What causes slow queries in WordPress?

Short answer: Full table scans from missing indexes on postmeta, posts, and taxonomies — especially LIKE with wildcards or unindexed JOINs.

How do I enable MySQL slow query log for WordPress?

Add slow_query_log=1, long_query_time=0.1 to my.cnf, restart MySQL. Tail the log file.

Best indexes to add to WordPress database?

wp_postmeta: meta_key, (post_id, meta_key), (post_id, meta_key, meta_value). wp_posts: (post_type, post_status). Test with EXPLAIN first.

☁️ Cloud & Databases

One WordPress Query at 0.05 Seconds, 10,000 Times Daily: That's 500 Seconds of Database Drag

Your WordPress site's database is choking on slow queries — ones that scan 150,000 rows for a single result. Here's the data-driven fix to reclaim those lost seconds.

theAIcatchup Apr 08, 2026 4 min read

WordPress dashboard showing MySQL slow query log with high rows examined

⚡ Key Takeaways

Enable slow query logging at 0.1s threshold to catch killers early — multiply time by count for true impact. 𝕏
Use EXPLAIN to spot 'type: ALL' full scans; index postmeta and posts immediately. 𝕏
Strategic indexing slashes query times 100x, but avoid duplicates to prevent write bloat. 𝕏

Published by

theAIcatchup

Community-driven. Code-first.

#MySQL optimization #MySQL slow query log #WooCommerce performance #WordPress database indexes #WordPress performance #WordPress slow queries #database-indexing

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Originally reported by Dev.to

⚡ Key Takeaways

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