How to Replace the Wordpress Cron Job in Plesk

Replacing the WordPress Cron is one of the easiest things you can do to speed up your website, especially for new visitors. The Wordpress Cron has processes to run at regular intervals (Hourly, Daily, Monthly). However, by default the checks for these jobs are triggered by visits to your website.
This means that when someone visits your site not only does your Wordpress website have to generate the page, it also has to complete any tasks it has missed. This can result in slow load times for that customer.
This process can be improved by creating automated cron jobs to occasionally trigger these automated checks.


Step 1 - Log into Plesk and click on File Manager.




Step 2 - Navigate to your document root (usually the public_html folder) and click on your wp-config.php file. Click Edit in Code Editor.




Step 3 - Under the line which starts with "define('WP_DEBUG", type this:

define('DISABLE_WP_CRON', true);

Make sure you click Apply on the bottom, then close the page.




Step 4 - From the Websites and Domains page, click on the Scheduled Tasks icon.




Step 5 - Add a New Cron Job.

Task Type: Fetch a URL
Command: Type the below (make sure to replace yourdomain.net.au with your domain name):

https://yourdomain.net.au/wp-cron.php?doing_wp_cron

Run: Cron Style, 1-56/5 * * * *
Description: Wordpress Cron
Notify: Do not notify

Once that's done, click OK.




For more tutorials on website development and Wordpress troubleshooting, view our List of Wordpress Guides.