Cache is a broad term that can refer to the processor, hard drive, file system, or web browser. From the perspective of someone working in marketing or web development, the latter is obviously the most important – it's the browser cache we deal with practically every day at work . However, we all come into direct contact with cache when browsing the internet – whether it's a morning news report, research for a master's thesis, or pay-per-view coverage of a weekend boxing event.
Browser Cache – What is Cache Memory for?
The browser's cache is responsible for storing various elements of web pages—images, JavaScript files, etc. This feature prevents the browser from having to reload the entire content from scratch when re-entering a page, but instead allows it to access files stored in the cache. This significantly speeds up web browsing, especially on sites you visit regularly.
However, the browser cache can sometimes play tricks on us. We make changes to a page, save them, and then refresh, we still see the previous version. Usually, the magic Ctrl + F5 key combination helps, clearing the cache for a given page and hard-refreshing it.
A separate issue is the server cache – if the cache is set to refresh, e.g., every 24 hours, changes to the content may only appear after clearing the server cache – and until then the CMS will display the previous version of the page.
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Search engine cache
Interestingly, we can browse pages cached by Google and other engines, such as Bing. Typing cache:http://verseo.pl directly into the search box will bring up the current copy of the page stored in Google's cache— in this case, created a few days ago. Of course, you can enter any web address after the operator.
In Bing, in the search results, just click the arrow to the right of the page address - after entering "cached" we can see the copy saved by the Bing engine.
Good to know…
Google's and other engines' cache can be useful, for example, in journalism or during certain disputes (especially those concerning e-commerce and online offers) to prove and document that changes have been made to the website.
From an SEO perspective , knowing how often a page is cached (i.e., how often search engine crawlers visit it) is crucial . The more frequently a bot indexes a given site, the better its ranking in search results —it means the crawler considers the page to be frequently updated and worthy of attention.
How to clear the cache in your web browser?
Below are ways to clear the cache in the most popular browsers.
Clearing the cache in Google Chrome
In the upper right corner, click the 3 dots to open the options menu.
Settings → Privacy and security → Clear browsing data → Cached images and files.
You can also enter in the address bar: chrome://settings/clearBrowserData
At the top of the window, you can select the time range for deleting data. Before deleting the cache, you'll see an estimate of how much memory will be recovered.
Clearing the cache in Mozilla Firefox
Settings → Privacy and Security → History section → Clear History → Cache.
At the top of the window, you can select the time range of data to be deleted – e.g. from the last hour, last week or from the beginning of using a given browser.
You can also type about:preferences#privacy in the address bar – the settings panel will automatically open with the browsing privacy tab active.
Clearing the cache in Microsoft Edge
To clear the cache in Microsoft Edge , in the upper right corner, click the 3 dots to open the options menu.
Go to settings, then “Privacy, search and services” (or type edge://settings/privacy in the address bar )
Clear browsing data → Choose what to clear → Cached images and files.
You will also see an estimate of how much memory will be freed after clearing the cache.
FAQ about cache memory
Cache memory (also known as cache) is a special mechanism and area of disk space used for temporarily storing data. Its main purpose is to speed up access to information – it prevents websites and applications from having to re-download the same files each time.
When you first visit a website, your browser (e.g., Chrome, Firefox) downloads its elements, such as graphics, CSS stylesheets, and scripts, from the server. Instead of deleting this data when you close the tab, it caches it on your hard drive. The next time you visit the same page, the browser retrieves these files locally, drastically reducing page load times.
Website load time is one of the official ranking factors in the Google algorithm. Pages that effectively utilize caching load significantly faster. A fast site translates into a lower bounce rate, longer time on site, and a better user experience (UX), which directly supports high rankings in search results.
While the cache is incredibly useful, it can sometimes cause problems. You should clear it when:
- The website is displayed incorrectly (e.g. the graphics are "stretched").
- You know that changes or updates have been made to the website (e.g., a new article, a changed offer), but you still see the old version.
- Your browser is slow and you want to free up some disk space.
- Browser (client) cache: Stores resources (e.g. images, CSS files) locally on a specific user's device (computer or smartphone).
- Server Cache: This works on the hosting side. It stores pre-generated page views or database query results so that the server doesn't have to process them from scratch (consuming processing power) for each subsequent visitor.
Summary
The above article covers the following topics:
- Definition and function of cache memory,
- How to clear browser cache?
