Keynote presentation given to Manchester WordPress User Group

1. WordPress Myths
Some of the common misconceptions about WordPress

2. Speed

3. Speed
• Too many plugins slow your site

4. Speed
• Too many plugins slow your site
• Inactive plugins slow your site

5. Speed
• Too many plugins slow your site
• Inactive plugins slow your site
• Inactive themes slow your site

6. Speed
• Too many plugins slow your site
• Inactive plugins slow your site
• Inactive themes slow your site
• Revisions slow your site

7. Too many plugins

8. Too many plugins
• Some plugins are slow

9. Too many plugins
• Some plugins are slow
• Some plugins are fast

10. Too many plugins
• Some plugins are slow
• Some plugins are fast
• Some plugins have no effect

11. Too many plugins
• Some plugins are slow
• Some plugins are fast
• Some plugins have no effect
• Some plugins speed up your site

12. Too Many Plugins?

13. Too Many Plugins?
It depends.

14. Inactive Plugins

15. Inactive Plugins
• Myth: Inactive plugins have no effect on
your site speed

16. Inactive Plugins
• Myth: Inactive plugins have no effect on
your site speed
• You still need to keep them up to date for
security

17. Inactive Themes

18. Inactive Themes
• Myth: Inactive themes have no effect on
your site speed

19. Inactive Themes
• Myth: Inactive themes have no effect on
your site speed
• You still need to keep them up to date for
security

20. Too Many Revisions

21. Too Many Revisions
• WordPress is clever enough to ignore
revisions on the front end

22. Too Many Revisions
• WordPress is clever enough to ignore
revisions on the front end
• MySQL is clever enough that a lot of
revisions make no difference to query
speed

23. Too Many Revisions
• WordPress is clever enough to ignore
revisions on the front end
• MySQL is clever enough that a lot of
revisions make no difference to query
speed
• Myth: Revisions have no effect on your site
speed

24. Emptying The Trash

25. Emptying The Trash
• Too much trash slows down your site

26. Emptying The Trash
• Too much trash slows down your site
• Myth:As per revisions

27. Emptying The Trash
• Too much trash slows down your site
• Myth:As per revisions
• Setting define('EMPTY_TRASH_DAYS', 10 );
will delete all your trash posts after 10 days.

28. Emptying The Trash
• Too much trash slows down your site
• Myth:As per revisions
• Setting define('EMPTY_TRASH_DAYS', 10 );
will delete all your trash posts after 10 days.
• Myth: It will delete 10 day old trash every day.

29. WordPress Doesn’t Scale

30. WordPress Doesn’t Scale
• WordPress.com - 35,000,000 sites!
http://wordpress.com/stats/
2.5 Billion page views per month

31. WordPress Doesn’t Scale
• WordPress.com - 35,000,000 sites!
http://wordpress.com/stats/
2.5 Billion page views per month
• Edublogs.com - 500,000 blogs
8,000,000 page views per month
http://z1.tl/10c

32. WordPress Doesn’t Scale
• WordPress.com - 35,000,000 sites!
http://wordpress.com/stats/
2.5 Billion page views per month
• Edublogs.com - 500,000 blogs
8,000,000 page views per month
http://z1.tl/10c
• Myth: WordPress scales massively

33. Only for Blogs

34. Only for Blogs
• Also: It’s only for amateurs and hobbyists

35. Only for Blogs
• Also: It’s only for amateurs and hobbyists
• Wall St Journal

36. Only for Blogs
• Also: It’s only for amateurs and hobbyists
• Wall St Journal
• CNN

37. Only for Blogs
• Also: It’s only for amateurs and hobbyists
• Wall St Journal
• CNN
• Number 10 Downing Street

38. Only for Blogs
• Also: It’s only for amateurs and hobbyists
• Wall St Journal
• CNN
• Number 10 Downing Street
• Dept of Health

39. Only for Blogs
• Also: It’s only for amateurs and hobbyists
• Wall St Journal
• CNN
• Number 10 Downing Street
• Dept of Health
• Ford Motor Company

40. Only for Blogs
• Also: It’s only for amateurs and hobbyists
• Wall St Journal
• CNN
• Number 10 Downing Street
• Dept of Health
• Ford Motor Company
• Myth: It’s not just blogs, and it’s not just for
amateurs

41. WordPress is Insecure

42. WordPress is Insecure
• Myth: WordPress hasn’t has a major security
problems for at least a couple of years

43. WordPress is Insecure
• Myth: WordPress hasn’t has a major security
problems for at least a couple of years
• Automattic employ more than one security
specialist.

44. WordPress is Insecure
• Myth: WordPress hasn’t has a major security
problems for at least a couple of years
• Automattic employ more than one security
specialist.
• But you do need to take the proper
precautions

45. WordPress is Insecure
• Myth: WordPress hasn’t has a major security
problems for at least a couple of years
• Automattic employ more than one security
specialist.
• But you do need to take the proper
precautions
• Plugins and themes can be insecure

46. WordPress is Insecure
• Myth: WordPress hasn’t has a major security
problems for at least a couple of years
• Automattic employ more than one security
specialist.
• But you do need to take the proper
precautions
• Plugins and themes can be insecure
• Sometimes the hosting company is the problem

47. Function Calls

48. Function Calls
• Removing functions calls like
blog_info(‘blah’) saves a database call

49. Function Calls
• Removing functions calls like
blog_info(‘blah’) saves a database call
• Myth: Those options are cached.

50. Function Calls
• Removing functions calls like
blog_info(‘blah’) saves a database call
• Myth: Those options are cached.
• Removing them prevents plugins doing
clever things.

51. Questions
Other myths?