Cache

In terms of websites, cache refers to the temporary storage of copies of web pages, images, and other files on a user’s computer or a web server. This is done to improve a website’s performance by reducing the time it takes to load pages.

When a user visits a website for the first time, the web browser will download the entire page, including all images and files. This can take a few seconds, especially if the website is large or has a lot of images.

The next time the user visits the same website, the web browser will check its cache to see if it has a copy of the page. If it does, the browser will load the page from the cache instead of downloading it again from the web server. This can significantly improve the loading speed of the website.

There are two main types of cache in terms of the website:

Browser cache

This is the cache that is stored on the user’s computer. When a user visits a website, their web browser will download a copy of the page and store it in the browser cache. This allows the page to load faster the next time the user visits the website.

Web server cache

This is the cache stored on the web server. When a web server receives a request for a page, it will check its cache to see if it has a copy of the page. If it does, the web server will send the cached copy of the page to the user instead of generating it from scratch. This can significantly improve the performance of the website for multiple users.