Is your WordPress site slow? The reasons could be that either a bloated database running in the background is one of them. A professional WordPress maintenance workflow is what you require then. It includes regular database optimization during which you get rid of unnecessary data, and locate and fix errors and inconsistencies in your database. For this, you may consider contacting our WordPress development services in Kochi.
WordPress database optimization doesn’t demand any specific programming knowledge, though it can call occasionally to edit the wp-config file.
Listed below are a couple of best practices about how to optimize your WordPress database.
Begin the process with a backup
Before performing optimization, it is always essential to create a backup of your database. Hence if anything goes wrong, you won’t lose any data and can easily return to a previous version of your site. There different means to back up a WordPress site are:
- To create a full site backup from the cPanel of your hosting account,
- To export all your content including your posts, pages, comments, and other post types using the Tools > Export menu in your WordPress admin area,
- To use a backup plugin such as BackupBuddy or VaultPress that allows you to create different kinds of custom backups.
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Don’t keep the content that you don’t need
An important aspect of database optimization is to get rid of the overhead content on your site. Each post, comment, page, and post revision is an entry in your database. Freeing it up will provide a lot of space. So, go ahead by deleting unused, obsolete, or duplicate content right from your WordPress admin area.
If you have had a WordPress site for a while, you can find such content in many different places. Deleting the Trash folder of your Posts and Pages is an important thing to do.
Also, check if you have any taxonomies that you don’t use. WordPress has two kinds of taxonomies by default: tags and categories; you can find both of them in the Posts menu.
Database optimization is an excellent opportunity to think through your taxonomy structure and get rid of duplicate tags and categories. This will improve the findability of your posts.
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Get rid of themes and plugins that you don’t use
Many plugins and some complicated themes create extra tables inside your database. And also all plugins and themes store their configuration options in the wp-options table.
Plugins and themes that are developed following WordPress’ coding standards clean up after themselves when you remove them from your site. In that case, you only need to delete them from the WordPress admin area, from the Appearance and Plugins menus.
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Optimize your tables in phpMyAdmin
A database optimization query can be run right from your phpMyAdmin interface. Your raw database can be accessed using PhpMyAdmin. You may reach phpMyAdmin from the cPanel of your hosting account, from the Databases menu.
The means to do this is to open the database belonging to your WordPress site In phpMyAdmin and check the tables you want to optimize. You can also choose the Check All option.
As you scroll down the dropdown list you will find the tables. From the Table maintenance group, you should select the Optimize table option and run the query.
The Optimize table option runs the OPTIMIZE TABLE command on your database, which, according to the MySQL documentation:
“reorganizes the physical storage of table data and associated index data, to reduce storage space and improve I/O efficiency when accessing the table.”
Besides OPTIMIZE TABLE, you can also run the REPAIR TABLE query from the same phpMyAdmin menu, which “repairs a possibly corrupted table”.
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Run WordPress’ Database Optimization Tool
WordPress Core comes with a built-in database optimization tool. It’s usually turned off by default, however, you can activate it by editing your wp-config.php file. You can find wp-config in the root directory of your WordPress that is installed on your server. As you open it in your code editor and you should add the following option to the top of the file:
define( ‘WP_ALLOW_REPAIR’, true );
The optimization script can be found in http://your-site.com/wp-admin/maint/repair.php URL, where you need to replace your-site.com with your domain.
You can then choose from two options:
- Repair Database – it looks for and repairs common database problems,
- Repair and Optimize Database – besides all the tasks performed by Repair Database, it also attempts to optimize your database to improve performance.
Mostly, the first option is enough, but if you want an in-depth cleanup, choosing the second one will be ideal. Wait until the tool repairs and/or optimizes your database, then remove the option you have added to your wp-config file (otherwise, anyone on the web can see sensitive information about your database).
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Use a Database Cleanup Plugin
If you don’t want to access your raw database and your wp-config file, or you want to perform advanced database optimization tasks, you can also make use of a plugin. But, you must note that you shouldn’t use more than one database optimization plugin at the same time, because these plugins have similar functionalities that can interact with each other in unexpected ways.
Conclusion
Database optimization is an essential task that should be performed regularly to maintain good data health on your site. Optimization can either be done manually or by making use of a database cleanup plugin that lets you configure and automate the entire process.
Database optimization is also a typical maintenance service that is essential for your WordPress site. Get it done flawlessly with the help of our agency that provides the best web application development in Kerala.
If you want to know more about what else to pay attention to, do get in touch with our agency.