Technical task: find and eliminate the cause of the periodic slowdown of the site.

📄 Technical task: find and eliminate the cause of the periodic slowdown of the site

1. Problem description

The site periodically (once every 2–3 months) starts to slow down significantly:

• pages open slowly

• there are freezes

• previously “fixed”, but the problem returns

• last time some protection/script against bots was installed

Task:
👉 not to temporarily “tweak”, but to find the root cause and eliminate it permanently

2. Main task

1. Conduct a full technical diagnosis

2. Identify the cause of the load (CPU / requests / bots / code)

3. Eliminate the cause

4. Configure the system so that the problem does not recur

3. MANDATORY diagnosis

Without this, the work will not be accepted.

3.1 Server

• check CPU / RAM / IO / EP load

• find processes that cause spikes

• check server logs

3.2 PHP

• find “heavy” scripts

• check error logs

3.3 MySQL

• enable and analyze slow query log

• find slow queries

• suggest and implement optimization

3.4 Bot analysis (CRITICAL)

• check access logs

• find suspicious activity

• determine:

  • whether there are parsers / bots

  • whether there is DDoS or overload

4. Optimization (what needs to be done)

4.1 Code / CMS

• find and fix “bottlenecks”

• optimize request processing

4.2 Plugins / modules

• audit all installed

• remove or replace those that create load

(not just “disable”)

4.3 Database

• optimize tables

• indexes for slow queries

• clean up unnecessary data

4.4 Caching

• configure:

  • page cache

  • object cache (Redis or similar)

• check cache effectiveness

4.5 Bot protection (MANDATORY)

• set up proper protection (Cloudflare / fail2ban / other)

• explain what exactly was done

• check that “bot scripts” do not break the site

5. IMPORTANT (main focus)

The problem recurs every 2–3 months.
👉 Need to find the CAUSE, not the symptom.

Possible options:

• bots / parsers

• data accumulation in the database

• broken cron jobs

• errors in the code

• third-party scripts (including “protections”)

6. What should be delivered

The freelancer is required to provide:

1. What was the cause

2. Where exactly is the problem (specifically)

3. What was done

4. What the result is (before / after)

5. What to do to prevent it from happening again

7. Result criteria

• the site works stably

• no CPU spikes as before

• pages open quickly (within 2–3 seconds)

• the problem does not return

8. Prohibited

❌ “Set up cache — done”
❌ “Cleaned the database” without analysis
❌ “It’s the hosting’s fault” without evidence
❌ Temporary solutions without explaining the cause

9. Access

The freelancer must work with:

• server (SSH / panel)

• logs

• database

• site code

10. Additionally (preferably)

• server assessment (whether resources are sufficient)

• scaling recommendations

• whether to switch to VPS

❗ If logs and queries are not analyzed — the work will not be accepted.