Fewer and lighter queries.
WHAT ADDS QUERIES
Each plugin Related posts and recommendations Statistics recorded to your own database Complex category and filter pages Large menus
WHAT TO DO
Enable caching, which eliminates queries for cached responses Remove plugins that query heavily Use external analytics rather than recording visits locally Clean the database
THE AUTOLOAD PROBLEM IN WORDPRESS
Certain options load on every single request.
Plugins sometimes store large amounts there and never clean up.
A site with several megabytes autoloaded is slow on every page.
HOW TO CHECK IT
A database optimisation plugin reports autoloaded size.
CLEANING THE DATABASE
Revisions, spam, expired temporary data.
Back up first.
FOR SHOPS
Product filtering and large catalogues are query-heavy.
Limit products per page and index appropriately.
