In May of 2008 I was running into a lot of trouble with my WordPress blog. Traffic was on the rise and my blog was loading very slowly and at times would even crash. Later after I fixed my WordPress blog and talked about how the damage came from overloading my MySQL database with too many WordPress Plugins. Also, while I am thinking about it, it might not be a bad idea to make sure that you are running the most recent version of WordPress. Here is another article that I wrote that will show you how to upgrade to the latest version of WordPress.
While not all plugins modify the database, there are quite a few that do. I suggest that you keep your WordPress MySQL database as original as possible. WordPress docs offers a page that shows you exactly how your WordPress MySQL database should look like in its original state.
Aside from running your WordPress blog with a very healthy database, there are still some things that you can do to help speed the load time of your blog, especially if your blog gets a lot of day to day traffic.
WP Super Cache WordPress Plugin
The WP Super Cache WordPress Plugin is a great solution towards enabling your blog to load quicker for your readers. This plugin takes a copy of your dynamic pages and basically makes a static or physical copy and allows users to read from that rather than from the more system demanding dynamic pages. Here is the official description of this WordPress plugin:
The WP Super Cache WordPress plugin generates static html files from your dynamic WordPress blog. After a html file is generated your web server will serve that file instead of processing the comparatively heavier and more expensive WordPress PHP scripts.
However, because a user’s details are displayed in the comment form after they leave a comment, the plugin will only serve static html files to:
- Users who are not logged in.
- Users who have not left a comment on your blog.
- Or users who have not viewed a password protected post.
The good news is that probably more than 99% of your visitors don’t do any of the above! Those users who don’t see the static files will still benefit because they will see regular WP-Cache cached files and your server won’t be as busy as before. This plugin should help your server cope with a front page appearance on digg.com or other social networking site.
To learn more about this plugin and download it, you can visit the official WP Super Cache page on the WordPress Plugin Directory. It should indeed help you quite a bit in speeding up your blog.
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Date/Time: 6-15-2008 06:52:32 Comment #15573
I took the time to go back and read your other post, the one with the pissing match.
I learned your lesson the hard way when I was changing hosts. Too many “ooh aah” plugins don’t help anything at all in the long run. The majority of my widgets contain static links — no database queries. It makes loading, even with out the super cache running, much faster than before. I have the super cache on standby when traffic goes crazy, but I don’t use it otherwise.
I recently created 4 niche blogs and only 2 plugins each affect the front ends. They’re lightning fast and without any caching.
Date/Time: 6-15-2008 16:30:00 Comment #15580
I noticed that my 2 blogs also got very slow, and I thought it was a problem with my hosting. I was a bit angry and started writing an email about this problem to my providers when I accidentally came across this post. Thanks for giving me an answer to who could be causing it. I hope this super cache plugin will be a solution.
Date/Time: 6-17-2008 04:26:19 Comment #15631
I was looking for some type of plugin where i can see my site traffic summary and reports stuff, my search took me here, it looks very nice WP Super Cache WordPress Plugin. You explain good information step by step on wp plugins……..it’s helpful topic. B-) x-(
Date/Time: 8-10-2008 05:43:59 Comment #17952
If you use WP Super Cache, does it ever renew the page if you say make changes to the original? And if so, is it automatic or a manual thing you need to do when editting?
Check out Zath’s last blog post..SanDisk Sansa Fuze Review
Date/Time: 9-6-2008 11:57:17 Comment #21415
Oh thanks; I have been too Plugin-crazy. Plus I didn’t thnk about static vs. database queries…ah hah!
Also I saw Kontera was always last and longest to load; anyone else notice that? I was happy to remove it.
I already use HostGator and they are awesome. I have a reseller account; only $25/month for a huge amount of disk space and bandwidth, plus their upgrades are always up to date and support is excellent.