Optimizing your database cleans up unwanted data which reduces database size and improves performance. In this article, we will show you how to easily optimize your WordPress database with no hassle at all.

Why should you optimize your database?

If you have been using WordPress for a while then chances are there’s probably some useless data in your database like post revisions, orphaned metadata, spam comments and trash. This useless data all contribute to your WordPress database size which means your backups will take up more disk space and will also take longer to restore. Cleaning up all this junk data will reduce your WordPress database size which means faster backups, improved database performance and speedier restores. Now that you understand why it’s a good idea to optimise your database let’s have a look at how we actually go about doing it.

Optimizing your database

As you’ll be working on your WordPress site it’s advised that you make a WordPress backup before continuing.

Next, you will need to install and activate the WP-Optimize plugin. Upon activation, the plugin will add a new menu item in your WordPress admin bar labelled WP-Optimize. Clicking on it will take you to plugin’s settings page.

On this screen, you will be presented with a number of options that the plugin can perform on your database. Review the options carefully, unticking any you don’t want to run at the moment.

Items marked in red require more intensive database operations. If the process is interrupted during the operation, then it may corrupt data. That’s why we strongly recommend that you create a backup of your website before selecting the items in red.

After selecting the items, click on ‘Run on all selected items’ button at the top. The plugin will now start optimizing your WordPress database and show you the progress.

Congratulations, you have now successfully optimized your WordPress database!