Introduction
If you’re like me, then you’ve probably found yourself asking why your WordPress site is slow and unresponsive. After all, if your site is slow in general, then how could it be optimized? That’s why I’m here! In this blog post, we’ll look at how to optimize your wordpress database using plugins (and even without using any plugins).
WordPress Core Database Table Setup
The WordPress database table is called wpdb. It includes all the tables that hold your site’s information, including posts, comments, and attachments. The three core databases are wp_posts , wp_comments and wp_term_relationships .
In order to optimize your database tables for performance and security reasons, you need to ensure that they have the following columns:
- Primary Key – This column is used for primary keys. It must be unique across all records in a table (and therefore cannot be null). You also want this field to include an auto-incrementing value so WordPress can automatically generate unique IDs when inserting new rows into it (more on this later). If you don’t use an auto-incrementing value then some tables may end up having duplicate IDs which could lead to unwanted side effects like duplicate content appearing on pages when two users share one article with each other but not with others who view those same articles individually first before looking at them together via social media sharing buttons like share buttons seen below:
Why Should I Optimize My WordPress Database?
The WordPress database is used to store all the data of your website. This includes everything from posts and pages, to comments and meta information. Over time, as you add more content or make changes to existing pages, this can cause problems if it is not structured properly.
You need a large enough database so that when people visit your site they don’t have to wait for it all to load before going on with their day-to-day activities. The larger your database becomes over time (especially if you’re using an older version of WordPress), then there may be times when users notice slow page loads or even intermittent issues with loading pages altogether!
How Your WordPress Database Fills up and Slows Down
- Spam comments.
- Post revisions.
If you have a lot of spam comments, your WordPress database will fill up and slow down. You may be wondering how did these get there? Well, it’s quite simple: they were not deleted by the system when they were posted as an email alert or as a comment on a post because no one actually looked at them (or at least bothered). The good news is that we can remove these unwanted entries from our databases using some simple tools provided by WordPress!
How to Manually Optimize Your WordPress Database
If you have a MySQL database, you can use phpMyAdmin to optimize your database.
If you prefer to automate the process, there are several plugins that will help: WP-Optimize (the default for WordPress sites), WP-DBManager (another popular plugin), and W3 Total Cache (a caching plugin).
Plugins to Optimize Your Database
- WP-Optimize: This plugin will help you clean up your database and optimize it, so that you can speed up WordPress. It also has a handy cache control panel that lets you decide how much time to keep cached pages around before they’re deleted.
- WP-DBManager: This plugin adds some additional features to the popular WPDBMS administration tool, including searching for tables on your database and managing them individually if needed. It also offers access to all of the data stored in those tables (if they’re configured).
- WP-Sweep: This is another great option if you want more control over what gets added into your database as well as how it’s stored there when it does get added!
1. Get Rid of Spam Comments
Spam comments are not needed. You can get rid of them with a plugin or by using a free service.
2. Delete Post Revisions
If you’re a writer, or even just someone who likes to edit their posts before posting them, then deleting revisions from your WordPress database will be a great way to speed up site performance. Revisions are essentially previous versions of an article that were saved in the trash folder and then deleted by default when you save a new version.
However, these revisions can slow down your website if they’re not removed from the trash folder manually. To do so:
- Go into Settings > Reading and Plugins > Post Revisions > Database Optimizer (if available) or Trimmed Data (for older versions). Select “Delete” under each revision’s title bar or row within this interface.* Hit Delete!
3. Delete Auto Draft Posts
Auto drafts are posts that WordPress creates for you. They’re useful because they allow you to create content without having to go through the hassle of creating a post first, but if you have a lot of auto-draft posts in your database (especially if they’re not being used), it can really slow down your site and eat up resources like memory and disk space.
You may have noticed that when editing a new post, there’s an option called “Save Draft.” This is what allows us to create an auto draft at any time:
- Click on the Edit menu at the top right corner of your browser window and select New Post from here, or go directly into Settings > General settings where you’ll find this option under Content
4. Eliminate Unused Plugins
- Eliminate Unused Plugins
Unused plugins are a common cause of database bloat, and in some cases, they can even contribute to slow WordPress performance. Removing unused plugins will free up space on your server and make it easier for you to manage your site’s performance. You can do this manually or use a plugin like W3 Total Cache which automatically cleans out old cache files for you in batch mode so that everything runs smoothly when it comes time for an update or maintenance checkup later down the road!
If you don’t know what each plugin does (like if it’s just designed as an image Gallery), then chances are pretty high that said plugin isn’t being used anymore—so go ahead and remove any unused ones from our list above!
5. Empty Trash Folder
- Empty Trash Folder
If you don’t keep a lot of trash in the trash folder, then you can empty it regularly by clicking on the Settings > General tab > Delete Files button in the WordPress dashboard. However, it’s important to note that if there are any files or folders that have been deleted from within your website but not emptied into Trash (such as temporary files), then these will still be visible when viewing your site after upgrading or installing a plugin or theme update; so make sure these are removed before proceeding with this process!
6. Remove Trackbacks and Pingbacks
Trackbacks and Pingbacks are comments that other sites make about your blog. They don’t affect the performance of your site, but they can clutter up your database with unnecessary data. If you want to remove them from your database, follow these steps:
- Go to Settings > Permalinks on the Dashboard page and click “Delete Trackback & Pingback Links“.
- Click “Yes” when prompted about deleting all deleted links at once (this will take several hours).
A healthy database can do wonders for your WordPress site’s speed and performance!
Optimizing your WordPress database is a good practice, and it can help improve your website speed and performance, as well as its overall security, uptime, and rankings in search engines.
Conclusion
This article will give you a brief overview of the most common WordPress database on how to optimize the database tips and tricks. It is not meant to be an all-inclusive guide on optimizing your WordPress database; rather it is meant to help you get started in the right direction if you’re new to this topic. If after reading this article, you wish more information about how other people have optimized their databases, feel free to visit our blog or check out our other articles! We are always looking for ways to improve things here at WP Super Cache too 🙂
Check other WordPress Tips and Tricks on my little space on the Internet.
