CLEARING YOUR CACHE

Why CAN'T I SEE the Changes To My Site?

You have heard the word cache before, but don't know exactly what it means in context of the Web. Basically, caching means placing something in storage (usually in secret) on the chance that it may come in useful later. A browser cache does exactly that, except with program and website assets. When you visit a website, your browser takes pieces of the page and stores them on your computer's hard drive. Some of the assets your browser will store are:

  • Images - logos, pictures, backgrounds, etc.
  • HTML
  • CSS
  • JavaScript

In short, browsers typically cache what are known as "static assets" - parts of a website that do not change from visit to visit.

What to cache and for how long is determined by the website. Some assets are removed from your machine in a few days while others may remain in your cache for up to a year.

So when you make changes to a page (or if we do it for you) there is a chance that you will not see it. Now this is a problem we encounter often and we wanted to provide some guidance as to how to overcome this issue. 

Every browser has a "Refresh Button" that circular arrow by the address bar. Clicking it will reload the page, but not necessarily clear the cache. Many times hitting the SHIFT button while clicking on the refresh arrow can force the clearing of the cache for that page. If that still does not work, please try the methods below.