Refreshing Cache With a Site Update

Question

I know that there are plenty of threads that focus on this topic, but I couldn't find one that I was able to follow along with, as I don't have any experience in PHP and I'm fairly new to programming.

I have a website that I need to refresh the cache every time there is an update. I know that the easiest way would be to just use meta tags and disable the cache, but I don't want the user experience to be slowed down much. The main aspects that I'll be updating regularly are some paragraphs, images, background images, the selected song on a Javascript SoundCloud plugin, a Javascript image slider, and style sheets. Is there any way to get browsers to sense an update and only then refresh the cache?

I'll be wanting to change the song in the music player, add more slides (and change them) in the slideshow, change the top background image occasionally, update styles once in a while, and edit paragraphs (when adding events to the "Shows" tab, for instance.)

A detailed answer would be great. When I tried to look at other threads, I had no idea where to put things or if they even needed a whole new file, much less what they meant or did.

Answer 1

Here is a GREAT resource on how to control caching on your site.

If you scroll down to the #EXPIRES hash, from there on down, it pretty much explains it all.