Where problems come from.
STATISTICS PLUGINS
Recording every visit to your own database turns every page view into a database write.
Use an external analytics service instead.
SECURITY PLUGINS THAT SCAN CONSTANTLY
File scanning is expensive. Schedule it rather than running continuously.
RELATED POSTS PLUGINS
Query heavily on every page.
Consider whether the return justifies it.
SLIDER PLUGINS
Heavy, and sliders perform poorly for conversion anyway.
Most visitors never see past the first slide.
SOCIAL SHARING PLUGINS
Add scripts from other servers. Most produce very few shares.
Plain links achieve the same at no cost.
ANYTHING MODIFYING THE CHECKOUT
The most common cause of a shop breaking after an update.
ANYTHING NOT UPDATED IN YEARS
Regardless of what it does.
BACKUP PLUGINS RUNNING AT BUSY TIMES
Schedule them overnight.
WHAT TO DO
Audit against this list. Most sites have at least two.
