Tutorial WP-Optimize –

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Many times we do not realize the space that is consumed daily in our databases, simply by making a small adjustment to our pages, this over time can cause an important space consumed in our hosting.

These types of changes are reflected every time a new post or page is saved, since wordpress creates several revisions of it in order to have a return point in case of emergency, sometimes this does not merit a big problem, but if we have a entry with more than 20 revisions and adjustments made in other internals, this causes the database to have information that is not very useful when optimizing.

Not only do adjustments on pages create space in the database, but also comments whether they are Spam or not, this for each of the entries in which they are allowed, however, with the Wp-Optimize plugin we can clean these files that are generated and that can saturate our hosting.

Features of WP-Optimize:

• Database
  • optimizations
  • Boards
  • Settings
• Images
• Cache
  • Cache management
  • preload
  • Gzip compression, advanced settings and static headers
• minify

How to install it?

To install the WP-Optimize plugin you only need to go to the WordPress dashboard of your website, go to the Plugins Menu > Add new (1), type WP-Optimize in the search engine.

At the end of the installation, you will have to select the Activate option (1).

Database: Optimizations

One of the main options of WP-Optimize is the update and management of the database spaces, directly here we can see when entering all the configurations related to the database:

Directly inside the options we see:

• Optimize database tables– Directly optimizes all the tables it finds in the database, eliminating content that is not necessary.
• Clear all post revisions- As we have mentioned, the revisions of the entries are all the changes that are saved from pages and entries prior to the current publication.
• Clear all auto drafts- The name itself indicates deletion of the stored draft entries from the database.
• Clear Trash Entries- Its name indicates the emptying of posts and entries that are located in the trash and were not deleted correctly.
• Delete spam and comments in the trash- In this option we already need interaction because by default it is not selected, basically all the comments that we have marked as spam or in the trash will be eliminated both from the system and from the database.
• Delete unapproved comments This option is to eliminate the comments that have not had interaction, that is, those that are missing due to approval or have just been received
• Delete expired temporary options- In this case, the most recommended thing is not to select delete all, just allow wo-0ptimize to select the ones to delete, since this, in a nutshell, eliminates the changes that became obsolete when passing from one version to another of a plugin or theme. .
• Remove pingbacks- If the use of pingbacks has been allowed, this option eliminates them completely, but they are not deactivated, it will only do a general emptying of these options
• Delete Trackbacks- Like the pings, if it has been activated and there is a record of tracks, then it will be eliminated but not disabled.
• Clear post metadata- This cleans up the post metadata histories so they can be reconfigured if you have any inconsistencies with them.
• Clear comment metadata- Like the entries, this option refers to the metadata of the stored comments.
• Clean orphaned data- This option eliminates data that is not related to each other, for example a purchase order in which the user does not exist.

Note: It is always advisable to leave the default options for optimization and if you are going to use any of the other options, the ideal is to create a return point (backup) of the web since we are working directly with the database and an error or a file removed from more could cause the site to stop displaying altogether.

Databases: Tables

This plugin offers us the possibility of viewing the tables with their weight and records in it, as well as if you have any plugin that is inactive or has been deleted but its database record remains active and is consuming space, it can be deleted:

We simply select the table to delete and make sure it is from a deleted plugin. As in the previous step, it is always important to have a backup of the site at hand.

Database: Settings

In this section we have all the general settings that we can apply to the database in relation to the plugin:

Keep data: In this case, the first option already tells us based on how long we want to keep the registry of our site based on weeks, this is a bit delicate since if a constant registry of the site is not kept and the versions that have worked are not known Activating this option implies that if at any moment we lose sight of the web, the compression and emptying system will continue to be applied even if something fails.

Scheduled Cleaning: Scheduled cleaning is a setting that is active by default and, unlike the previous one, it does not delete by date, but instead cleans files that are not necessary for the site to function properly.

Images: image compression

Another very important option when making adjustments is that of the images in this tool we can directly compress the images uploaded to our media files, being able to prioritize compression or retention of details in the photos, or maintain the same values ​​present in the images .

Likewise, we have two options that, although they are part of a payment plan, it is good to emphasize them, one of them is the visualization of images and their sizes in such a way that we can eliminate all the image files that are part of a specific resolution, this However, as the plugin itself indicates, it should not be taken lightly and is part of a package that you must have experience to know what to eliminate.

In general, also in a paid way, it offers a lazy load for images, iframes and videos that are inserted in the website.

Cache: Cache management

In this case, activating the cache we will have the option to purge it, as well as a small summary of how much cache we have stored on the site to know how much is purged every time we want to use this tool. We also have the possibility to decide how much this cache will be stored, being able to select between days, hours or months.

Cache: Preload

This preload basically forces the cache of the site, this so that new users can enter and have a better loading of the site since it is preloaded in the cache, a scheduled preload can even be activated and in this way if we have a blog that is updated to daily instead of manually making this adjustment can be done automatically:

Cache: Gzip compression, advanced settings and static headers

This section includes three sections because two of them are system warnings:

These settings are activated automatically by our installation once the installation and activation of the plugin is completed, lastly and most importantly in relation to the cache, we have some advanced settings that allow us to exclude both URLs and cookies or code strings to be cached, this, like other options, works if we know more about a specific cookie or application that we do not want to be loaded in the site’s cache.

minify

Last but not least, we have the option to minify the files, an option that is displayed when activating their minification:

This will activate several possibilities:

At first glance we see all the options, but we will investigate each one:

JavaScript: We can directly activate the compression of the javascript code of our site as well as add an exclusion list so that it does not defer certain javascript documents that may cause problems in our wordpress if they are compressed, as well as the option to defer these to make them load later .

CSS: Like the javascript version, the css has the same options, both for compression and cache delay.

Fonts: As its name indicates, in this section we will work with the fonts, but unlike the two previous options, in this one we have the option of changing the configuration or direct loading of the Google fonts and Font awesome, settings that can be reverted in case of that the load of these intervenes in the operation of another complement.

Last but not least, we have the option of directly removing information from the header referring to our installation or having a log of our minified files:

conclusion

Once this extensive guide is finished, we can conclude that wp optimize is a very useful tool when it comes to facilitating the compression and optimization of elements of our site, such as the possibility of optimizing images, general compression of the site through gzip technology, cache management, and more options provided by this plugin.

Always highlighting the possibility of doing all this for free, with some exceptions this plugin offers us a very good added value to our site, helping us to optimize the site as much as possible and thus improve its loading, which at the end of the day is what we look for when installing a new plugin, its usefulness.

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