Lighting Essentials was down today because the server was being hit too often. This creates lots of problems for the database as it starts to rack up a log file that can choke the whole process.
My host had to shut my site down while I figured out the problem. Being a good host (HostGator) they assisted me in my search.
First – I run a cache plugin to stop overly aggressive server hits.
What this means is that once I have set the page, it is rendered as a static page (not assembled on the fly as the blog is normally viewed) and that stops the server from multiple hits. The page hasn’t changed, so we don’t need to ping the server for dynamic content.
However, the plugin “Contextual Related Posts” was bypassing the cache and hitting the server multiple times (77 for instance) on each and every page load.
Wow.
I replaced it with a Related Post Plugin that pulls assembles the related posts at the moment I post it, and then they are kept with the page in a cached situation… no longer pinging the server for multiple hits on a page load. I take the performance hit upon hitting publish, the viewer gains a faster loading page.
After killing that plugin, I noticed that the Facebook comment plugin was pulling a lot more than I thought it should, so I killed that plugin as well.
Staying up on what server resources your blog is using is very important. Especially if you run your own off of a server instead of using Blogger or other free services.
Take note: Not all plugins are the same.
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