Ever had me tell you "your site's updated, take a look!" — and you look, and nothing's changed? You're not imagining things. Your browser is just showing you yesterday's version.
What's going on
To load pages faster, your browser saves a copy of every website you visit (this is called the cache). Normally that's great. But right after your site gets updated, your browser may keep showing the saved copy instead of fetching the new one. A hard refresh tells your browser: "forget the saved copy, download everything fresh." It's the first thing to try whenever a recent change doesn't seem to be showing up.
When you need one
- I just updated your site and you don't see the change
- Text, photos, hours, or prices look outdated
- The page looks "broken" or half-loaded after an update
Nine times out of ten, a hard refresh fixes it instantly. (If it doesn't, let me know — then it's actually my problem.)
How to do it
If you use Chrome (most people do):
- Windows: hold Ctrl + Shift and press R
- Mac: hold Cmd + Shift and press R
Shortcut alternative: hold the Shift key and click the circular reload button in your browser's toolbar. Same result.
Other browsers: in Edge or Firefox on Windows, Ctrl + F5 does the trick. On a Mac in Safari, hold Option + Cmd and press E to empty the cache, then reload the page.
That's it — one key combo, and you're looking at the latest version of your site.