I run a high traffic WordPress website, how I can optimize my wordpress congiguration, my website is too slow!
Answer: Slow Wordpress website
Poorly implemented WordPress setups can place a high load on webservers and lead to interruptions of service or account suspensions for using too many resources.
Here are some tips that can help you make your WordPress install more stable:
- Use WordPress super cache plugin as the number one thing you can do to improve WordPress performance is install a page cache. WordPress super cache plugin is an extensive modification of the WP-Cache plugin. The WordPress super cache plugin serializes your posts to a file on disk and later spits them back. It also knows how to update itself when comments are received, so your site is always the most up to date. This plugin ensures a stable and responsive wordpress install.
To use this plugin you must have Mod_Rewrite enabled. Add the following to your .htaccess file: Options +FollowSymLinks RewriteEngine On
Please see http://ocaoimh.ie/wp-super-cache for more information.
Browser caching can help to reduce server load by reducing the number of requests per page. For example, by setting the correct file headers on files that don't change (static files like images, CSS, JavaScript etc) browsers will then cache these files on the use's computer. This technique allows the browser to check to see if files have changed, instead of simply requesting them. The result is your web server can answer many more 304 responses, confirming that a file is unchanged, instead of 200 responses, which require the file to be sent.
Look into HTTP Cache-Control (specifically max-age) and Expires headers, as well as Entity Tags for more information.
Web server caching is more complex but is used in very high traffic sites. A wide range of options are available, beyond the scope of this article. The simplest solutions start with the server caching locally while more complex and involved systems may use multiple caching servers (also known as reverse proxy servers) "in front" of web servers where the WordPress application is actually running. Adding an opcode cache like Alternative PHP Cache (APC) to your server will improve PHP's performance by many times.
- If you are doing media-rich applications and serving large files you may want to consider hosting these files on a dedicated server.
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