4 Methods to Clean The WordPress Database and Improve Performance

Posted on September 8th, 2023

A clean database of the website is like a healthy stomach for a person. If a person eats unnecessary, improper food, then it will affect the person’s health. And somewhere he/she will feel sick and can not concentrate on the work. As a result, the work can be delay, and sometimes the person will not be in a condition to work. Just as the upon example, it’s not only happening with human beings. It happens to our websites too, where the result will be like webpage loading time issues, Data management failure, Database Crash, etc. This article will learn about how we can stop these kinds of damage to our website—also, the tricks for having a healthy database for the websites. 

Firstly, we have to understand what is the main due to. I mean, we need to know the main reasons behind the unhealthy Database. Because we can’t answer if we don’t have a question. So here is the list of the reasons which affect our Database and make it unhealthy.

• The website images are not optimized.
• Issues in JavaScript.
• Too much flash content.
• Excessive HTTP requests.
• Unregular clearing cache.
• Compression file issue.
• Too many ads.

The optimization process is nothing but recognizing the unnecessary and unethical data from the Database. After identifying the issue, we have to alter, replace or delete the data from our Database. Many business enterprises which are already working with more than one country will regularly depend on the Database. Their customer details, Invoices, emails, and many more important data can be saved in the Database. So, keep the Database clean and value the quality data of the Database.   

Here is the solution to how we can remove the unnecessary data and optimize the database speed. In WordPress, there are some plugins available that are very popular. But before you start cleaning your Database, make sure that you create a backup of your Database. You can use one of the best backup and restoration plugins called UpdraftPlus. This plugin will help you create a database and store it in cloud storage like Google Drive, DropBox, Amazon Cloud, or FTP server. So, I hope you will create a data backup of your database and WordPress files.

Here is the list of the plugins which are very helpful to clean the Database and WordPress too.

1. WP-Optimize
2. WP Sweep
3. Advanced Database Cleaner
4. Plugin’s Garbage Collector

So, Let’s understand how we can use them in the WordPress Website. 

WP-Optimize

The WP-Optimize is an all-in-one app where you can clean your Database, Compress your large files, and clean the cache of your website. In short, this plugin is revolutionary because this plugin will make your website more smooth and fast than ever before. So, let’s see how we can optimize our website with the WP-Optimize plugin.

Step 1: Install and Activate the WP-Optimize Plugin on your WordPress.

Step 2: Take your mouse pointer on the WP-Optimize tab from the sidebar, then click on the Database tab option.

Step 3: you’re on the dashboard of the WP-Optimize plugin. You can see three tabs on the top of the page. Click on the Optimization tab.

Step 4: Then, Scroll-down the page and find the Run all selected optimizations button, as you can see in the below image.

(This button will help you to Run the Optimization on your website. You can see a list of the optimizable contents. Select the required optimization for your site in case it is not selected.)

Step 5: Even, you can even optimize the different content separately. You can see a button as Run-optimization in front of every optimizable content.

Step 6: Now, Click on the Tables tab.

Step 7: Then scroll down the page, and you’ll see a list of Tables used in your WordPress site. Front of the table you’ll be able to see the Remove button. 

Step 8: Click on the Remove button to delete the table. You can see the remove button only on non-required tables.

Step 9: Then Click on the Settings tab from the top tab section.

Step 10: In the Setting tab, Scroll-down the page and find Scheduled clean-up settings.

(This setting will help you to create a schedule for regular clean-ups.)

Step 11: To set up the Scheduled cleaning, Click on the checkbox, as you can see in the below image. 

(After you click on the checkbox, you’ll be able to select the Schedule type. You have options like Daily, Weekly, Monthly. Then choose the optimizations you want with a checkbox from the list.)

Click on the Save Settings button.

Step 12: After that, Let’s understand Image Optimization. Click on the Images icon available in the top right corner beside the Database icon.

Step 13: Then, Find and Turn-on the toggle button. This toggle button will help you to compress the newly added file automatically. The second toggle will give you the image compression information on the dashboard.

Step 14: Then, just below the toggle setting, Find Compression options. Select the first Radio Button, which allows you to Compress the image maximum as it can be.

(While you want to do compression as per your requirement, click on the custom Radio button. After that, you’ll be able to see a slider for image compression type. Slide the slider as per your requirement. )

Step 15: The last step is how to clear the cache of the website. Click on the cache icon that is available on the top right corner beside the Images icon.

Step 16: After that, You’ll see a toggle button with an Enable Page cache label. Turn on the Toggle button, then click on the Purge cache button available just below the toggle.

(This button will help you to clear page cache.) 

So, we learn how to use the WP-Optimize plugin in WordPress. We just learned How to clear databases, Compress the Big images and clear the page cache memory. In conclusion, The wp-optimize is an all-in-one plugin.

WP Sweep

Wp-Sweep is an Open-source plugin that is available in the WordPress library. This plugin will help you in several ways like Delete Comments, User’s data, Duplicate data, etc. So, let’s see how we can use the WPSweep plugin.

Step 1: Install and Activate WP Sweep in your WordPress site.

Step 2: Find & Click on Tools tab from the Left sidebar, Then Click on the Sweep Tab from the Expanded tab.

Step 3: The page will redirect to the Sweep setting page, as below image. 

(Here, you can see different sweep sections like Post Sweep, Comment Sweep, User Sweep, Term Sweep, Option Sweep, Database Sweep.)

Step 4: Now, Go to each section and see the all Options list. You can see two buttons in front of some Options. Buttons are Sweep and Details. Click on the Sweep button to perform the cleaning task.

( Scroll-Down and see other options too, The details button will help you to see the details about the option’s result.)

It is a very simple process with WP Sweep in comparison with other plugins. So, If you are looking for simplicity, WP Sweep can be a great choice to keep your WordPress database clean.

Advanced Database Cleaner

Advanced Database Cleaner is an effective plugin that allows the user to clean the Database and optimize the website. This plugin will help you clean revisions of pages and posts, old auto drafts, pending comments, spam comments, orphan user data, etc. It also supports Scheduled clean-up, which is a great feature too. Based on the feature list of free versions, it can be a must-have plugin for WordPress websites. 

The Advanced Database Cleaner will also help you to get an overview of your website. It provides a dashboard that gives you health reports. And erasing the unwanted files and data also increase space in the Database. Download the Advanced Database Cleaner to save your time which will be consumed by cleaning the website and Database manually.

Let’s see how we can use this plugin in WordPress.

Step 1: To Use this plugin, Install and Activate the  Advanced Database Cleaner on your WordPress.

Step 2: Click on the WP DB Cleaner tab from the Left-sided tab section.

Step 3: After the click, the page will redirect to the WP DB Cleaner plugin main page. Click on the first tab as General clean-up.

(You can see some tabs like General clean-up, Tables, Options,cron jobs, Overview & settings)

Step 4: On this page, You can see a list of elements that require clean-up. Click on the checkboxes to select the part. (you can select the first checkbox from the heading to select all features.) 

Then select the clean option from the Drop-down, which is available beside the Apply button.

Step 5: Click on the Apply button to clean the elements.

Step 6: Then, just beside the Element list, you can see two boxes. Click on the Add New Schedule button to add a new cleaning schedule for the website.

 (The first box has a Bell icon with notification of how many elements can be cleaned at this time. And, the other one is for creating a new Schedule for clean-up regularly and automatically.)

Step 7: On the next page, You will have a list of Elements. Select those Elements which you want to include in the schedule. Then besides the Element list, you can see some fields like Name, Frequency, Start Date, Start Time, and Schedule Status.

Step 8: Now, enter the details in the fields we saw before the step. Then Click on the Save the schedule to save the settings.

(Enter the Schedule Name, Frequency means the Scheduling period like Daily, Weekly, Start Date, Start Time, and the Status.)

Upon features are available in the Free version, You can buy the premium version for advanced features like Tables optimization and Site optimization.

Plugins Garbage Collector

The following plugin is Plugins Garbage Collector, Which is one of the essential plugins for WordPress sites. WordPress is now world’s most used platform for websites, and the plugin’s library makes it more flexible and effective. As we know, we can install the plugins as many as we want on our site. But after some time, The plugin will produce junk files in WordPress. We call it Garbage which is not helpful, and it also affects our website.

Here is the plugin that will scan all the plugins and collect the Garbage from the plugin’s files. You can delete them with one click, so let’s see how we can use this plugin.

Step 1: First of all, Install and Activate the Plugins Garbage Collector in your WordPress.

Step 2: Now, Hover the mouse on the Plugins Tab from the Left-Sided tab section. Then click on the Installed Plugins tab.

Step 3: Now, find the recently installed plugin called Plugins Garbage Collector. The Click on Scan link, which you can see just below of the Plugin name.

Step 4: Then, you will find some options to clean the Database. Select as per your requirement. Click on checkbox in case you want to see the hidden tables too. Then Click on the Scan Database button to start the scan.

Step 5: Just after that, you notice a Browser Pop-up box on the windows. Click on Yes to start the scan. (The pop-up box is saying that the process will take some time.)

Step 6: You’ll see a list of inactive and unused Database Tables just after the process completion. 

Click on the checkbox to select the table to be hidden. See the status of tables on the right side. It says the table is inactive, and some are used too.

Step 7: Then Scroll-down to the page bottom and see a button with a label as Delete Tables. Click on the Delete Tables button to clean the Database.(Make sure you already had a backup because these files will be erased permanently.)

Step 8: Then, a pop-up box will again come up with 2 options. Click on OK to start the clean-up process.

Congratulations, You just successfully clean your Database using the advanced Database cleaner.

Conclusion

In a world where website performance is crucial, ensuring a clean and optimized WordPress database is paramount. Just like a healthy stomach keeps us energetic, a well-maintained database keeps your website running smoothly. We’ve explored the reasons behind a cluttered database, from unoptimized images to excessive ads. But fear not, there are solutions.

WordPress offers plugins like WP-Optimize, WP Sweep, Advanced Database Cleaner, and Plugin’s Garbage Collector, which can work wonders in cleaning up your database. Remember, before you embark on this optimization journey, always back up your data using reliable tools like UpdraftPlus.

By following these methods and keeping your database in top shape, you’ll not only enhance your website’s speed but also ensure a smoother user experience. It’s time to bid farewell to sluggish loading times and database-related woes.