Caching dynamic pages properly.
WHAT IT IS
A paid Cloudflare feature that caches WordPress HTML at the edge, with awareness of when content changes.
WHY IT IS DIFFERENT FROM CACHING HTML WITH A RULE
It purges automatically when you publish or update, and it understands logged-in visitors.
Configuring HTML caching manually requires you to handle both correctly.
WHAT IT ACHIEVES
Most page requests never reach us. The site is served from the edge.
That is a substantial speed improvement and a substantial reduction in resource usage.
THE COST
A monthly fee per domain.
WHETHER IT IS WORTH IT
For a content site with visitors spread geographically, frequently yes.
For a shop, be careful. Cart and checkout must be excluded, and testing must be thorough.
WHAT TO DO FIRST
Enable server-side caching, which is free and achieves much of the same for our server's workload.
If pages are still slow for distant visitors after that, APO addresses what remains.
THE ORDER THAT MAKES SENSE
Server-side caching, image optimisation, then consider APO.
