Title: Cache-Control header?
Last modified: March 1, 2025

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# Cache-Control header?

 *  Resolved [ericr23](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ericr23/)
 * (@ericr23)
 * [1 year, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cache-control-header/)
 * A rather large proportion of our logs is taken up by repeated feed requests from
   various rss feed services and widgets.
 * Most of these requests get a 304 response, but I was wondering if there was a
   way that these user agents could be directed to cache the feed, say, for 1 hour,
   rather than repeatedly check it.
 * We are using WP Super Cache in expert mode (and including is_feed()).

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

 *  [Chatoxz (a11n)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/chatoxz/)
 * (@chatoxz)
 * [1 year, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cache-control-header/#post-18344322)
 * Hi Eric, Sebastian from Jetpack here. I hope you are doing well.
 * Thank you for reaching out and sharing your concern with us. I have reach out
   to our developers for more details on this.
 * We’ll get back to you shortly. In the mean time, could you please post your site
   URL here so that we can have a look? If you want it to remain private, you can
   also contact us via this contact form:
 * [https://jetpack.com/contact-support/?rel=support&hpi=1](https://jetpack.com/contact-support/?rel=support&hpi=1)
 * If you choose to reach out directly, please include a link to this thread.
 * Thanks!
 *  Thread Starter [ericr23](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ericr23/)
 * (@ericr23)
 * [1 year, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cache-control-header/#post-18344434)
 * Thank you, Sebastian. The site is: [https://www.wind-watch.org/news/](https://www.wind-watch.org/news/)
 * (The WordPress module is for that subdirectory, not the site as a whole.)
 * An example request is: `"GET /news/feed/ HTTP/1.1" 304 - "https://www.wind-watch.
   org/news/feed/" "WordPress.com; https://stopthesethings.com"`
 *  Plugin Author [Donncha O Caoimh (a11n)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/donncha/)
 * (@donncha)
 * [1 year, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cache-control-header/#post-18347008)
 * There’s no way to tell a feed reader to visit less often. They visit on their
   own schedule.
 * > and including is_feed()
 * Do you mean you’ve checked is_feed in the “Do not cache the following page types.”
   section of the settings page? The feed isn’t being cached then.
 * The 304 status means your server is telling the visitors hitting your feed that
   the feed hasn’t changed so very little information is sent and the request happens
   really fast. They are caching the feed, and on each request they’re asking if
   the feed has updated. If there isn’t an update, then it’s a 304 reply.
 *  Thread Starter [ericr23](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ericr23/)
 * (@ericr23)
 * [1 year, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cache-control-header/#post-18347111)
 * is_feed is not checked (hence the 304 responses instead of 200).
 * It seems to me that if they are caching the feed anyway, they should be able 
   to be told for how long before checking if it’s been modified. But then after
   that time, they might still check. Would Cache-Control and ETag (which WP Super
   Cache sets) conflict? Maybe it’s a standard for feed readers to always validate?
 * I just noticed that I never turned off an experiment I started when I was having
   trouble with SImplePie (which I use to compile a weekly newsletter): simply directing
   a feed request to a static xml file. I just downloaded Monday’s sample, and it
   has the Cache-Control header as set in htaccess for xml files.
 * I’m just a dilletante here, and I can’t begin to grasp the intricacies of WP 
   Super Cache’s workings, but I’m finding this interesting nonetheless. Thanks 
   for your indulgence!
 *  Plugin Support [lastsplash (a11n)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lastsplash/)
 * (@lastsplash)
 * [1 year, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cache-control-header/#post-18352893)
 * Hi [@ericr23](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ericr23/) –
 * Since the feed readers visit on their own schedule, there isn’t anything that
   can be done in WP Super Cache to affect that behavior.
 * I am going to mark this thread as resolved, but if you have questions about WP
   Super Cache in the future, feel free to open a new thread.
 *  Thread Starter [ericr23](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ericr23/)
 * (@ericr23)
 * [1 year, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cache-control-header/#post-18455301)
 * I added the following to robots.txt, and that has brought it under control.
 *     ```wp-block-code
       User-agent: WordPressCrawl-delay: 8
       ```
   
 *  Plugin Support [Stef (a11n)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/erania-pinnera/)
 * (@erania-pinnera)
 * [1 year, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cache-control-header/#post-18456876)
 * Hi there, [@ericr23](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ericr23/),
 * Thanks for sharing the solution you found out – I trust that solved the issue,
   is that correct?
 * If so, you should be all set, and we’d like to thank you again for reporting 
   this here: other users may have your same need, and this info will save them 
   some time 🙂

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

The topic ‘Cache-Control header?’ is closed to new replies.

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 * Last activity: [1 year, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cache-control-header/#post-18456876)
 * Status: resolved