CPU and Network usage high after upgrading

Hey @bwooster47,

Thank you for reaching out.

Did you upgrade from a very old version or a more recent one? The plugin might be running our SEO data optimization in the background, so it could take a bit of time where we use a bit more resources, but once the process is done, it should normalize.

If your site is quite a bigger site, we’d recommend running the indexables through WP CLI, more information here: https://developer.yoast.com/features/wp-cli/reindex-indexables/

I had updated a month ago, so it is mostly recent.

My site is also very small – tens of pages only. The high CPU persisted for over 2 days before I noticed it.

Also if it is optimizing database, why is network traffic also so high for that same 2 day period?

Both network and CPU went to normal after I deactivated the plugin. I also looked for anything strange in Apache logs access and error – nothing there suspicious.

@bwooster47 Thanks for your reply.

We wouldn’t expect high amounts of resource usage caused by the SEO data optimization process on a small site.

If you are encountering an issue with high resource usage from the plugin, can you please go to Yoast SEO->General->Features and disable the following features to check whether one of these is causing the CPU usage and/or performance issue?:

? Text Link Counter (We have a guide on disabling this feature at the following link: https://yoast.com/help/enable-disable-link-count/)
? Insights

If after disabling these features you are still experiencing the issue, this may also be caused by a plugin or theme conflict. Just to be sure, we would like to rule out any plugin or theme conflicts that may occur. The fastest way to do this is to deactivate all non-Yoast plugins and switch to a standard theme like TwentyTwenty.

Test this on your development or staging site, if you have one. If not, we recommend using the Health Check & Troubleshooting plugin. This plugin allows you to run a conflict check without affecting normal visitors to your site.As we can imagine that you’re unfamiliar with checking for conflicts, we’d like to point you to a step-by-step guide that will walk you through the process here: https://yoast.com/help/how-to-check-for-plugin-conflicts/
?
?Can you please try the aforementioned suggestions and let us know whether this resolves the issue for you?

Thanks, I’ll try those things out.

I have now re-enabled Yoast and for now things look fine.

If CPU usage blows again, will follow the steps you mentioned and report back.

I rebooted box and re-enabled Yoast. Looks fine now, so good enough. Unclear why CPU spiked, but at least it is normal now.

Excellent news, thanks for letting us know. There might have been a temporary hiccup or some process that looped, but as it is not returning, that’s good.