WordPress CDN Integration with W3 Total Cache
W3 Total Cache is a popular WordPress plugin with the purpose to help improve site performance. W3 offers many features such as WordPress CDN integration, browser caching, database object caching, minification, and so on. Along with all of the other performance features, using the W3 Total Cache CDN option will further improve the performance of your WordPress site and help reduce latency.
W3 Total Cache CDN integration steps
Follow the steps below to integrate our CDN into WordPress with the W3 Total Cache plugin.
- It is recommended to backup your WordPress site and database.
- Installation of the W3 Total Cache plugin (there are two options to accomplish this).
- Option 1:
- Download the W3 Total Cache Plugin plugin
- Log in to your WordPress administration dashboard
- Browse to Plugins and click on "Add New"
- Click on the Upload link below the title "Install Plugins"
- Click on the "Choose File" button and browse to the W3 Total Cache plugin you have downloaded
- Click on the "Install Now" button in order to install the extension
- Click on "Activate" to enable the plugin
- Option 2:
- Log into your WordPress administration dashboard
- Click on the Search link below the title "Install Plugin"
- Enter W3 Total Cache in the input and click on "Search Plugins"
- Press the "Select Install" now
- Click on Activate to enable the plugin
- Option 1:
- Browse to Performance tab (side menu) and click on "General Settings".
- Scroll down to the CDN section.
- Check Enable and select Generic Mirror from "CDN Type" drop down.
- Click on "Save all settings".
- In the side menu under Performance or in the horizontal menu at top of the page click on CDN.
- Scroll down to the Configuration section and enter your Zone URL (e.g.
example-hexid.kxcdn.com) or Zone Alias in the input field. If you're not using a Zone Alias you can retrieve the Zone URL by logging in to the KeyCDN dashboard in the Zone section. - Click "Save all settings".
- (Optional) Go back to "General Settings". Click on the Deploy button followed by the "Save all settings".Note: If after clicking the Deploy button you are forwarded to a page saying, "WordPress Failure Notice: Are you sure you want to do this? Please try again." click on Please try again. You should now see a yellow header at the top. Click on the Deploy button.
To verify that the plugin is properly implemented view the page source of your website. If your URL paths are showing the CNAME or Zone URL then you have successfully integrated the CDN into your website with W3 Total Cache.
Alternative WordPress caching and CDN plugins
W3 Total Cache is a popular WordPress caching plugin however it comes with many additional features that many users may find confusion or unnecessary. The two WordPress plugins listed below are actively maintained and supported by KeyCDN. We recommend to use these plugins to make your WordPress site faster:
- Cache Enabler - a lightweight caching plugin which is easy to setup
- CDN Enabler - links your static assets to a CDN