Boost Speed & SEO: Object Cache Pro for WordPress

Unrivaled speed, uptime, and scalability make Pantheon’s high-performance platform the best place for WordPress hosting. And it just got better. Pantheon is offering the popular Object Cache Pro plugin to all customers with a Performance Small or larger plan for free of charge as part of an Early Access (EA) program. 

Knowing that the key to a better golf score is a new club, and definitely not more time at the range, I tried to throw money at my high score problem. I fired up my internet machine (laptop) to order online and after scrolling through some “sponsored results,” I clicked on an ad that promised a screaming deal. 

It might have been, but my patience wore thin as I was waiting for various elements on the page to load. The last straw was when I tried to navigate to my model of choice through the series of drop downs on their homepage. They were taking too long to load for my level of patience that day! I eventually split without completing the purchase.

So why were things so slow? Is there anything they could have done to improve their site performance? 

Some WordPress sites, especially those running WooCommerce, can experience performance issues such as slow database queries, which this clearly had. 

Improve Site Performance, Save $900

The good news is there is an app for that, a drop-in plugin, actually. Pantheon is offering the popular Object Cache Pro plugin, normally $900 a year, to customers as part of an early availability (EA) program. The plugin delivers ultra-fast load times (up to 25%!) with Object Caching, which is essential for SEO and conversion rates. Object caching can speed up PHP load times, reduce the load on your database and deliver content to your visitors faster. 

Before Object Cache Pro, WordPress site builders experienced challenges with PHP processing overhead. As a CMS, WordPress heavily depends on database performance, and efficiency is critical to scaling WordPress. Object Cache Pro works by storing data in memory, which allows for faster retrieval of information, compared to traditional database storage. This means that websites can load faster, improving the user experience and providing a business impact.

One of the key benefits of Object Cache Pro is its ability to reduce the number of database queries required to load a page. By storing frequently accessed data in memory, the need to query the database for that data is eliminated, reducing the load on the database and improving site performance. 

But it doesn’t stop there. Object Cache Pro speeds up page load times too. This is especially beneficial for database-heavy applications, not just WooCommerce sites. Think WordPress Multisite. Or membership sites. Lots of data that can be sped up with an object cache - a considerable amount of benefit over the traditional way of caching raw query results.

Object Cache Pro In Action

Here is a quick video showing what a similar Golf Club Searcher looks like on Pantheon (with Object Cache Pro) compared to what it looks like hosted elsewhere.

Getting a Hole in One: The Importance of Site Speed and UX For Users

Back to shopping for golf clubs! If I were the site owner, and if I wanted to delight my customers, my user experience would need to be top notch. In fact, close to 90% of customers rank the user-friendliness and responsiveness of a website in their top expectations for a brand. 

Further, 17% have stopped interacting with a brand after a poor website experience (check out this study, Rules of the Marketing Game). Knowing that site speed plays a critical role in how people view my business and whether or not they will become buyers, a performant site is paramount. Having Object Cache Pro installed on my site would be table stakes.

How to take part in the Object Cache Pro Early Access Program

Here’s are some details:

• It’s free.
• To get started, you only need a couple code snippets and a WordPress plug-in.
• You can test this out in a development environment before rolling out to production.

If you decide to join the EA program, we would really appreciate your feedback! Let’s make websites faster and better together! 

Join the EA Program for Free Today!