Fix AWS WordPress High CPU Utilisation Website Lag Issue
Budget: $10 – $30 USD
My AWS-hosted WordPress site sits on an EC2 instance and hovers at 90-100 % CPU even during moderate traffic. I have not pinned the problem on any particular plugin or theme yet, and the usual quick fixes—restarts, light plugin pruning, basic database cleanup—haven’t moved the needle. I now need a thorough investigation that goes beyond guess-and-check so the site can run smoothly again.
Here’s what I expect:
• A systematic audit of server metrics (top/htop, CloudWatch, WP-CLI debug, error logs) to isolate the code, query, or configuration that is eating CPU.
• Clear evidence of the root cause—whether it’s an expensive query, a runaway cron, an un-cached API call, or something inside a theme/plugin.
• Actionable optimizations implemented: code tweaks, plugin/theme re-configuration, object/page caching, database indexing, or server-level tuning as needed.
• A short report that sums up what was found, what was changed, and baseline numbers showing the CPU drop and faster page loads.
Acceptance criteria: average CPU stays comfortably below 30 % under current traffic, no site features regress, and the changes are documented so I can maintain them. Comfortable working directly on AWS (EC2, RDS, CloudWatch) and familiar with WordPress profiling tools like Query Monitor or New Relic? Let’s get this site breathing again.
Here’s what I expect:
• A systematic audit of server metrics (top/htop, CloudWatch, WP-CLI debug, error logs) to isolate the code, query, or configuration that is eating CPU.
• Clear evidence of the root cause—whether it’s an expensive query, a runaway cron, an un-cached API call, or something inside a theme/plugin.
• Actionable optimizations implemented: code tweaks, plugin/theme re-configuration, object/page caching, database indexing, or server-level tuning as needed.
• A short report that sums up what was found, what was changed, and baseline numbers showing the CPU drop and faster page loads.
Acceptance criteria: average CPU stays comfortably below 30 % under current traffic, no site features regress, and the changes are documented so I can maintain them. Comfortable working directly on AWS (EC2, RDS, CloudWatch) and familiar with WordPress profiling tools like Query Monitor or New Relic? Let’s get this site breathing again.