If your WordPress blog has been around for awhile, chances are there is some clutter in your MySQL database.   For these situations, Joost De Valk of Yoast.com has an easy to use WordPress plugin called Optimize Database.

This free WordPress plugin simply needs activated, then whenever you click Optimize Now, the plugin runs an optimize table command on your WordPress tables, effectively defragmenting it. This is very useful for tables that are frequently updated. If you’d like to learn more about why this WordPress plugin might be necessary, you can read more information on this post.

Great plugin Joost!

[Download the Optimize Database Plugin]

Find your WordPress blog is loading slow?   Do you ever get a “MySQL server has gone away” message?  Maybe your WordPress Admin Panel is running slow?   Even if none of those apply to you, the higher the traffic your WordPress blog receives, the more important it is to have an optimal setup.

In case you’d like to maximize your blog’s performance, Vladimir Porlovac has published a pretty good WordPress Optimization Guide which contains a number of great tutorials and tips for WordPress users.

Here are the 10 topics which are covered in the post:

1. Check the Connection
2. Check your (Vista) System
3. Check the Plugins
4. Check your Theme
5. Optimize Database Tables
6. Turn off Post Revisions
7. Implement Caching (WordPress Cache, MySQL Optimization, PHP Opcode Cache)
8. “MySQL server has gone away” workaround
9. Fixing posting not possible problem
10. Other reasons for slow posting

A few of these steps can be accomplished via WordPress plugins, but overall it is a well written and useful post.