Ask web developers why they love WordPress so much and most of them will tell you, “It offers plenty of plug-ins and makes our job easier.” This strong and resourceful CMS offers hundreds of plug-ins and unfortunately, developers install them without a second thought. While the add-ons decrease web development time, too many of them can cause trouble. If you don’t check plug-ins thoroughly before hitting the install button, your site may face security vulnerabilities and the page load speed may decrease.
Therefore, before installing a plug-in, you should consider a few things mentioned below.
- Do I Really Need It? – When you scan through the plug-ins directory and like a particular add-on, ask yourself whether your site really requires it or not? Sometimes, people install add-ons just because other sites are using them too.
- Can I Achieve My Goal Without It?- Non-developers love plug-ins, but if you have some programming knowledge, then instead of using third party tools, you can write a few lines of code to create a necessary function. For instance, if you need to add Facebook “like” button in your site, you can easily collect the code from Facebook Developers docs and insert it in the functions.php .
- Is It Better than Others? – You must evaluate the available options before taking the final decision. For instance, if you search for “SEO”, you may find dozens of options, but not all of them are good. Hence, make a list of 5 add-ons you like the most and then read the reviews to decide which one is absolutely perfect. Since, plug-in developers push updates frequently, you must check the most recent reviews to take a wise decision.
- Which Developer Is Most Reliable? – A plug-in is as good as the developer is. You must check the experience of an add-on developer before installing it. A seasoned programmer creates error free tools. Review the tech support frequency to evaluate the dedication of the programmer.
- Which One Has the Best Update Track Record? – Timely updates mean fewer chances of technical errors. Hence, consider the frequency of updates to decide the true value of an add-on. Read the improvements made in every update as well.
There is no doubt that plug-ins are necessary for WordPress web development, but try to use as few as possible and write custom codes to enable various functions. When you write codes, it’s easier to handle any technical issue and also hackers don’t get an easy entry in your site.
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