How to Reduce Database Bloat on Your WordPress Site | EP 97

How to Reduce Database Bloat on Your WordPress Site

1. Turn off your post revisions or set a maximum number 01:20
   • Post revisions are important. Most people use them in case they make a mistake and need to revert back to a spot in time.
   • Disabling or limiting post revisions will help to reduce database bloat on your website.
   • Here is an article from wpmudev about disabling and limiting post revisions.
2. Optimize database and delete revisions 02:43
   • The above step will help you to reduce or eliminate revisions going forward, but it won’t go back and delete ones that have already been created.
   • For that step, you should use a plugin like Simple Revisions Delete to clean this up.
   • Another plugin that will allow you to optimize your database is WP-Optimize.
3. Choose off WordPress solutions instead of plugins when possible 03:50
   • For example, David and Tim both have e-commerce websites. With e-commerce websites, you’ll need a solution for customer service. There are many plugins out there that could handle this and it seems like the easiest option.
   • However, what really happens is that a new database table is created every time someone opens a ticket, responds to a message, etc.
   • David and Tim use Help Scout for support forms. This helps to keep all this data from slowing down the website.
   • Affiliate programs can also create a lot of data on your website, so you’ll need to use the other techniques mentioned to clean out your database tables and reduce database bloat.
4. Clean out database tables from plugins that are no longer used 06:33
   • When you’re building a website, you might try out a few different plugins to see which you like the best.
   • Usually you will keep the one that fits the best and then deactivate and delete the rest. If this is not the case, make sure to go back and clean up plugins that you aren’t using.
   • Once you have deleted the plugin (or even every few months), go in and look for the data created by deleted plugins. Even though you have deactivated and deleted plugins, they will leave data behind.
   • Here is an article to help you remove leftover plugin database tables from your website.
   • Here is a great plugin called WordPress Database Reset to clean up your database.