When you visit a website, you’re not just viewing a single, static entity on a screen. In fact, your browser downloads all the different files that must come together to form that page, including html, CSS, JavaScript, and image files, and then determines how to display them on your screen. Most websites, however, serve many of the exact same files each time you visit the site or view a different page on the site – for example, if you click around on the Atilus website, you’ll notice that our logo is loaded onto every page.
The browser understands this, and recognizes that it would be much faster to download this image and serve it locally, rather than redownload it from the server where the website lives every time you visit. This is the basis of the browser cache: a local repository for files downloaded from the websites you visit, created to save time when loading pages. You can usually configure the amount of storage space in your cache through your browser settings.
The cache is important because caching saves your browser a lot of work when loading web pages. The downside, however, is that it sometimes misbehaves, or can interfere with your ability to see changes made on a website. For example, if your web developers have recently made a change in your site’s CSS file to adjust the colors or layout on your site, but your browser is still serving you a cached version of the CSS file, you will still see the old styling on your site (and likely assume your developer has overlooked something).
While there are changes that developers can make to the site to encourage your browser to download a new version of a file when they make a change, they have no control over your individual browser, so it’s good to know how to clear your cache in case there’s ever an issue where you just can’t seem to get that change to show up on your end.
On most browsers, the cache can be cleared by simple pressing the CTRL + F5 keys on your keyboard simultaneously. However, sometimes this does not work, or you are using a touch-screen device without a keyboard, and you will need to clear it manually.
Learn how to build beautiful, responsive, custom designed websites, quickly and easily. Get our best tips, exclusively for subscribers only.
WANT OUR BEST MARKETING TIPS?
We send out our best strategies in a juicy weekly newsletter. Only value.
2 Responses
Thanks for this great piece of content!
Glad We can help!