Need Help – WordPress Site with Directorist Plugin Extremely Slow After Importing 300K+ Listings

webninja07 said:

Hey BHW fam,

I’m stuck with a serious performance issue and could really use some guidance.

I’ve built a WordPress-based directory site using the **Directorist plugin**. Recently, I imported **over 300,000 listings** into the site. Ever since the import, the **entire site has slowed down drastically**, especially the **listing archive page**, which just keeps loading indefinitely or times out.

Here’s what I’ve tried so far to optimize:

* Installed caching plugins (tried WP Rocket, Litespeed Cache)
* Optimized the database with WP-Optimize
* Increased memory limit and max execution time
* Switched to a better hosting plan (VPS with good specs)
* Disabled unnecessary plugins and scripts
* Lazy load and deferred JS

Despite all these, the listing page is **still unbearably slow**. I understand 300K+ listings is a lot, but I thought Directorist could handle large datasets. And they also ensure me that they can handle it.

Has anyone dealt with this before?
Is there any better way to load such massive data in the directorist plugin? I can't switch to another platform like laravel or node js?

Any help, plugin suggestions, server-side tricks, or even indexing strategies would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

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Kesunshed said:

The drastic slowdown of your WordPress site using the Directorist plugin after importing over 300,000 listings is primarily due to the massive volume of data stressing the database and query handling, especially on listing archive pages that load many records at once. This is a common issue when dealing with very large datasets in WordPress directory plugins like Directorist.

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Dopious said:

Gave you an answer here: https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/n...mporting-300k-listings.1715734/#post-19293325

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• Update Directorist to the latest version for built-in performance improvements and optimized plugin code that reduces HTTP requests and database queries
• Implement strict pagination or lazy loading on listing archive pages to avoid loading too many listings at once, which causes timeouts

• webninja07 said:

  What would be the best solution here

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• Use caching plugins like WP Rocket or LiteSpeed Cache combined with object caching (Redis/Memcached) to reduce repeated database queries
• Optimize and clean the database, including removing expired transients and adding proper indexes to Directorist tables to speed up queries
• Increase server resources (memory limit, max execution time) and use a high-performance VPS or dedicated hosting optimized for large databases
• Disable unnecessary plugins and scripts and defer JavaScript loading to reduce front-end loadhttps://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/need-help-wordpress-site-with-directorist-plugin-extremely-slow-after-importing-300k-listings.1715733/.

webninja07 said:

Has anyone dealt with this before?

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