When compared to its competitors, WordPress really shines thanks to its extensive plugin database. You can get some for free, while others are premium add-ons that you need to pay for. Plugins let you extend the already powerful software’s functionality, add new features to your website or transform it into a specific type of online space, like a forum or a store.
Not only are WordPress plugins helpful when it comes to personalizing your site just how you see fit, but they can also further increase your page’s functionality and visibility on the World Wide Web. SEO plugins are an example of such tools. They will help you make sure that you’ve done all you can to make your site as visible to search engines as possible. One example of such add-ons is Yoast SEO, which is considered to be the best WordPress SEO plugin around. Besides providing you with a checklist and extensive, yet intuitive optimization functions, it can generate XML sitemaps and perform other, more in-depth operations.
Be wary of overdoing it with plugins, however. There are tens of thousands of them to choose from, and the temptation to install way more than you need is very real. If you find yourself constantly adding new SEO plugins and yet still see no real improvements in your WordPress site rankings, you may consider enlisting the help of SEO professionals from or another established SEO and digital marketing company.
There are other, more worrisome risks associated with installing too many add-ons onto your WordPress SEO set up. You should familiarize yourself with them if you want to avoid unnecessary stress and additional work.
Clutter and Organization Problems
There are over 57,000 free and premium plugins available for download. While it may be tempting to try them all, you should remember that each one of them comes with its own user interface, as well as requires a certain amount of RAM memory to operate properly. Not to mention the fact that some of them are going to be incompatible with each other, which may result in additional problems for your website.
The Perils of Incompatibility
Conflicting plugins are the stuff of nightmares for many web designers. They occur when the codes of two or more add-ons are incompatible with each other. According to Edge Online, this may lead to your page crashing when someone is accessing it, significant decreases in loading speeds, and even the erasure of all of your content. It’s pretty scary stuff, and you should avoid it at all costs.
Conflicts most often occur between outdated plugins. A good rule that can help you minimize the risk of running into this kind of problem is not downloading add-ons that have not been updated in six months or more. Chances are that the developers have abandoned these projects and they contain outdated code, which may come into conflict with some of your more recent SEO plugins.
Loading Speed and Functionality Issues
Whenever users access your web page or any other one, they need to execute the code necessary to display all of its content and functions. For most websites, that’s not a problem, as they are usually lightweight and well-optimized for that kind of stuff. This is how we can instantly hop from search engine to website and over to some other web app. However, in the presence of too many plugins, the code needed to run your site will be much longer than what any other page contains. This means significantly longer loading times as well as the inability to access certain functions from computers with limited RAM memory.
The Security Conundrum
If a previous couple of potential problems haven’t deterred you from going ahead and stuffing your WordPress with countless plugins, this one most certainly will. A major issue with many of the tens of thousands of free add-ons is the fact that they were made by inexperienced programmers or outright amateurs. As such, they may not have enough security measures implemented, which can render your site vulnerable to attacks from hackers and other online entities. These security loopholes may be used to gain access to your private data, or even gain access to your CPU’s power in order to mine cryptocurrency.
Do You Really Need That Many Plugins?
If you keep installing plugin after plugin every single day, you’re bound to run into some of the trouble listed above. It’s understandable to need a couple for SEO purposes or modifying the site to your liking. But is there really a pressing need for you to try all of them out, or do you rather treat them as cool novelties to explore? Yoast SEO has all you could possibly need to improve your visibility in Google’s search results, so why install yet another SEO plugin?
Tinkering around with free software is always fun. If you’re hellbent on continuing to do so, you should at least remember to back up your page every time before downloading a new plugin and steering clear of outdated or suspicious-looking ones.
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