A WordPress site’s database needs to be healthy for better performance & stability. Over time, the database on your website may accumulate unnecessary data, which can place a load on the server or slow down site performance. Therefore, it’s essential to optimize the database regularly to ensure your WordPress site runs smoothly. That’s why every website maintenance plan covers database optimization activity as an integral part of the package.
In this blog post, we are sharing 10 tasks that every WordPress developer does to maintain a website by optimizing its database:
1. Remove Unused Post Revisions
Did you know? WordPress stores every revision of your posts and pages. It’s good to clear them from time to time.
What does it include?
- Delete old post revisions.
- Limit future revisions using a plugin or a WP-Config rule.
- Disable revisions for pages that do not need them
2. Clean Up Auto-Drafts & Trashed Posts
Drafts and trash folders proliferate if not cleaned. Eventually, they may slow the site’s performance. It is therefore crucial to clean them up regularly.
Tasks to perform:
- Delete auto-saved drafts
- Empty the trash folder regularly.
- Disable auto-drafts if not needed
3. Delete Spam & Trashed Comments
Have you ever checked the spam comment list in your WordPress site’s backend? Most webmasters don’t do. We’ve found that 6 in 10 websites have hundreds, if not thousands, of spam comments. Yes, spam comments can add thousands of unnecessary rows.
What should you do about the spam comments?
- Empty the spam folder daily or weekly.
- Delete all trashed comments.
- Use anti-spam tools to reduce accumulation.
4. Optimize Database Tables
Database tables can also collect overhead and fragmentation over time.
How to get rid of that data?
- Run “Optimize Table” for all tables.
- Repair corrupted or partially damaged tables.
- Schedule monthly table optimization.
5. Delete Unused Plugins & Their Data
This is an essential step for every webmaster to ensure database optimization of their WordPress sites. They must delete unused plugins from their sites because uninstalled plugins may still leave data behind.
Tasks to perform:
- Identify unused plugins
- Remove plugin tables left after uninstallation.
- Clean old entries in wp_options and wp_postmeta
6. Clean Up Orphaned Metadata
Another overhead a WordPress database may incur is orphaned metadata, which can slow database queries.
How to handle orphaned metadata?
- Remove unused postmeta entries.
- Delete metadata linked to deleted posts.
- Clean old usermeta entries from deleted users
7. Check & Fix Corrupted Tables
Over time, the database of your WordPress site may also possess corrupted tables. This corruption can cause significant website errors.
How to handle corrupted tables?
- Scan database tables for corruption
- Repair corrupted tables via phpMyAdmin
- Enable regular database health checks.
8. Automate Regular Database Optimization
It may be overwhelming for website owners to maintain their website database manually. Therefore, it’s recommended to set up an automated process to ensure long-term database health.
Steps to perform and automate regular database optimization:
- Set weekly or monthly cleanup schedules.
- Use tools like WP-Optimize, Advanced DB Cleaner, or hosting-level cron jobs.
- Perform manual checks quarterly for accuracy.