Find Time to Pare Your Plugins and Optimize Your WordPress Site
By: Paula Eder (see my bio)
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Finding time to optimize the speed and responsiveness of your WordPress blog or website is time well spent. That’s because most internet travelers aren’t going to wait around while a slow site loads. They’ll be on to another blog – and you’ll have lost a potential reader. (Meanwhile, your site churns away, struggling to pull itself up onto the screen.)
So, as intriguing as the latest plugin may be, it’s important to consider carefully before installing it. WordPress offers literally thousands of enticing plugins for bloggers and webmasters. But the thing is, every nifty tool that you add to your site increases the potential for problems. As noted above, the time it takes your site to open will increase. In addition, plugins can increase vulnerability to security breaches and other technical problems.
WordPress expert and consultant Jonathan Wold has written an excellent and informative article titled “6 Questions To Ask Before You Install A WordPress Plugin” that explores this subject and offers very practical tips on how to weed through the temptations and pick the plugins you really want and need.
The author offers a helpful path for considering a plugin for installation, beginning with asking yourself whether it’s really needed, and including some very useful ways to assess the quality of the tool you’re considering. For example:
- Are you already familiar with the developer’s work?
- Are there lots of updates to the plugin (this could be a plus or a minus)?
- What are people posting about the tool? (You can check support forums and glean very helpful insights there.)
- Check trusted sites to see what plugins others’ recommend.
But for starters, I’d recommend stepping back and doing a quick assessment of your WordPress site. How many plugins do you currently have active? Are you using them all? Can some be weeded out?
Paring your plugins to optimize your WordPress site will enhance your readers’ experience and, ultimately, increase your traffic.
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Paula Eder, PhD is an internationally-known coach and published author who specializes in mentoring heart-based entrepreneurs and small business owners, from the inside out, to align their core values and energy with their time choices and behaviors so that they make more money, create more freedom, and find more time. To learn more about Paula’s unique, Heart-Based Time Management™ System and begin your transformational journey, sign up for her Finding Time Success Kit. Discover how you can find time for what matters most. |
