WordPress plugins are the heart of Content Management System (CMS). They allow you to customize it any way you want it and turn them on and off depending on your needs.
But sometimes excessive use of plugins can cause an error in the functionality of your website. There can be many reasons behind the errors such as bad coding, conflict with WordPress, conflict with some theme, or maybe another plugin.
A lot of ensuring a plugin doesn’t affect the rest of your site is getting rid of bulk. If your site is bogged down but unnecessary data, there might be something hiding that will react poorly with the newly downloaded plugin. Clearing that up will no to only make your site faster, but easier to manage.
This article gives you tips to avoid breaking your site with a new plugin.
Make Use of a Solid Theme
Every site has a theme downloaded. However, problems between your theme and plugin are often the main reason for an error. So one of the most important things to be kept in mind while using a plugin is to choose a strong theme. As every theme is unique in its own way and all are better than other. Hence the selection becomes hard. The framework chosen by you must be lightweight hence it would be fast.
Make sure it is responsive and updated frequently. That way if you have a problem you can’t fix, you can reach out to the developer.
Make use of Content Delivering System
A Content Delivering System can offer various benefits such as reducing error. The Content Delivering System takes away all your files (CSS, JavaScript, Images) and then offers them on a server which is closer to the visitor, which then decreases download time.
Therefore, the speed of the website is never a problem if we use Content Delivering Network. This will also improve your visitor’s experience, bounce rate, and SEO. As well as reducing the likelihood of a plugin breaking your site.
Optimize the WordPress Database
If the WordPress database exceeds a certain amount, it can slow down the speed of your website and set it up for potential errors. That’s why you need to make sure you are optimizing it and keep it clean by disabling or limiting post revisions, deleting old versions.
This will ease the strain on your site and allow it to account for more plugins.
Make Sure You are Caching
Just like with the database, caching makes sure you are clearing out as much unwanted data as possible. The process of caching stores your pages & posts as some static files which are later on served to your visitors by decreasing the processing load on the server, which of course reduceds the strain on any new plugins.
Consider a Gzip Compression
Compression is necessary to reduce the size of the website. Gzip is a form of compression which helps you compress the web pages, CSS, and javascript at the server level even before sending them over to the browser.
Even if you are using heavy weight framework, compressing it with Gzip compression will help you reduce the weight of the framework and as a result, it will enhance the speed of the website.
Use MySQL Tuning
Using and optimizing MySQL Tuning is important. The most recommended tool is the MySQL Tuner script. It does not make any configuration changes to the website as it’s a read-only system. So you can make the changes yourself.
Specify Dimensions of Your Images
Large images will show down your site. For a WordPress website, compressing is necessary along with dimension. Using a specific dimension will speed things up. You can either edit these videos manually or download a plugin to do it automatically.
Select A Reliable Host
Choosing a fast and reliable host can make a lot of changes to your website. Staying away from cheap shared hosting is recommended as they increase the traffic to their servers which will let you share your data with hundreds of people.
A managed WordPress host is a better option for those who are less tech savvy. A host can also provide customer service in case your site does break.
Empty Spam Comments Periodically
Spam serves no value but occupies the space of the server. Once space is totally occupied it will reduce the speed of the website.
Ultimately, in order to avoid the error caused by plugin, you must empty the spam comments on a regular basis.
Take Backups On a Regular Basis
Backing up your site will make sure you can get back to where you were before the plugin broke your site. It will also increase the speed of your site and make everything run smoothly.
Taking these steps before adding a new plugin will reduce the chance of your site breaking. Of course, these aren’t failsafe, and we recommend setting up a staging site before making any changes.
For more information on WordPress development, check out Elsner Technology.
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