The main reasons for WordPress's surge in server CPU usage include plug-in issues, inefficient database query, poor theme code quality, or surge in traffic. 1. First, confirm whether it is a high load caused by WordPress through top, htop or control panel tools; 2. Enter troubleshooting mode and gradually enable plug-ins to troubleshoot performance bottlenecks, use Query Monitor to analyze plug-in execution and delete or replace inefficient plug-ins; 3. Install cache plug-ins, clean redundant data, and analyze slow query logs to optimize the database; 4. Check whether the topic has problems such as overloading content, complex queries, or lack of caching mechanisms. It is recommended to use standard topic tests to compare and optimize the code logic. Follow the above steps to check the location and solve the problem of high CPU load.

WordPress is indeed a powerful content management system, but sometimes it can also soar your server CPU usage. This problem may be caused by plugins, theme code, database queries, or traffic surges. If you find that the website is slowing or the host alarm is high, the following methods can help you locate the problem.

1. Check the real-time CPU usage

Before diagnosis, confirm whether it is really a problem caused by WordPress. You can view it in the following ways:

• Log in to the server and use the top or htop command to observe which process occupies a high occupancy.
• If you are using a hosting service, most control panels (such as cPanel) provide resource monitoring capabilities.
• If it is a cloud server (such as AWS and DigitalOcean), you can view the CPU load trends through the platform's own monitoring tools.

Note: Sometimes short peaks are normal, such as when a timed task is executed, but if the load is continuously high, further investigation is required.

2. Check if there are plugins that cause performance problems

Plug-ins are one of the most common sources of performance bottlenecks in WordPress. Many plug-ins frequently call databases or execute large amounts of PHP code in order to implement complex functions.

Troubleshooting steps:

• Enable Troubleshooting Mode (a feature that comes with WordPress can temporarily disable all plug-ins and themes).
• Gradually enable the plug-in and observe changes in CPU usage.
• Use a debug plugin like Query Monitor to view the execution time and number of database queries for each plugin in each page request.

suggestion:

• Remove unnecessary or unupdated plugins.
• Replace plugins that are significantly slowing down and look for lighter alternatives.

3. Optimize database query and cache settings

It is normal for WordPress to access the database at high frequency, but if the query efficiency is inefficient, it will increase the burden on the CPU.

Common reasons include:

• Database tables lacking index
• Plugins perform a lot of redundant queries
• Object Cache is not used
• Too much database fragmentation (especially wp_options and wp_postmeta tables)

Solution:

• Install cache plugins such as WP Super Cache or Redis Object Cache.
• Use database optimization plugins to clean up junk data (such as old automatic drafts, spam comments, etc.).
• For advanced users, slow query logs can be analyzed in MySQL to find time-consuming operations.

4. Theme code quality will also affect performance

Some free or low-quality themes are not standardized enough, which may introduce unnecessary scripts, excessively nested loops, and no cache mechanism.

Checkpoint:

• Are too many articles or images loading on the home page or archive page?
• Are complex custom queries used?
• Is there some data regenerated every time you request?

Suggested practices:

• Test the comparison using standard topics such as Twenty Twenty-Four.
• If you are a developer, you can add some simple cache logic, such as the transient API.
• Avoid writing complex SQL queries directly in templates.

Basically, these common reasons and investigation directions are all about. Not particularly difficult, but it is easy to ignore details. When you encounter problems, you should first confirm whether it is caused by WordPress, and then start from plug-ins, databases, and themes. You can basically find the root cause.

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