load time of your blog as well as reducing the resource consumption. This becomes critical when your site hits the Front Page of a social media network [like digg or SU], in which case your server is most likely to crash. For this very reason, you will find this in almost every list of the ‘must have’ plugins for wordpress.

Coming to the next part: HOW TO install the WP Super Cache plugin. Below are the 4 steps on how you can do that:

1. Download the plugin from here. Upload it on your blog and activate it
2. Set up Permalinks – I would suggest you change your permalink structure to “/%postname%/”[go to permalinks  àclick on custom structure and paste this code]. This would be beneficial for you in two ways. Firstly, it will help you immensely in your blog SEO and secondly, it is a necessity for the WP Super Cache plugin to perform its role perfectly
3. Go to SETTINGS and turn in on. The image below will show you how to do that. Make sure you follow it and click on the options as done in the image below:
4. If you scroll down on the WP Super Cache page, you will find a Mod Rewrite Rules option. Just click on update Mod_Rewrite Rules

And that’s it. WP Super Cache plugin is activated on your blog, you can analyze after a while on whether it has improved the; load time of your blog or not [although I’m sure it will].