Is it necessary to use a lot of plugins for your WordPress blog? Could a web designer add functions to your website? For example, there's a plugin for Twitter. Could a web designer "write" the programming for that or is it readily available? Thanks.
How many plugins are recommended for a WordPress blog?
(4 posts) (3 voices)
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It's not necessary to use a lot of plugins for your blog because more plugins (twitter feeds, facebook feeds, etc...) will slow down the loading of your blog. If a web designer wanted, they could technically take the code from the plugin files and integrate it but it really defeats the purpose as the blog will still be calling upon 'function' files in your Wordpress theme.
It doesn't hurt to use a handful of them but I wouldn't recommend having more than you can count on your hands and toes.
Posted 6 months ago # -
I totally agree with Bryan......when you get a lot of them, they will slow down the page loading of your site, because their functions get called from the server as your pages are being loaded.
There are certainly TONS of plugins, many of which offer some pretty slick features, but I often see websites where it's clear that some plugins are being used just simply for the "cool" factor, and not because they add any functionality or usefulness for the average site visitor.
I strongly encourage people to ONLY use plugins that they need for their site to operate and that offer something useful to site visitors.
The most critical plugins in my opinion are for site backup (wp-DBManager), spam filtering (Akismet), and Search Engine Optimization (All in One SEO Pack).
In addition, there are just a few highly useful ones I recommend:
- Search Everything and Search Meter - to know what people are searching for at your site;
- DoFollow and CommentLuv - to encourage commenting on your blog posts;
- Contact Form 7 and Really Simple CAPTCHA (they work together) to make it simple for people to contact you without exposing your email address to spambots;
Beyond that I think you really need to carefully consider whether the plugin you're thinking of adding is really necessary, and don't go crazy with adding ones that just seem cool.
Posted 6 months ago #
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