My changes aren't showing up
What to do when you've saved edits in WordPress or your site platform but the live site hasn't updated.
You saved the change. You can see it in the editor. But when you visit your live site, everything looks the same as before. This is one of the most common things people run into, and it almost always has a quick fix.
Troubleshooter
Where is the old version hiding?
Step 1: Hard refresh your browser
Your browser stores a local copy of web pages to load them faster. That "cached" copy may be outdated.
Press Ctrl+Shift+R (Windows / Linux) or Cmd+Shift+R (Mac). Chrome lists this as "reload the current page, ignoring cached content": exactly what you want here.
Check in a private / incognito window. This bypasses your browser's stored files entirely. In Chrome, press Ctrl+Shift+N (Windows / Linux) or Cmd+Shift+N (Mac).
Try on a different device or network. Ask a colleague to load the page on their phone and confirm what they see.
If the change shows in a private window but not your normal browser, your browser cache is the issue. See how to fully clear it.
Step 2: Confirm the change was saved and published
Drafts and unpublished edits don't appear on the live site. What "published" means depends on your platform: on some, saving puts a change live; on others, saving and publishing are separate steps.
Go back to the editor for that page or post.
Check the status. In WordPress, open the settings sidebar with the gear icon at the top right, then look at Status on the Post (or Page) tab. The options are Draft, Pending Review, Private, Scheduled and Published. It has to be Published for changes to be live.
Save it. On something not yet live the button says Publish. On a page that is already live, WordPress 6.6 and later label the button Save (older versions said Update). An edit left unsaved in the editor never reaches the live page.
Using Elementor or a page builder?
In Elementor the main button reads Publish on a page that isn't live yet and Update on one that is. The arrow beside it holds Save Draft, and saving a draft of a published page deliberately leaves the live page alone. If you used Save Draft, click Update to push the change live.
Step 3: Clear the site cache
Some setups keep a ready-made copy of your pages (a cache) to serve them quickly, and that copy can lag behind your changes. Whether there's one you can clear depends on your platform.
Many WordPress sites use caching to serve pages quickly. WordPress's own advice, when you want a change live immediately, is to clear the cache. Otherwise visitors (you included) keep seeing the old version until the cache updates on its own.
Log in to your WordPress dashboard.
Look for a caching plugin in the top toolbar or the left menu. Common names: WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache, LiteSpeed Cache, or Swift Performance.
Click "Clear Cache" or "Purge All." The exact label varies by plugin, but it's usually prominent.
Reload your live site and check if the change is now visible.
If that doesn't do it, your host may have its own cache too: see Step 4.
Each of these sits at a different point on the same path, and a request travels only as far down as the first layer that already has what it is asking for. Not every site has all of them. You do not need to manage them, but it helps to know they exist.
Read this as text
Three of the types of caching described above sit at different points on one path: the path a request takes from a visitor down to the content your pages are built from. The fourth, object caching, is not on this path: it works inside the site’s own work, saving the results of database queries so they do not have to be repeated.
Closest to the visitor is the browser cache, which keeps images, stylesheets and fonts on the visitor’s own computer. Next is the CDN cache, which keeps copies of your pages and files in data centers around the world, so content comes from the server closest to the visitor. Then the server-side page cache (a plugin or a hosting tool), which saves a complete HTML copy of each page.
Only when none of those has a copy does the request reach WordPress and the database, which look the page up, fetch the content, run the plugins and assemble the HTML.
Not every site has all of these. There are several layers where caching can happen, and you do not need to manage all of them, but it helps to know they exist.
Step 4: Clear the hosting-level cache
This step is for WordPress sites. Some hosting providers (Flywheel, WP Engine, Kinsta) add their own caching layer on top of WordPress. On other setups, skip to Step 5.
Log in to your hosting dashboard.
Look for a cache management option. In MyKinsta, go to Sites → your site → Caching and click Clear all caches. In the WP Engine User Portal, open the environment from the Sites page, choose Cache (you may have to expand Manage), then click Clear all caches. On Flywheel, open the site's Advanced tab and click Flush Cache.
Clear the cache and reload your site.
Change showing now?
If clearing the cache fixed it, you're all set. For future reference, clearing the cache after making edits is good practice.
Step 5: Check if a CDN is involved
A CDN (Content Delivery Network: a global network of servers that speeds up your site) caches pages too.
- WordPress: if your site uses Cloudflare or a similar service, its cache may need purging. Contact us if you're not sure whether your site uses a CDN. We can clear it on your behalf.
- Custom-coded: your developer's host delivers the site and may keep its own cached copies. Ask your developer to check that the deploy finished and, if needed, clear the host's cache.
- Squarespace, Shopify, Webflow and Wix: use the steps above for your platform. On Wix, Clear Site Cache (Step 3) removes the cached pages from Wix's CDN.
Common questions
I cleared the cache but the old version is still showing.
First, go back to Step 2 and make sure the change actually went live. On WordPress there may be several layers of caching: browser, WordPress plugin, hosting, and CDN. Work through each layer in order. If you've cleared everything your setup has and the change still isn't live, contact us.
My changes are showing on mobile but not desktop (or vice versa).
This is a caching quirk: different devices may have different cached versions. Hard refresh both devices. On WordPress, clear the site cache completely too. Wix can keep separate cached copies of a page for different device types, so on Wix, publish again or use Clear Site Cache (Step 3).
I made a change weeks ago and it still hasn't appeared.
Check that it went live first (Step 2). If it's published, there may be a caching configuration issue we need to look at.
The change appeared briefly and then reverted.
This can happen if two people are editing the same page at the same time. What else to check depends on your platform:
- WordPress: an automated backup restore may have been triggered. Contact us so we can check the revision history.
- Wix: site collaborators can save over your changes. Wix's Site History shows when a change was made and who made it.
- Squarespace: Squarespace has no page history to roll back to. Contact us and we'll help put it right.
- Shopify: Shopify has no version history for a whole theme, though the code editor's Timeline can restore individual files. Contact us.
- Webflow: Webflow keeps automatic backups that a site manager can restore. Contact us.
- Custom-coded: ask your developer to check what was deployed, and when.
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