Following reports of frequent 500/502 errors and degraded site speed, Asymmetric performed an extensive backend audit and remediation on the La Marie Beauty WordPress/WooCommerce site. The work resolved all critical stability issues and brought the site health score to 96/100, while reducing server query load by more than half.
This article documents the specific technical problems identified, the solutions applied, and the resulting performance improvements. See also [1] for broader client context.
The site had three independent caching mechanisms operating simultaneously without coordination:
These layers were overlapping and conflicting, contributing to inconsistent page delivery and error conditions.
Several plugins were incompatible with the current version of WordPress. These were identified using Query Monitor, which surfaces per-plugin query counts and error rates. Two or three plugins were generating disproportionately high query volumes and bandwidth consumption relative to the site's size.
A dedicated security headers plugin was periodically triggering HTTP 500 errors. Root cause: the plugin was generating an excessive number of database queries on each request, creating server-side overload under normal traffic conditions.
Resolved conflicts across the CDN, server, and plugin caching layers. Each layer was reviewed and configured to avoid overlap. A cache flush was performed post-remediation.
Disabled and removed old or conflicting plugins identified via Query Monitor. Bandwidth monitoring on the server confirmed these plugins were the primary contributors to abnormally high bandwidth for a site of this scale.
The problematic security headers plugin was disabled. In its place, a must-use (mu-plugin) was created to deliver the same six security headers in a lightweight, query-efficient manner. No 500 or 502 errors have been observed since this change was deployed.
Verified GTM container configuration: confirmed correct number of tags, all tags firing properly, and no irrelevant or stale tags present.
Reviewed robots.txt to confirm no unintended blocking of crawlers. Verified Cloudflare bot blocking rules, including differentiated handling of AI bots (training crawlers vs. answer-retrieval crawlers).
| Metric | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Server queries/min | ~450 | ~200 |
| Site health score | — | 96 / 100 |
| 500/502 errors | Frequent | None observed post-fix |
| Remaining health issues | — | Minor (icon alt text) |
The remaining site health deductions are cosmetic — missing alt text on decorative icons — and do not affect functionality or SEO in any meaningful way.
La Marie Beauty is a technical maintenance client, not a marketing retainer. The work documented here falls within that maintenance scope. Content strategy, SEO campaigns, advertising, and blog development would require a separate marketing engagement. See [1] for retainer status details.