Custom Code Audit & Database Query Optimization for WordPress Education Platform

The Challenge

Project Overview

MyChoice Schools is an Australian education platform running on WordPress with extensive custom code and numerous plugins to support complex school search and comparison features.

The combination of custom code, numerous plugins, and complex database queries created severe performance issues. The site needed to handle search-heavy interactions while maintaining fast load times.

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The Goals

Goals & Objectives

The primary goal of this project was to improve Google's Core Web Vitals, site speed, and overall user experience and usability.

Our primary goals were to:

• Improve site speed despite heavy customization
• Optimize database queries
• Reduce plugin overhead

The Solution

Our Approach

A systematic, step-by-step process tailored to MyChoice Schools's needs.

1. 1

   Code Audit

   Reviewed custom code for performance bottlenecks.

2. 2

   Plugin Rationalization

   Reduced plugin count and optimized remaining ones.

3. 3

   Database Optimization

   Optimized complex queries for school search functionality.

4. 4

   Frontend Optimization

   Streamlined asset loading and reduced render-blocking resources.

5. 5

   Performance Validation

   Tested across all major user flows.

The Results

Outcomes

Core metrics that improved over the duration of the project.

• 3.5x Speed Improvement. Major improvement across all page types.
• 70% Query Time Reduction. Database queries execute much faster.
• 85+ Performance Score. Consistent high scores even on complex pages.

Lessons

Key Takeaways

• Custom code audits often reveal the biggest optimization opportunities.
• Database query optimization is critical for search-heavy sites.
• Plugin rationalization combined with custom code review delivers compound gains.