What are the top 20 WordPress plugins to avoid?
To help optimize your WordPress website for SEO, here is a list of the top 20 plugins to avoid:
- Broken Link Checker runs continually and may slow page loading.
- Contact Form 7 loads plugin assets on every page.
- Contextual Related Posts has outdated or bloated coding.
- Disqus Comment System has outdated or bloated coding.
- Download manager has outdated or bloated coding.
- EWWW Image Optimizer runs continually and may slow page loading.
- Essential Grid has outdated or bloated coding.
- Image Optimization plugins runs continually and may slow page loading.
- JetPack has outdated or bloated coding.
- VaultPress has outdated or bloated coding.
- NextGen Gallery has outdated or bloated coding.
- Query Monitor runs continually and may slow page loading.
- Revolution Slider has outdated or bloated coding.
- S2 Member has outdated or bloated coding.
- Similar Posts has outdated or bloated coding.
- SumoMe has outdated or bloated coding.
- WP Reset may created bloated database tables.
- WordPress Multilingual (WPML) has outdated or bloated coding.
- XML Sitemaps. Sitemap Plugins are generally unnecessary. Be sure to use more fully featured SEO plugins when possible, like Slim SEO or Rank Math SEO.
- Yet Another Related Post has outdated or bloated coding.
[ Key Takeaways
This article provides advice on the best practices for using WordPress, such as avoiding plugins that have outdated or bloated coding, keeping the number of plugins to a minimum, and disabling any unnecessary features. It also recommends avoiding active social media connection plugins in moderation, as they can slow down page loading as well. ]
As a WordPress website manager with over a decade of experience at HackGuard.com service, I recommend avoiding or replacing the plugin above.
More Details About My Plugins List
It is not my intention to discredit the hard work of the developers who oversee these plugins. This list is based on my personal experience.
As a general rule of thumb, the fewer plugins “installed” within a WordPress website the better. Both active and inactive plugins installed within WordPress may impact the security of a website as well.
When Using WordPress, It’s Best To Keep The Number Of Plugins To A Minimum
This is true for both active and inactive plugins, as they can both affect the security of your website.
After activating a plugin, you must disable all non-required features. For example, many SEO plugins have Google Analytics ( GA) enabled by default. If you are not using GA, be sure to disable that feature. Contact forms are another common source of feature bloat. If you are using a contact form on your website, be sure to choose a plugin that does not inject the contact form assets into every page of your website. I added Contact Form 7 to my list for this very reason.
Likewise, as a general rule, be sure to use social media connection plugins in moderation. Active social media connection plugins can greatly slow down the full loading of a web page.
If you are looking to dramatically improve the performance of your website, please see my article, “Improving Your WordPress Website Speed with Cloudflare, Image Optimization and Litespeed Today“.
What is HackGuard.com service?
Based in San Diego, California, HackGuard.com service provides a personalized white label-ready WordPress management and security service experience for just pennies a day. MONITOR MANAGE BACKUP SECURE
Disclaimer:
If you need help with any of the recommendations above, please feel free to call me at (619) 479-6637. This post was written by Jim Walker for informational purposes only and was neither solicited nor paid for.