Last week, I ran into a rather troublesome bug in my blog: certain archive pages were bafflingly inaccessible. Specifically, these pages would crawl at an agonizingly slow pace, and when something finally appeared, it was an incomplete, fragmented version—as if the loading process had been aborted halfway through. When I clicked on the link to the Category: Website archive page, for instance, the loading wheel would spin endlessly, turning and turning, while I was still on the original page. Only after several seconds, or even minutes, would a broken page finally appear. Instead of the expected ten posts, only a scant few showed up. To make matters worse, there was no sidebar and no footer.
“Could it be that my site had been hacked?”
My hosting provider, SiteGround, boasts of powerful caching technology that enables both static and dynamic caching, resulting in up to five times faster site performance (see textbox). Given this caching feature, I immediately suspected that the broken page was actually a result of a broken cache. I theorized that something had gone awry on the SiteGround servers while generating the cache, and that the corrupted cache was being served to me instead of a fresh rebuild. Since my other archive pages were functioning correctly, my suspicion about SiteGround caching grew stronger.
At SiteGround, we take website performance seriously. That’s why we have developed the SuperCacher – our own powerful caching solution that accelerates website speed multiple times.SiteGround
Caching
Caching is a method used to enhance the speed and performance of websites by temporarily storing copies of frequently accessed data, thereby reducing the time it takes to retrieve them. When you visit a website, your browser stores certain elements like images, scripts, and stylesheets in the cache. Servers also use caching to reduce load times by storing copies of frequently accessed pages. As mentioned briefly, there are different types of caching, but they all aim to speed up loading times and reduce server load, ensuring a smoother experience for users; below is a brief overview. For more details, you can check out SiteGround’s article about cache and caching (external link).
Server-level caching: This occurs on the server hosting the website. It involves storing static content (like images, CSS files) and dynamic content (generated by scripts) to reduce the time it takes to load pages.
Browser-level caching: Browsers store copies of web pages, images, and other elements that users have previously accessed. This means that when you visit a site again, the browser can quickly load the stored copies instead of downloading everything again.
Content Delivery Network (CDN): CDNs distribute copies of your website’s content across multiple servers globally. When a user accesses your site, the CDN serves the content from the server closest to them, reducing load times.
Caching significantly enhances the user experience by reducing page load times and server strain. However, if something goes wrong during the caching process, it can result in outdated or incomplete content being displayed, as I suspected with my broken archive page.
The first step was to flush SiteGround’s cache (external link), hoping that this would resolve the issue. I logged into my SiteGround dashboard and navigated to the caching settings. There, I found the option to clear the cache, which would force the server to generate fresh content. With a mix of anxiety and anticipation, I clicked the Flush Cache icon.
Naturally, this had no effect. I then considered the possibility that the cache existed on multiple levels (see textbox), necessitating some patience to see the effects. As my long-time followers may recall, I had to learn this lesson when I pointed my domain name to my website (see 48 hours!). Yet, after a few days, access remained elusive…
To my horror, I discovered that my Category: Website page was not the only affected archive. If caching was not the culprit, what else could it be? Oh my… The realization hit me like a ton of bricks—this was not only incredibly frustrating for me but also a threat to the user on my site. My anxiety skyrocketed, and feeling the urgent pressure to act, I resolved to contact SiteGround immediately to report the issue. Unfortunately, time got the better of me, and I never found the moment to do so.
Sleeping on it helped me see the situation with fresh eyes. When I woke up, inspiration struck: I decided to list the malfunctioning archives and look for any commonalities. My nocturnal insight suggested a pattern—perhaps the archives were halting at the same post. With renewed determination, I set out to investigate further, hoping to uncover the root of the problem.
Upon investigation, I discovered that not only was my (Website) category archive affected, but also two tag archives—HTML and SEO. And, sure enough, they all stopped at the same post: “Anchor text matters.” I suspected that a snippet of code in the excerpt was causing the page generation to abort. With my heart pounding, I opened WordPress to investigate further. The issue became immediately apparent—it wasn’t an errant piece of code in the excerpt; it was the absence of the excerpt itself. I had simply forgotten to add one.
Sometimes, the simplest oversights can cause the biggest headaches.
I swiftly added the missing excerpt, resolving the issue. In an instant, my archives were back to normal, and the site functioned smoothly once again. This experience was a reminder of how seemingly minor details can have significant consequences, especially when intertwined with custom code modifications.