How plugins can adversely affect your wordpress website.
Installing a plugin usually installs someone else’s code into your website. It may be a risk as you cannot judge the quality of the code used in various plugins. I am not saying all plugins are like that. Some are really good and excellent in quality and some are not coded up to the standards of a quality secured website.
So you should be thorough in your research before you install a WordPress plugin as it may pose a security risk to your website and may cost you a fortune. It is always advisable to follow the WordPress Webdesign best practices before and after installing your WordPress.
The most important aspect is to keep your WordPress website and all the plugins you use updated to the latest versions. As the WordPress plugins have a tendency to conflict with one another and/or the WordPress version when updated so we advise that your WordPress web design is always up to date.
Regular back ups are very important, just in case you installed a low quality plugin and it starts eating up your website.
Keep a check on speed and availability of your website.
Do thorough testing. It is better always to have a testing environment in place before you roll out any update in your WordPress website development.
Here is the checklist to select a WordPress plugin.
- Check for positive reviews in WordPress plugins directory.
- Downloads count is a must to check.
- Compatibility with your WordPress version.
- Refer to blogs, forums,articles etc for the use of the plugin into your wordpress website development.
- How often is the plugin updated.
- See if it is easy to build a function to achieve this functionality instead of installing this plugin into your wordpress website.