Have you ever worked yourself out to a point where your body can’t take it anymore? Your energy depletes, and unless you recharge, your work is likely to get slow and weak. It is the same way our site systems respond. WordPress plugins, boost them to give a better performance with extended functionalities. They use a programming language called PHP.
The plugins have made WordPress be well-known and most used website builder today. More to that, they are easily accessible to everyone for there are free versions and premium types available in the market. Using WordPress plugin,” the sky is the limit” you can almost do anything that you can imagine on your site.
The Do’s and Don’ts that should guide you, while using WordPress plugins that we are going to cover in this article are as follows:
Do’s
- Have a backup plugin
- Install Google analytics
- Use SEO friendly URLs and internal links
- Keep your plugins updated
- Use social media for promoting your website
- Invest in premium plugins
Don’ts
- Keep default username
- Use copyrighted data
- Use a poor host
- Overlook security
Do’s
Have a Backup Plugin
Don’t wait to be a victim for you to act. Losing your work due to unavoidable circumstances like system crashing, server malfunction or malicious attack can be detrimental if you didn’t have a backup plugin. The reality is, disaster may strike anytime and so you have to stay prepared. WordPress developers recommend backup plugins like VaulPress, BackUpWordPress which can put you at ease.
Install Google Analytics
Monitoring website performance helps you to make quick decisions. You can accomplish this by using Google Analytics. What exactly does it do? Well, it monitors all your website movements. How your visitors behave when they visit your website? What do they do when they are there, and how much time do they take? Do they come back and if so, after how long? With this analysis, you can make some improvements.
Keep your Plugins Updated for Security Purpose
It is safe to keep your plugins updated. They will not give you the maximum performance if you don’t update them. If you have unused plugins, it might not be necessary for your system; you need to remove them. Using the latest versions can be a good thing too. WordPress developers ensure a constant update of their plugins. On the same subject, you can as well remove unused logins.
Social Media Awareness
Most of your audience likely comes from social media. Create a page that talks about the goods and services you have to offer. Facebook and Twitter are the right platforms to start. Since you already have friends and their followers, the awareness will spread faster, and you can quickly increase share counts.
Invest in Premium Plugins
Yes, many free plugins come in handy, but investing in the premium types, will give you more customization options and many will ensure you get maximum benefits of some of the features that free plugins won’t have. They are also likely to get a timely update.
Use SEO Friendly URL & Internal Links
They are friendly because they contain clear words that help you understand the page content. Search engines, as well as humans, can read the content. If that doesn’t work, then you should use the permalink structure to improve readability and search results.
If you have already installed permalink, ensure constant updates for work efficiency. To do that, choose Settings>Permalink and Save Changes.
It is essential to add that; if you are using an established site, changing the permalink structure before six months will risk losing all the share count of your social media and SEO ranking. WordPress developers would recommend having a professional to set up proper redirects.
Every page in your site is given a score, by a search engine. It comes in the form of links referred to as page authority. For you to get a good score, linking your blog page from other blog posts that you may have can help you improve your SEO scores and boost your page views. Doing this ultimately increases your visitor’s time to spend on your website.
WordPress Plugin (Yoast SEO)
The reason why it is the best WordPress Plugin it has a robust content analysis tool. With this tool, you can optimize all your pages and posts on your website.
When you enter the focus keyword, the Yoast SEO allows the plugin to take the task of analyzing your content. The results show in the content analysis section, and based on the outcome, SEO Yoast gives you suggestions on how you can improve the scores of your post.
Don’ts
Keep Default Username
The default username is usually the first target for hackers. Security plugins ban those failing to use admin while logging. Therefore, it is smart to have your username changed.
Use Copyrighted Data
Any text, videos or pictures that have a copyright mark means its user has protected it. Please don’t use it without the owner’s permission. Doing so is illegal, and you can face a lawsuit. One of the consequences you are likely to get after getting accused of copyright infringement can be massive monetary damage.
Use a Poor Host
If you go for a poor host, it might end up costing you a lot more than investing in the good ones. WordPress has some of the best types that come in a categorized manner; Bluehost is one of the best there is in the market, and a bloggers favourite is DreamHost. The critical factor to consider is how reliable they can be? Are they likely to cause time-out from your server’s end?
Overlook Security
You don’t want to expose your password or relevant information to hackers. If you are not keen on ensuring safety to your website. The likely damage that you can encounter can be detrimental to your business. It is inevitable for hackers to attack your site. WordPress Plugin like Akismet can protect you from spam.
A poorly Coded Plugin
While the essence of a plugin is to boost your website speed, the poorly coded type will slow them down. WordPress developers recommend using their quality plugins following the coding standards to avoid system malfunction.
In conclusion, you can use as many WordPress plugins as possible, as long as they are of high-quality. Use the ones from a reputable company like most WordPress plugins don’t disappoint. However, following the Do’s and Don’ts of using the WordPress plugins will ensure the proper functionality of your system.