Every issue we look for, with a fix.

How to remove orphaned post meta in WordPress

Orphaned post meta is metadata whose parent post no longer exists, sitting in one of WordPress's largest tables and slowing every meta query. Here is how to find and delete it safely.

How to find and remove abandoned WordPress plugins

An abandoned plugin has not been updated in years but still loads its code on every request, and unmaintained code is the most common way WordPress sites get compromised. Here is how to spot one and remove it safely.

How to reduce autoload size in WordPress

Autoloaded options in wp_options are loaded into memory on every request, and oversized autoload data adds a fixed cost to every page. Here is how to measure it and get it back under 1 MB.

How to flush expired transients in WordPress

Expired transients pile up in wp_options and get read into memory on every page load. Here is how to check the count, delete them safely with WP-CLI, and stop them from rebuilding into bloat.

How to enable page caching in WordPress

Without page caching, WordPress rebuilds every page from PHP and database queries for every single visitor. Page caching saves the finished HTML the first time and serves that copy to everyone after, cutting server response time from seconds to milliseconds.

How to disable cart fragments in WooCommerce

WooCommerce's cart fragments feature updates the mini-cart via an admin-ajax call on nearly every page view, including pages with no cart in sight, and the call bypasses all caching. On busy stores it is routinely the single slowest request on the page.

How to defer render-blocking scripts in WordPress

A render-blocking script is JavaScript loaded in the page head without defer or async, forcing the browser to stop building the page until the file downloads and runs. Moving non-critical scripts out of the critical path lets the page paint first and run JavaScript after, which is one of the biggest first-paint wins on mobile.

How to convert images to WebP in WordPress

WebP delivers the same visual quality as JPEG or PNG at roughly 25 to 35% smaller file sizes, and every current browser supports it. Converting your media library to WebP cuts image weight across the whole site.

How to compress oversized images in WordPress

Oversized images are the single most common cause of slow WordPress pages. The fix is to compress existing images, serve appropriately sized versions, and let WordPress generate the right thumbnails.

How to clean up post revisions in WordPress

WordPress saves a copy of a post every time you click update, forever, unless told otherwise. The fix is to delete old revisions and cap how many WordPress keeps in the future.

How to add missing database indexes in WordPress

An index lets MySQL find rows without scanning the whole table. Adding the right index can turn a 2-second query into a 20-millisecond one.

Minify JavaScript to cut payload

Unminified JS ships with comments, full variable names, and whitespace. Minification (often paired with mangling) routinely cuts 50–70% of bytes.

Minify CSS to cut payload

Unminified CSS ships with comments, whitespace, and verbose property values. Minification typically saves 20–40% of CSS bytes with no behaviour change.

Enable a persistent object cache (Redis/Memcached)

WordPress's default object cache is per-request. Persistent object caching makes every cache_get hit a shared store instead of re-doing the database work each time.

Delete existing post revisions

A one-shot cleanup that removes existing revision rows from wp_posts. Pair it with the post-revisions cap so the table doesn't grow back.

Limit post revisions per post

WordPress keeps a revision row for every edit by default. Without a cap, long-lived posts accumulate hundreds of revisions and bloat wp_posts.

Clean up expired transients in wp_options

Expired transients aren't deleted by WordPress on schedule. On busy sites they accumulate in `wp_options` and bloat the autoloaded subset.

Strip ?ver= query strings from static asset URLs

Some CDNs and proxies don't cache URLs with query strings. WordPress appends `?ver=...` to nearly every CSS/JS URL it enqueues, which can completely defeat edge caching.

Enable native lazy loading for images

Loading every image at page boot is wasteful when most are below the fold. Native `loading="lazy"` defers them until they're about to scroll into view.

Enable gzip (or brotli) compression on the server

Without compression, HTML/CSS/JS go over the wire at full size. Gzip cuts most text responses by 70–80%; brotli does a few percent better.

Enable full-page caching for anonymous traffic

Without a page cache, every anonymous visitor triggers the full WordPress PHP boot + database round-trips. A page cache turns that into a single file read.

Enable browser caching for static assets

Without cache headers, repeat visitors re-download every CSS/JS/image on every page. Adding a long max-age makes the second visit nearly instant.

Truncate a runaway wp-content/debug.log

When WP_DEBUG_LOG is on, errors and notices accumulate in wp-content/debug.log forever. A noisy plugin can grow this file to hundreds of MB and slow every write.

Clean up failed Action Scheduler records

WooCommerce's Action Scheduler keeps failed jobs (and their logs) forever by default. On busy stores this can balloon the database with millions of dead rows that no longer affect anything.