Optimizing Google Cloud for a Site

[kela]

Hi Google Cloud Community,

I'm running a website, (URL Removed by Staff), which helps users increase their Instagram followers for free by providing various tools and strategies. Given the importance of speed and reliability for user engagement, I want to ensure my site performs optimally on Google Cloud.

Currently, I'm experiencing some performance issues, especially during peak traffic times. Here are a few details about my setup:

• My website is hosted on a Google Cloud VM.
• I use WordPress with several plugins tailored to social media growth and engagement.
• I've implemented standard optimization techniques like caching, CDN, and image compression.

Despite these efforts, the site is still slower than I'd like. Could anyone provide advice or best practices specific to optimizing WordPress sites on Google Cloud? Specifically:

1. What are the most effective ways to configure Google Cloud resources for a WordPress site with moderate to high traffic?
2. Are there any particular Google Cloud services or tools that can help improve site speed and reliability?
3. How can I ensure scalability during traffic spikes without compromising performance?

I appreciate any guidance or tips you can share. Ensuring a fast, seamless experience is crucial for my users who rely on TheTopFollows to enhance their Instagram presence.

Thanks in advance for your help!

[DamianS]

Hello @kela  ,Welcome on Google Cloud Community.

---Cloud Run---

If you need speed and reliability for your WordPress site, you should thing about migrate your WordPress builded on VM to for example Cloud Run, which have autoscalling in place. Also Cloud Run is serverless service, so you don't have to be worried about OS patching, disk capacity and so on. Additionally you can configure at least one available instance ( in default Cloud Run is only charged when receive the request) to avoid cold start.  You can also by adding integration, map your Cloud Run service with domain, which will be behind load balancer ( ergo you have your dedicated site address, such address is mapped to loadbalancer IP, and if you have traffic spikes, Cloud Run will spin new instances, and LB will distribute load between them. Such integration will do the magic for your ( this integration wizard is nice). This will be the easiest approach for managing WordPress from infra perspective. 

medium.com story about Cloud Run and WP: https://medium.com/acadevmy/how-to-install-a-wordpress-site-on-google-cloud-run-828bdc0d0e96

---GKE---
You could also utilize GKE and run WordPress on kubernetes cluster, but this approach require k8s knowledge. 

--AppEngine---

If you don't want to rely on external documentation and need to guide conducted by Google, but with mostly the same abilities as Cloud Run, you can choose AppEngine. It's fully managed infra, designed for high scalability and traffic with high peaks. Here you have dedicated documentation about how to hosting WP in the App Engine: https://cloud.google.com/php/tutorials/wordpress-app-engine-flexible

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cheers,
DamianS
LinkedIn medium.com Cloudskillsboost