WordPress Slow Queries: Find and Fix Them

Originally published at https://makewpfast.com/wordpress-slow-queries/ WordPress Slow Queries: Find and Fix Them Database queries are the heartbeat of WordPress. Every page load sends queries to MySQL. But hidden among those queries are often the culprits killing your site’s performance: slow queries. This guide shows you exactly how to identify them, understand why they’re slow, and fix them permanently. What Counts as a Slow Query? MySQL’s default slow query threshold is 10 seconds. That’s far too generous. Here’s what actually matters: Under 10ms: Generally not a concern 10-100ms: Watch these if executed frequently 100ms-1s: Definitely slow, needs investigation Over 1s: Critical performance killer, fix immediately The real metric isn’t query time alone — it’s query time x execution count . A query running in 0.05 seconds but executing 10,000 times per day contributes 500 seconds of total database load. Enabling the MySQL Slow Query Log MySQL Configuration [mysqld] slow_query_log = 1