8 WP-CLI Commands to Clean Up and Optimize your Site

Want to clean up your WordPress site without having to add multiple plugins? By using WP-CLI, you can run many useful commands to helpfully clean up your database and elements related to your site. In this post, many of the most common tasks are covered:

• Purging Cache
• Regenerate Thumbnail Images
• Deleting Spam Comments
• Removing Temp Data from Database
• Optimizing a Database
• Deleting Posts in Trash
• Deleting Posts in Draft Status
• Delete Posts With Revisions

Purging Cache

In this example, object caching is enabled on the site on our Managed WordPress or Managed WooCommerce, if you need to clear the object cache, use:

wp cache flush

Regenerate Thumbnail Images

If you changed the theme you were using on your site (which might be setting different image sizes), or if you changed the product image sizes in WooCommerce but now need to regenerate all thumbnail images, you can run this command:

wp media regenerate --yes

Deleting Spam Comments

If you have comments enabled on your site and you want to delete all spam comments. Only run this command if you know that you do have comments marked as spam on your site, then you can run this command:

wp comment delete $(wp comment list --status=spam --format=ids)

Removing Temp Data from Database

Expired transients can build up if you have a WooCommerce store. If you need to delete any of this temporary data, you can remove it from your database by running the following command:

wp transient delete --expired

Optimizing a Database

If you want to optimize your site database, you can run this command:

wp db optimize

Deleting Posts in Trash

If you wanted to delete all posts that are in the trash, only run this command if you have moved posts to the trash, then you could run this command:

wp post delete $(wp post list --post_status=trash --format=ids)

Deleting Posts in Draft Status

If you did need to delete all posts that are set as draft post status, you could run this command;

wp post delete $(wp post list --post_status=draft --format=ids)

Delete Posts With Revisions

If you did want to delete all post revision, then you can run this command;

wp post delete $(wp post list --post_type='revision' --format=ids)

These WP-CLI commands are all very handy for basic housekeeping of your site. These commands in WP-CLI can be used daily or weekly to keep your site optimized and free of bloat.