Title: Using Permalinks causing CPU high usage Last modified: August 20, 2016 --- # Using Permalinks causing CPU high usage * Resolved [Eusebito](https://wordpress.org/support/users/eusebito/) * (@eusebito) * [13 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-permalinks-causing-cpu-high-usage/) * The title of the topic resume my problem. Lately, it’s out of control. * 10000 posts in my database, 3000 visitors unique per day, and a CPU usage off the charts. When i use the default configuration for the permalinks (/?p=123) everything is fine, but I used a custom one since the beginning (/%category%/% postname%/) and I don’t want to change. I tried other custom structure, but nothing change. * I also tried to turning off all of the plugins, but there’s no change. I use WordPress 3.4.1, WP-super cache, DB Cache Reloaded Fix and a CDN (Amazon S3), which helps but not enough. * I hope someone can help me, cause I really don’t want to sacrifice the permalinks, it could be bad for my SEO. * (sorry for my poor english) Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total) * [Shane Gowland](https://wordpress.org/support/users/thewebatom/) * (@thewebatom) * [13 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-permalinks-causing-cpu-high-usage/#post-2868813) * From an [article on AppThemes](http://docs.appthemes.com/tutorials/wordpress-permalink-structure/) * > If you plan on running a site with hundreds or thousands of posts and you want > to ensure it can scale and stay speedy, here are a few rules you should abide > by: > Don’t start your permalink structure with the category or postname fields. > For example: > /%category%/ /%postname%/ These are the most resource intensive > custom permalink structures because they are text fields and at the beginning > of your permalink structure. It takes more time for WordPress to distinguish > your post URLs from page URLs and needs to store additional meta data in your > database. > Select a structure that starts with a numeric field (i.e. the year or post > ID) or with a hard-coded base path (i.e. /posts/) > /%year%/%postname%/ /%post_id%/% > postname%/ /posts/%postname%/ * [Pioneer Web Design](https://wordpress.org/support/users/swansonphotos/) * (@swansonphotos) * [13 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-permalinks-causing-cpu-high-usage/#post-2868814) * DB Cache Reloaded is causing issue with WP3.4. See the [Master List](http://wordpress.org/support/topic/troubleshooting-wordpress-34-master-list?replies=5) * Thread Starter [Eusebito](https://wordpress.org/support/users/eusebito/) * (@eusebito) * [13 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-permalinks-causing-cpu-high-usage/#post-2868827) * [@seacoast](https://wordpress.org/support/users/seacoast/) Web Design : I started using DB Cache Reloaded after the problems started and it’s actually helping. * [@shane](https://wordpress.org/support/users/shane/) Gowland : I tried using alternative permalink structures but the problems stay the same. It changes only when I’m using the default, without rewrite rules. * I recently read an article about the impact of using a lot of pages. I’m using 200 pages, but i don’t know what to do with that information, because I can’t simply delete them. * Thanks for your inputs. * [Shane Gowland](https://wordpress.org/support/users/thewebatom/) * (@thewebatom) * [13 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-permalinks-causing-cpu-high-usage/#post-2868828) * How about using “almost-pretty” permalinks? (yoursite.com/index.php?=category/ postitle/) * Thread Starter [Eusebito](https://wordpress.org/support/users/eusebito/) * (@eusebito) * [13 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-permalinks-causing-cpu-high-usage/#post-2868836) * [@shane](https://wordpress.org/support/users/shane/) Gowland : The “almost-pretty” permalinks structure doesn’t work either. * Thread Starter [Eusebito](https://wordpress.org/support/users/eusebito/) * (@eusebito) * [13 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-permalinks-causing-cpu-high-usage/#post-2868924) * I stopped searching into the Permalinks problem, and I’m starting to think that maybe it’s an outside problem. My webhost is kind of bad with delivering informations, so I don’t really have anything to work with, but I’ve just installed Bad Behavior and I’m expecting some results soon. I hope. * I think that the CPU usage is low when I comeback to the default permalinks structure because the thing causing the high is using my pretty links to do so and is kind of lost when they disappear. Maybe my logic is wrong but I found nothing else to help me. * Thread Starter [Eusebito](https://wordpress.org/support/users/eusebito/) * (@eusebito) * [13 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-permalinks-causing-cpu-high-usage/#post-2868930) * So, I was right in my last message. The High CPU usage was in fact the consequences of bots whom crawl discretely in my DB. I blocked there IPs, problem solve. * Thanks anyway for your help. And now, I close this topic. * [Shane Gowland](https://wordpress.org/support/users/thewebatom/) * (@thewebatom) * [13 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-permalinks-causing-cpu-high-usage/#post-2868933) * That’s really only a temporary solution. Replace the traffic from those bots with legitimate users, and the problem will quickly return. There is still an underlying issue to look for. Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total) The topic ‘Using Permalinks causing CPU high usage’ is closed to new replies. ## Tags * [permalinks](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/permalinks/) * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/) * 8 replies * 3 participants * Last reply from: [Shane Gowland](https://wordpress.org/support/users/thewebatom/) * Last activity: [13 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-permalinks-causing-cpu-high-usage/#post-2868933) * Status: resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics