Clearing cache after development for visitor

Question

I'm developing sites and some visitor's browsers appear with old cache.

Is there a way we can clear visitor's browser cache using codes from the server side or even javascript so they don't have to clear themselves?

I cannot find the direct answer to this.

There must be a way big companies do like Facebook, Ebay etc

Answer 1

We have been using htaccess to determine the caching rules of the clients. We explicitly give the cache a 24h lifetime and we put no-cache rules the day before we do the update. It has helped but it is tedious and not so reliable.

Just posting it to give you ideas if no one answers, but I would really love to get the answer too. :)