Context
Single-site WooCommerce on a modest Hetzner server with slow pages and resource pressure. Needed stability and better Core Web Vitals.
- Role: Solo developer / sysadmin
Goals
- Stabilize the stack
- Modernize PHP and improve Core Web Vitals
- Keep checkout fast and safe
What I did
- Server hardening; VS Code Remote‑SSH + SSHFS workflow
- Runtime tuning: Nginx/Apache, PHP‑FPM pools, opcache, sane worker/RSS limits
- App perf: critical CSS, defer/async JS, lazy loading, predictable dimensions, font preload with swap
- Woo specifics: template/plugin audits, PHP 8.x compatibility, query reduction, lean cart/checkout
- Monitoring: GA4 checks, Lighthouse/PageSpeed, log profiling
Stack
Ubuntu/Hetzner, Nginx/Apache, PHP‑FPM 8.3, WordPress/WooCommerce, WP‑CLI, GA4, Lighthouse/PageSpeed
Outcomes (placeholders)
- LCP [~X.XXs lab]
- CLS [≤0.10]
- 5xx incidents [–X%]
- ATC rate [+X%]