WP Super Cache is one of the WordPress plugins you should use for a better blog. It speeds up your WordPress blog. The faster that a website loads, the higher the chance that search engines will index it. If a blog takes half a minute to load, search engine bots will move on.

Installing WP Super Cache

The first thing that you need to do is install WP Super Cache. This is a little bit more complicated than installing other plugins. You can find the download link for the plugin here.

First, you want to download the .zip file and then extract it in your /wp-content/plugins/ folder. Do this the same way that you install any other plugin.

Second, activate the plugin. This is the same as installing any other plugin. Next, it will get tricky.

You will see an error message similar to this when you first access your WP Super Cache settings page.

Third, head over to the WP Super Cache page (it’s located under the Settings tab on the right). You should see a few errors. WP Super Cache has to write files to your /wp-content/ folder in order to work. This error message is basically saying that it can’t do that currently.

There are two ways that you can fix this problem. The first option is to chmod using a command. This is what the plugin suggests that you do. If you have SSH access to your server, ssh in and run the command: chmod 777 WP_DIRECTORY/wp-content where WP_DIRECTORY is the directory that your WordPress blog is installed in. You can also find the exact command that you need to run on that WP Super Cache error page that you see.

You will see something similar to this when chmoding with FTP. Make sure that all boxes are checked.

The other option is to chmod using an FTP client. This is probably easier for anyone that hasn’t used terminal before. Connect to your FTP server and find your /wp-content/ folder. It’s in the folder where you installed your blog. Now you have to find the option to chmod. In most FTP programs, you have to right click on the folder and then select Chmod. It really depends on your FTP program. On the chmod box that pops up, make sure that it is either set to 777 or that all of the boxes are checked. If there are any special boxes, like there are on the right, just leave those empty.

After the plugin has made it's changes, you want to change your chmod settings back to default.

Fourth, hit the refresh button where you had the WP Super Cache Manager open. If the chmodding worked, it should look different. You should see an error like this: Warning! /var/www/blogwrite.info/wp-content is writeable! The plugin has made all necessary changes to your /wp-content/ folder, and now you need to change the chmod settings back. You can either run the command that it gives you, chmod 755 WP_DIRECTORY/wp-content, or use an FTP client again. Refer to the image to see what your chmod settings should look like when using an FTP client.

Finally, if your wp-config.php file isn’t writeable, add following to your wp-config.php file:

define('WP_CACHE', true);

You can put it somewhere under // ** MySQL settings - You can get this info from your web host ** //. If your wp-config.php is writeable, the plugin will do this all for you.

Congratulations! Your WP Super Cache plugin is fully installed! Now we just need to set it up.

Setting up WP Super Cache

You want your WP Super Cache to be fully enabled.

First, head into the WP Super Cache settings page. It should be error free and ready for action. Check the ON box to enable the WP Super Cache. I always put it fully on, not HALF ON. After you check the box, scroll down and hit Update Status.

You will probably end up getting complained at for your .htaccess rules. Here are a few things that you could encounter:

1. You could see something like this:
   

   Mod Rewrite rules cannot be updated!
   You must have BEGIN and END markers in /var/www/blogwrite.info/.htaccess for the auto update to work. They look like this and surround the main WordPress mod_rewrite rules:

   To fix this, you need to edit your .htaccess file. It is located in your core WordPress folder. You want it set up like this:

   # BEGIN WordPress
   …
   (whatever was already in the file)
   …
   # END WordPress

   This allows WP Super Cache to add it’s own rules to the file.

2. Another problem you might run into is this:
   

   Cannot update .htaccess
   The file /var/www/blogwrite.info/.htaccess cannot be modified by the web server. Please correct this using the chmod command or your ftp client.
   Refresh this page when the file permissions have been modified.

   To fix this, all you have to do is chmod 777 .htaccess. You can refer to the directions above for this.

3. If you are encountering errors that are asking you to activate Apache modules, click here for more information. Thanks to Dan for noticing the error!

After fixing those errors, you should be all set! If you encounter any other errors, please leave a comment. Your WP Super Cache plugin should be good to go!