1. Introduction

1.1 Goals of the Tutorial

In this tutorial, we aim to guide you through the process of optimizing your WordPress database for improved speed. Your WordPress website's speed is often impacted by a cluttered database, excessive post revisions, and unnecessary autosaves. By optimizing your database, you can significantly enhance the performance and speed of your website.

1.2 Learning Outcomes

By the end of this tutorial, you will be able to:

• Understand why database optimization is important for website speed.
• Clean up your WordPress database.
• Limit the number of post revisions.
• Disable unnecessary autosaves.

1.3 Prerequisites

A basic understanding of WordPress and its database structure is required. Familiarity with PHP and SQL will be beneficial but not mandatory.

2. Step-by-Step Guide

2.1 Cleaning Up the WordPress Database

Over time, WordPress databases can become cluttered with unnecessary data, slowing down your website. Cleaning up your database involves removing useless data such as spam comments, post revisions, and unused tags.

2.2 Limiting Post Revisions

WordPress stores a new version of a post every time you save, leading to numerous post revisions. By limiting the number of stored revisions, you can reduce the size of your database and enhance your website's speed.

2.3 Disabling Autosaves

WordPress automatically saves drafts every 60 seconds. This feature, while useful, can inflate your database size. Disabling or lengthening the autosave interval can help optimize your database.

3. Code Examples

3.1 Cleaning Up the WordPress Database

There are several plugins available to clean up your WordPress database. One such plugin is WP-Optimize. Install and activate this plugin, then navigate to WP-Optimize > Database.

// Code example not necessary as this is a plugin usage.

3.2 Limiting Post Revisions

This involves adding a line of code to your wp-config.php file.

define('WP_POST_REVISIONS', 3);

This code limits WordPress to store only the last 3 revisions of each post.

3.3 Disabling Autosaves

To change the autosave interval, add the following line to your wp-config.php file.

define('AUTOSAVE_INTERVAL', 300 );

This line changes the autosave interval to every 5 minutes (300 seconds).

4. Summary

In this tutorial, we discussed how you can improve your WordPress website's speed by optimizing your database. We covered three key strategies - cleaning up your database, limiting post revisions, and adjusting the autosave interval.

5. Practice Exercises

5.1 Exercise 1

Try to limit post revisions to the last 5 versions and change the autosave interval to 10 minutes.

Solution:

define('WP_POST_REVISIONS', 5);
define('AUTOSAVE_INTERVAL', 600);

5.2 Exercise 2

Try using a different database optimization plugin such as Advanced Database Cleaner.

Solution:

Install and activate the 'Advanced Database Cleaner' plugin. Navigate to the plugin settings to clean your database.

Remember to always backup your database before making any changes, and happy coding!