WordPress bloat is an issue that’s been hounding the WordPress community for quite some time now! Not many people talk about it, but the truth is, 1 in 3 WordPress sites suffer from WordPress Bloat. Well I’m here to tell you…it’s not your fault.
What is WordPress Bloat?
Let me first start by asking you this, how many plugins do you have installed on your website? How many are active? Too many of us install plugin after plugin on our websites. When you have an abundance of plugins installed and activated, this is what we call “WordPress Bloat.”
Why do we get WordPress Bloat?
Ever hear the saying if it’s free it’s for me? People like free things. There are thousands of plugins and themes that are free in the WordPress Plugin Repository. People want to experiment with different ones and see what they do. Others don’t really know what they’re doing and install multiple plugins that all do the same thing in different ways. Then what happens after is horrific.
They don’t remove the plugin or deactivate them.
Why is WordPress Bloat bad? What are the symptoms?
Why, you ask? Why are viruses bad? Why does gross food taste gross? Why can’t a website be built with the click of a button?
WordPress Bloat slows down your website; it can also cause conflicts amongst other plugins making your website much more difficult to troubleshoot. Something that can take 20 minutes ends up taking 3 hours because you couldn’t find the cause? Somewhere in the 100s of plugins you have installed is bad code, and you can’t find it.
What can I do to stop WordPress Bloat?
STOP INSTALLING EVERY SINGLE PLUGIN YOU FIND! Really, just stop doing it. If you need to experiment, that’s fine, but if it’s not the plugin for you, deactivate it. Delete it. Don’t let it bloat your site or cause unneeded conflicts.
Together, we can fight WordPress Bloat! Only use what you need, and we can make the existence of WordPress bloat disappear! Maybe it’s a pipe dream, but I believe that if we all just take a minute to examine what our sites are actually using, and what they actually need, we can cut WordPress Bloat down by the millions!
Remember, examine your site and only install and use what you need, and don’t forget to deactivate and delete.
Thank You.
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Agreed, Agreed, Agreed! What would be a major help for us who aren’t as experienced with WordPress as some would be a list of the plugins you typically use in the real-world. Not a “marketing” list but a real list.
The occasional review of those plugins that you really use would be gold! There are so-called reviews everywhere – but almost no reviews by battle hardened wordpress developers
Cheers
Hi Daniel,
I have a post on a bunch of plugins that I use! =D
Things I Like, Use, and would Recommend
As well as this post Plugins that I use and trust.
Though an updated version will definitely need to be released =). Most of that info will be going on the 30k blog. (gettingto30k.com)