What does "optimize database" do?

[lin0118]

When I click "optimize database" under actions, what exactly does that accomplish? And how often should I do that?

Thanks in advance.

[TurnkeyAdmin]

Well without getting too technical. Everytime you have records (Ie. visitors to your site, reports, transcripts) they are recorded in the database. When they are cleared out that space is never reclaimed until a new record is added or the database is optimized. After a while the empty/extra space being held is heavy overhead for the database server itself. So once optimized the server can access the data smoother, therefore making it run more efficiently.