WordPress Optimization | Bluehost Support
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WordPress Optimization

WordPress is currently one of the most popular blogging/CMS applications. Here are some ideas for optimizing WordPress and reducing the CPU consumption of this PHP script.

  • Make a backup of your account first, and then upgrade to the latest version of WordPress. The latest versions have optimized code that could reduce the CPU consumption of your site.
  • For permalink structure, do not start with the category, tag, author, or postname fields. Instead try /%year%/%postname%/ or /%post_id%/%postname%/. Also, don't worry about 301 redirects, as WordPress will automatically handle that after the permalink change.
  • Install WP Super Cache or W3 Total Cache, which can be done from your WordPress Dashboard under Plugins. Follow the links below for information on how to set up these plugins.
  • Many themes are more CPU intensive.
    • Make sure your page loads are generating no errors in your Error Log (in cPanel under Logs)
    • Also, if you're using dynamic image resizing, you may want to disable this if possible.
    • If all else fails, contact the theme provider for assistance or change to a different theme.
  • Disable CPU-intensive plugins or plugins that you no longer need.
    • All related post's plugins (WordPress Related Posts, YARPP) can cause a significantly high load in most cases.
    • WPRobot3 and other auto-posters can also cause high load issues and be disabled if they are causing issues.
    • StatPress and other WordPress statistics software should also be disabled, as these too can consume too much CPU in some cases. Use Google Analytics instead for statistics.
    • Any other plugins that are not vital to your WordPress should be disabled.
  • Manage Spambots. Non-human visitors/posters (aside from web spiders) should be blocked. Use a captcha such as SI CAPTCHA to prevent comment spam.
  • Lower the rate web spiders crawl your WordPress blogs if you have many blogs hosted under your account. High crawl rates can drive up the load on the server, as many bots try to index your sites. To learn more, please see this article: Directory Index.

These changes are not guaranteed fixes but do provide a starting ground for correcting high load issues on WordPress sites. If there are any questions about this, don't hesitate to contact support.

If you need further assistance, feel free to contact us via Chat or Phone:

  • Chat Support - While you are on our website, you should see a CHAT bubble in the bottom right-hand corner of the page. Click anywhere on the bubble to begin a chat session.
  • Phone Support -
    • US: 888-401-4678
    • International: +1 801-765-9400

You may also refer to our Knowledge Base articles to help answer common questions and guide you through various setup, configuration, and troubleshooting steps.