When it comes to website performance, speed is king. Visitors expect lightning-fast loading times, and search engines reward optimized sites with better rankings. One of the most effective tools for improving speed and reliability is Cloudflare, a global Content Delivery Network (CDN) that accelerates websites by caching static content close to visitors.
Recently, we encountered a false alert issue while configuring a Cloudflare cache rule. Let’s walk through what happened, how we fixed it, and the benefits we gained.
The False Alert: “This Rule May Not Apply to Your Traffic”
While setting up a custom caching rule in Cloudflare, we were met with the warning:
“This rule may not apply to your traffic. Your DNS configuration may not be proxying traffic for .jpg, which means requests may not match this rule.”
At first glance, this looks alarming — as if our cache rule wouldn’t work. But the good news: it was a false alert.
The warning occurs when Cloudflare detects that some DNS records are set to DNS Only rather than Proxied (orange cloud). Since caching works only on proxied records, the system issues a caution.
How We Fixed It
Here’s the step-by-step solution we implemented:
1. Verified Proxied DNS Records
We reviewed our DNS records and ensured that the main domain (e.g., example.com) and the relevant subdomains were set to Proxied in Cloudflare. This is crucial because caching won’t apply to DNS-only records.
2. Created a Custom Cache Rule
We defined a rule to cache common static file types:
- Images:
.jpg, .jpeg, .png, .svg - Stylesheets:
.css - Scripts:
.js - Fonts:
.woff, .woff2
The rule looked like this in Cloudflare:
(http.request.full_uri wildcard "*.jpg" or
http.request.full_uri wildcard "*.jpeg" or
http.request.full_uri wildcard "*.png" or
http.request.full_uri wildcard "*.css" or
http.request.full_uri wildcard "*.js" or
http.request.full_uri wildcard "*.woff" or
http.request.full_uri wildcard "*.woff2" or
http.request.full_uri wildcard "*.svg")
3. Enabled Cache Eligibility
We set the rule to Eligible for cache so Cloudflare could store and serve these assets.
4. Adjusted Edge TTL Settings
We configured Cloudflare to:
- Use the cache-control header if present, but
- Default to Cloudflare’s cache settings if the origin didn’t provide one.
5. Purged Old Cache
To apply the rule immediately, we performed a Purge Everything in Cloudflare.
Confirming the Fix
Once deployed, we tested static assets using both browser DevTools and curl commands. Successful responses showed:
cf-cache-status: HITThis confirmed that the content was being served from Cloudflare’s cache rather than our origin server.
The Benefits: Faster, More Reliable Website
After implementing the fix, we noticed:
- ⚡ Improved Website Speed: Static content loaded significantly faster for visitors.
- 🌍 Reduced Server Load: With Cloudflare serving cached content, our origin server handled fewer requests.
- 🔒 Increased Reliability: Visitors continued to see cached content even if our origin server slowed down temporarily.
- 📈 Better SEO Performance: Faster load times help improve search rankings.
Key Takeaway
If you see the “This rule may not apply to your traffic” warning in Cloudflare while setting up a cache rule, don’t panic. It often means some of your DNS records aren’t proxied. By ensuring the relevant records are proxied and configuring proper cache rules, you can:
- Eliminate the false alert
- Speed up your website
- Deliver a smoother experience to your visitors
Cloudflare remains one of the most powerful (and cost-effective) tools for optimizing web performance. With the right configuration, you can achieve a faster, more resilient, and user-friendly website.
