Cacheability
Active Installs
100+
Last Updated
June 24, 2026
First Released
April 8, 2022
Download History (Last one month)
Contributors
Cacheability makes your WordPress site a better HTTP citizen, improving SEO and cache efficiency.
Free Features
Soft 404 Fix
WordPress returns HTTP 200 for empty search results, invalid tag pages, and empty category archives. Google marks these as “soft 404” errors in Search Console, hurting your SEO.
Cacheability fixes this by returning proper 404 status codes when:
- Search results are empty (
/?s=nonexistent) - Tag archives are empty (
/tag/nonexistent/) - Category archives are empty
- Author archives are empty
Smart Cache-Control Headers
Automatically adds s-maxage headers so Varnish, NGINX, and CDNs can cache your pages efficiently without affecting browser caching behavior.
- Search/404 pages: 1 hour cache
- All other pages: 1 year cache (your purge plugin handles invalidation)
Cacheability Pro
Upgrade to Cacheability Pro for advanced features:
- Cache Warming — Automatically warm pages after purging so visitors never hit cold cache
- Conditional GET (304) — Return 304 Not Modified for unchanged content, saving bandwidth
- ESI Support — Cache pages with dynamic nonces (comments, login forms)
- Rate-Limit Safe — Smart request queuing to avoid 429 errors
- Sitemap Warming — Warm all pages from sitemap after full purge
- WP-CLI Commands —
wp cacheability warmand more - Priority Support — Get help when you need it
- Upload to
/wp-content/plugins/cacheability/ - Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu
- That’s it! No configuration needed.
The plugin works automatically. You can view the settings page under Settings Cacheability.
Yes! Cacheability works alongside any caching solution including WP Super Cache, W3 Total Cache, WP Rocket, Varnish, NGINX FastCGI cache, and CDNs like Cloudflare.
No. Cacheability adds minimal overhead — it just sets proper HTTP headers and status codes.
The free version fixes soft 404s and adds cache headers. Pro adds cache warming (automatically re-caches pages after purging), conditional GET responses (304), and ESI support for dynamic content.
For the free version, no. For Cacheability Pro’s cache warming feature, we recommend Varnish HTTP Purge or similar purge plugin.
Return true from the cacheability_skip filter for that request. The plugin then gets out of the way and sets no Cache-Control, so a transactional template’s own header() stays authoritative. This is deterministic regardless of PHP output buffering. Example for a payment-success page:
add_filter( 'cacheability_skip', function ( $skip ) { return is_page( 'checkout-thank-you' ) ? true : $skip; } );
Changelog
2.2.0
- New:
cacheability_skipfilter. Return true to make the plugin get out of the way for a request, so it sets no Cache-Control and a transactional template’s own header() (or an earlier wp_headers filter) stays authoritative. Deterministic regardless of output buffering. Use it for payment-success, checkout-confirmation, and other pages that must not inherit the blanket cache header.
2.1.0
- New: Prevents Google’s “Soft 404” indexing flag on tag/category archives that don’t currently have posts assigned, and on search-results pages.
2.0.1
- Fixed duplicate Cache-Control headers when another plugin sets headers via PHP header() function
2.0.0
- Major update: Streamlined free version
- Cache warming, conditional GET, and ESI moved to Cacheability Pro
- Added settings page with Pro feature overview
- Improved soft 404 detection (now includes category and author archives)
- Code modernization and cleanup
1.1.7
- Fixed a PHP notice when used together with older versions of Varnish HTTP Purge plugin and WP-Rocket integrations
1.1.6
- Fixed a PHP fatal error when used together with older versions of Varnish HTTP Purge plugin and WP-Rocket integrations
1.1.3
- Fixed some PHP warnings
1.1.0
- Added cache warmup feature for updated content
1.0.0
- Initial release
" width="120" height="120">
Available Versions
| Version | Download | Type |
|---|---|---|
| 2.2.0 | Download | Stable |
| 2.1.0 | Download | Stable |
| 2.0.1 | Download | Stable |
| 2.0.0 | Download | Stable |
| 1.1.7 | Download | Stable |
| 1.1.6 | Download | Stable |
| 1.1.5 | Download | Stable |
| 1.1.3 | Download | Stable |
| 1.1.2 | Download | Stable |
| 1.1.1 | Download | Stable |
| 1.1.0 | Download | Stable |
| 1.0.2 | Download | Stable |
| 1.0.1 | Download | Stable |
| Development | Download | Trunk |
