Should I separate frequently updated columns?
It seems what you want is a so-called Index-Only Scan for the query on the "index" page. That means that you have all the data (columns) that you select on the index page in the index you are using for this query. This makes it unnecessary to go to the table when executing this query.

Example:

SELECT name, basic, information
  from users
 where filter = something 


(I just suppose you are using some filter).

If you create the following index:

 ALTER table users add index (filter, name, basic, information);


MySQL can execute the above query without actually reading anything from the table (just the index—hence, Index-Only Scan). In other words, the number of columns in the table does not affect the performance of this query.

You can recognize an Index-Only Scan by the presences of "Using Index" in the Extra column of the execution plan (explain).

If you update columns that are not part of this index, the index doesn't need to be updated.

Some links to my site http://use-the-index-luke.com/


Index-Only Scan (aka. covering indexes)
Update performance
Getting MySQL execution plans &amp; Operations