If you’ve ever visited a website and things didn’t seem to load properly, or made updates to your own site and didn’t see them the next time you visited, the problem likely has an easy fix – cache clearing. Computers are designed to run quickly, and in many cases are faster than the internet speed set up in your office or home. In order to make webpages load faster, your browser will cache, or save, information. For example, you know how you visit a website and begin entering your name, only for all the necessary data to appear (such as address, phone, email, etc.)? The information that appears is cached in your browser and allows you to enter it more quickly than if you were to type it in manually.
So, if cache helps sites run faster, why should it be cleared? Here’s a few reasons why its important to visit your browser history and clear the cache semi-regularly.
- Clearing cache semi-regularly frees up space on your computer’s hard drive and allows your computer and browser to run a little faster, maybe not enough for the naked eye to notice, but websites notice.
- Most times your computer’s cache will see if changes have been made to a website you visit regularly and it can load the most current content, but technology isn’t perfect and sometimes this doesn’t happen. By clearing your browser’s cache it effectively wipes clean the previous visits to that site and starts over.
- If you’re ever using a public computer and need to enter any personal information, clearing cache on that browser when you’re finished is a good way to protect your information because anyone who uses the device afterwards could have access to the sites you visited and what information was used.
Now that you understand the importance of clearing your browser’s cache, how do you do it? This depends on what browser you’re using, but it normally can be found within the history tab or settings. Here’s some quick links to our client’s most used web browsers and how to clear your cache: