Blank Index Page/Apache Errors - Optimize MYSQL Index

Hi guys, I am new to zen cart usage, this is the first one I have worked with [Rare Uncut DVD's] www.rareuncutdvds.com I am not really familiar with MYSQL, but for the past few weeks the site has been showing up as blank, intermittently, and sometimes getting errors. It is hosted on godaddy.com on a Linux server, they ran diagnostics and found nothing to be wrong with the hosting itself, but I was recommended to optimize the mysql database index, but I am totally clueless as to how to do this, or if this is even necessary in my case. From what I have read, it makes sense (slow loading times), but I will appreciate any help whatsoever, helping me directly, or even pointing me in the right direction. Hope to hear from someone soon, so the site can finally load fast, and not go down so we can properly advertise it. Thanks!

I guess they didn't give you any hints at how to do that did they?

If it's intermittently not responding, it suggests that the problem is server-related.

If you're using ZC v1.3.8, you will have an "Optimize Database" option in your Admin->Tools->Store Manager which will go through each table and reclaim wasted space resulting from deleted records. If you don't have that option, you'll have to do the optimize on each table manually via a tool like phpMyAdmin.

Nevertheless, I doubt that optimizing your tables is going to totally "solve" your problem.

Frankly, if the support person was worth their salt, they would have optimized your database as part of the diagnostics. I suspect your problem is that they've (typically) got you on an overloaded server that can't keep up with the demands of your shop. If they won't move you to a less-crowded server, they'll try to upsell you to something more expensive ... which would likely cost you more than a conventional hosting company would charge for better services than you're getting now. If you want hosting suggestions, see the link at the top of this page.

Something else you can do to try to diagnose the cause of blank-page problems is use the utility mentioned in step 2a of this FAQ, to create logs of PHP errors: https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=82