Without using WordPress plugins, you can’t feel the full flexibility of WordPress. But Using WordPress plugins has both pros and cons.
Table of Contents
What is a Plugin in WordPress
A plugin is a piece of software that comprises a cluster of functions and users can add it to their WordPress site. A plugin is a simple software, that particularly used for any particular customization on your website.
WordPress plugins Explained
WordPress plugins are a bit of software that expands the functionality of the WordPress website. It serves to boost extra features and functionality to the WordPress website.
WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language, which makes it simple for users to include particular features to their website without knowing a single line of code.
Pros and cons of using WordPress plugins
There are over 50k WordPress plugins available in the WordPress plugin directory. Most WordPress plugins are accessible free of cost and also some at a reasonable price. It facilitates to fulfill the various desires of your WordPress website. plugins are one of the effective tools on websites.
Pros of using WordPress plugins
- Plugins save time in every way.
- They offer flexibility to use. Most of the premium plugins have a free version. The free version also has maximum features enabled.
- Plugins are more reliable. You can see that the premium plugin has over one million downloads, so it shows their commitment to the users.
- Plugins help to measure the analytic parts. Importantly, the google analytics plugin helps to analyze your website data in different factors.
- It increases sign-ups to the newsletter.
- It builds your brands, as the customer shares your information with their friends and family.
- Plugins help to have control over your site.
- Users can attain a customizable website.
- you can back up your site with plugins.
- It helps to add features as required to a user.
- WordPress plugins provide security
- It is more efficient to use.
- It is user friendly.
- Extends functionality
- without missing the things to go on the website, the WordPress checklist plugins also available
- Backlink creation
- Boost performance
- Compatible with the search engines. Some plugins work behind the website and some plugins worktop on the page. But, WordPress plugins are optimized to give you better site performance. So choose it wisely.
Some WordPress plugins with features
- If you are a beginner, then don’t worry, the Yoast SEO plugin will take care of your SEO problems. This SEO plugin will look out for your SEO writing problems. Yoast SEO also checks and indicates the frequency of blog posts to be updated. The regularly updated pages have more advantages.
- WordPress plugins help to include social media on your website. Mainly, the plugins like social share allow you to share the page across different social media platforms as well as, they cover social media like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Linked In, WhatsApp, Tumblr, Pinterest, Reddit. The social sharing buttons help the pages to share on social media by the readers.
- Plugins allow you to easily customize the landing page. Most WordPress users don’t have coding knowledge, and therefore, you need not hire a developer to design your landing page. Some best landing page WordPress plugins did it for you. Elementor and Thrive Architects are the famous page builder plugins.
- By using WordPress plugins, you can easily create forms. In contrast, WordPress plugins like WPforms do a better job. With many easy templates, they allow you to create forms like contact forms, payment forms, registration forms, and many more types of forms within a minute.
- It provides speed. The cache plugins in WordPress, clear your cache data from the website and increase your website loading speed. The WordPress plugins like WP Rocket do it better. A good website loading time increases the user experience.
- your internal link making also made it easier with plugins. The link whisper plugin checks for relevant keywords on the page to link your older blog. pages.
- The backup plugins like a jetpack come as multi-featured plugins and also offers you real-time backups.
Saves time
WordPress plugins save development time, which takes care of the overall budget of a website. It easily helps to add complex functionalities to the website. Every moment is valuable to us, so maintaining that timing is more prominent. Here WordPress plugins aid to save time.
Offer flexibility
WordPress plugins provide more functionality to users simultaneously, the user can customize the site features and functionalities. Most Plugins allow some settings to turn on and off. The styles such as font, size, and colors, and small changes also can be done to the website.
Reliable
WordPress plugins are more reliable therefore, update the WordPress plugins regularly. It provides speed and security to the WordPress site. Updating WordPress plugins is an important factor to maintain security.
Simple to use
One of the significant reasons to choose WordPress plugins is their simplicity.
However, the user doesn’t need to have much knowledge about the designing, structure, and processing of plugins.
The only thing we have to look at is to just choose the required plugins for our website because it is very simple for the user to add plugins and start using the plugin. You will also get many tutorials on using the particular plugins.
Attractive theme Customization
WordPress has thousands of attractive themes, and some of them are available for free cost as well as allows the user to customize their design.
The combination of good themes and the best plugins makes the website attractive and delightful. Therefore, use eye-popping themes to grab the eyes of the audience and improves the website’s user experience.
Improve performance
WordPress plugin boosts the performance of a site. It extends the existing functionality of the WordPress site and makes it adopt the current trends.
Cons of using WordPress plugins
There are many reasons why WordPress is necessary, we all use plugins and every successful website has used a number of plugins.
The plugin is one of the major reasons the word press has so much flexibility. If you have any problems with word press, there is a plugin for that.
It is the people’s mindset that every customization to the website can be done through a plugin. Maybe it is good, but it also has some negative sides.
WordPress plugins have some disadvantages, and they are mentioned below
- Security issues
- Slow performance
- Website crash
Security issues
Sometimes WordPress plugins are not updated for a long time. After that, it leads to the hacking of a website and vulnerable to malware attack.
Slow performance
Using more plugins can affect the speed of the page, because Each plugin adds its JavaScript, PHP, and other files to your websites which reduces the speed of your website.
Website crash
Sometimes the website gets crashed because of the installation of many plugins in your site.
How to rectify the disadvantages
- Update your plugins regularly
- Don’t use too many plugins
- Choose plugins, only you need it
Update your plugins regularly
Updating the plugins regularly helps to maintain security. So keep your WordPress plugins updated.
When you are installing the security plugins take extra care. Because security plugins go much deeper than other plugins. So choose your security plugins carefully.
Then, always keep your plugins and themes updated all the time. Sometimes, even the outdated plugins are the reason for most of the cyber attacks.
Install the only plugins that have more installations, better reviews, and from a trusted company.
Limit the number of plugins based on your website’s performance. So If you use better WordPress hosting, having a higher number of plugins doesn’t give you much difference in your site speed.
Don’t use too many plugins
If your site has too many plugins, then it will slow down your website. Use the plugins you needed on your website and remove the unwanted plugins in your site. Choose the required one.
In addition to that, having too many plugins will cause a side effect to your website. Also, many say that WordPress sites are becoming slow these days. WordPress is not getting slow. An unlimited number of plugins installed on your website will cause downtime to your website.
Before installing the plugin ask yourself these questions,
- Do I need this plugin
- It is ‘ MUST HAVE’ or ‘NICE TO HAVE’
- Will it solve my problem or is there any other way?
Choose only plugins you need
Generally, many popular plugins come up with lots of features, but you need only one feature from it. In this type of situation, reject those heavy plugins and go for simple and specific ones.
That every code you are adding will have an impact, moreover, half of the users return when the site takes over 3 seconds to load. It may decrease your traffic.
Remove the long back used plugins and replace them if needed any better. Before installing the plugin, see their review and ratings whether it is trusted by users or not.
Ensure it every time before installing a plugin
- Whether you really need it.
- It gives any value to the site
- Is it must have?
- Update your themes and plugins regularly.
- Remove inactive plugins
- Whether it is a trusted plugin
- Remove the plugins, when it isn’t needed.
- Try to use only reputed plugins.
Choosing the right plugins and maintaining them properly will make the website great. Even though WordPress plugins have abundant advantages, users should take care of their disadvantages too.
Updating the WordPress plugins regularly will ensure security to your site. But try to use the required plugins for your site. These factors help to maintain a healthier and successful site.
Use the plugins, with this famous quote in mind, said by Mark Twain.
“Too much of anything is good for nothing”
Conclusion
To conclude, WordPress plugins are designed to make the work easier for users and reduce the working time.
Even though WordPress plugins have abundant advantages, users should take care of their disadvantages too. Try to use only the required plugins for your site. These factors help to maintain a healthier and successful site.
Finally, the word press plugins are necessary to improve everyone’s site, however, most of them are free plugins, so don’t take it as an advantage to install more plugins. Plugins are created to increase your site performance and not to increase your downtime and slower the site’s performance.
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Thank you for spending your valuable time. If you find this article useful, kindly share it. Do you have faced any issues using the WordPress plugins? Let me know in the comments.
