If you have an HTML website, it likely uses a really small amount of system resources because it is static, but that isn't the case with dynamic database-driven sites that use PHP scripts and provide considerably more functions. This type of Internet sites create load on the website hosting server every time somebody browses them, simply because the server requires time to execute the script, to access the database and then to supply the content requested by the visitor's web browser. A widely used discussion board, for instance, stores all usernames and posts in a database, so some load is generated every time a thread is opened or a user searches for a particular term. If many people access the forum simultaneously, or if each and every search involves checking hundreds of thousands of database entries, this may produce high load and affect the performance of the website. In this regard, CPU and MySQL load statistics can present you with information about the site’s functionality, as you can compare the numbers with your traffic data to determine if the website should be optimized or transferred to a new type of hosting platform that'll be able to bear the high system load in the event that the site is very popular.
