Most of the blogs or websites are hosted to shared hosting server where lot many domains get hosted on single server. Hosting on shared server is very much cheaper than dedicated server but if you are hosting your WordPress blog on shared server then you should take care of some important optimization which will help you reducing the downtime of your blog.
Since WordPress or any other dynamic platform operates dynamically for reading and writing data, then it is really important to take a close look at the SQL running at backend. If your blog started getting nice amount of traffic, you may also start facing downtime for your blog. It doesn’t matter whether your host told you about Unlimited Bandwidth as this problem has nothing to do with Bandwidth. The reason behind this downtime is the CPU usage by your website or blog. Since the hosting is done on shared server, there must be more than one domain on the server and the hosting service provider has equally shared the CPU usage within all of them. If your blog is performing well and getting huge traffic that doesn’t mean other domains hosted on same server should face the CPU crisis. That’s why the hosting service providers always set a limit of CPU usage to each account hosted on the server and based on that your blog can utilize the CPU of server.
CPU Limiting error or Throttling is the crossing of the set limit by your blog. Below are the main cause for this limiting error. We have also detailed the solution to avoid getting CPU Throttling error on shared server hosting.
Reason for CPU Limiting Error or Throttling
1. Oversized and Unnecessary Database queries can cause this CPU Quota error.
2. Poorly coded PHP scripts which may take too long to execute may cause this suspension
Most of the hosting service providers suspend the account for 4 – 5 minutes in case of CPU Throttling. In that time period, you website will not be accessible or be down. To avoid this suspension from host, follow the below mentioned points,
1. Look at your code in details, if using SQL queries then try to avoid writing queries on each load
2. Optimize the PHP code and remove the unnecessary codes as well
WordPress Bloggers can found the below mentioned solutions really helpful,
1. Remove the Daily Top 10 or any other plugin which writes database on each page load. These plugins actually write number of views for each page load to show you popular posts in that way.
2. Always cross check the plugins which you install on your wordpress and try to see any database updates done at the time of page loading
3. Avoid using too much plugins, Try to use Google Analytics or other tracking systems to get popular posts of day or month
Below is the screenshot of a blog before and after removing Top 10 plugin. You can see the difference in CPU Throttling Time.
Blog With Top 10 Plugin
Same Blog Without Top 10 Plugin
Go ahead and optimize your blog to sustain huge traffic even hosted on shared server. Now a days, shared servers are also really faster and good for hosting a blog which is service around ~ 90K pageviews a month. You can try some of them listed below which are really great for a blog with a brighter future,
HostMonster DreamHost BlueHost
($5.95 per month) ($9.95 per month) $60 Discount ($6.95 per month)