By keeping the database clean and optimized, one can ensure the integrity of the WordPress Website. The database of the WordPress website acquires a lot of extra data such as revisions, spam comments, trashed comments, information from the plugins that are no longer used, and more. By removing all of this unneeded data, you can considerably reduce the size of your database, which can speed up your backup process and provide a slight performance improvement. Moreover, it also lowers errors, keeps the storage space low, and provides the users with a more responsive and efficient experience. So, one can hire WordPress developer to clean up the WordPress database.
If you do anything to improve the performance of your website will be a plus point. So, it can be either for the visitors or a search engine bot crawling your content, the speed of the website matters. The website is also determined by database optimization. So, in this blog, we will discuss the steps to clean up the database of WordPress through the clean-up plugin.
What is WP-Sweep Plugin?
The WP-Sweep Plugin is a database solution for WordPress that uses correct delete methods instead of doing straight MySQL delete queries. Even if you haven’t had any website error difficulties yet, it’s critical to clean up your WordPress database on a regular basis.
How to Install the WP-Sweep Plugin in WordPress?
WP-Sweep is located under the Tools menu after installation. You can either download the installation file or go straight to your plugins directory in WordPress. Consider the following two methods to install the WP-Sweep Plugin to your WordPress Website.
Method No. 1: Manual Installation :
- To begin, go to your ‘Desktop’ home screen and download the installation file.
- Second, go to your WordPress dashboard and log in.
- Select ‘Add New Plugin’ from the drop-down menu, then browse to your file.
- After that, click the ‘Upload’ button, and WordPress will ‘Unzip’ it for you.
- After it, the user can install and ‘Activate’ it.
If you are unable to install the Sweep plugin, you can also hire WordPress developer from a reputed web development agency.
Method 2: WordPress Directory Installation:
- In the same way, go to your WordPress plugins directory
- Type the word ‘WP-Sweep Plugin’ into the search box.
- You’ll see a long list of plugins, but just the ‘WP-Sweep Plugin’ is the one you want.
- Then click the ‘Install’ and ‘Activate’ buttons.
Steps to Clean Up the WordPress Database to Improve the Performance
It is always recommended that one should always keep a backup of a website. We know that almost every WordPress plugin is reliable. So, it is always best to keep things safe. If we do not keep a backup of the website, the changes made to the website can not be reversed. However, one can avail of WordPress development services to reduce the burden of cleaning the Website. Below, we have discussed the steps to clean the database of the WordPress website.
Use WP-Sweep to Clean Up the WordPress Database
The first step is to install and activate the WP-Sweep plugin. Simply go to Tools » Sweep after activation to clean up your WordPress database. Through this plugin, the user can evaluate the WordPress database and provide a report indicating how much trash you can remove. The comments, terms, posts, user meta, options, and database optimization are grouped into parts in the sweep report.
So, you can either go through each item and clean it separately or scroll down to the bottom of the page and select sweep all to clean up your WordPress database as a whole. We know that cleaning the database is time-consuming because it depends on how large the file is. WP-Sweep will update the progress bar to show how far you’ve come. However, one can avail of WordPress development services to clean up your WordPress website.
What if your draft post is not getting published?
When you clean the database all the draft posts will be removed by the WP-Sweep. So, it is essential to ensure that your work gets published before the sweeping of the database. And if you do not do it, all the content will be lost. So, one should avoid the option of Sweep if you keep drafts in WordPress to create content. Otherwise, one can sweep the other sections of the database, and leave the drafts intact.
Why use WP-Sweep instead of WP-Optimize?
WP-Optimize is also a plugin to clean the database. But, when the process of cleaning gets complete, WP-Optimize leaves some data. In other words, we can say that it leaves some useless information throughout the system. No, doubt, it is a good and popular plugin, but every professional WordPress developer suggests WP-Sweep because it removes and prevents orphaned data. WP-Sweep has extensive features which differentiate it from the WP-Optimize. The Sweep plugin deletes functionalities rather than doing direct delete MYSQL queries. Whereas the WP-Optimize uses direct delete SQL queries, which further results in orphaned data being left behind. We can also say that WP-Sweep is a more well-coded plugin.
What are the things that WP-Sweep Clean in your system?
Do you know WP-Sweep uses WordPress delete functions to clean the database? It can clean up the following things:
- Revisions
- Unused terms
- Duplicate Comment Meta
- Orphaned Post Meta
- Spammed Comments
- Delete Comments
- Orphaned User Meta
- Auto Drafts
- Duplicate User Meta
- Unapproved Comments
- Orphaned Comment Meta
- Transient Options
- Optimize database tables
- Embed Caches in Post Meta
Wrapping Up
Oftentimes the users of WordPress ignore the WordPress database optimization, which is critical maintenance. Deleting unwanted files can improve the loading speed of your website and reduce the size of the database. We know that speed is a crucial aspect of performing functions on the internet, so one needs every bit of performance to generate success. So, to increase the performance of the WordPress website, many users hire WordPress developers to activate the Sweep plugin. The plugin cleans the database manually. With it, you can provide the most efficient site to search engines and visitors.