4 Fatal Mistakes That Are Making Your Queries Slow

Use WP_Query or
get_posts

• `no_found_rows` (removes SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS)
• `update_post_term_cache`
• `update_post_meta_cache`
• `fields`

Avoid post__not_in

• Adds `AND ID not in ('12345')
• Automatically skips cache on every page the query exists
• Adds unique query to cache on every page the query exists

Avoid meta queries

• meta is not index and is unique to each post
• use a taxonomy if you need to group posts together

Avoid complex queries

• less tables queried, the better
• use PHP to filter out unwanted results