I’m a plugin junkie, I am forever installing new plugins to test them out and see if they can help my blog.
The trouble with my obsession is that I install and often do not use the plugins. As a result I need to give my blog a regular plugin audit. Any plugins I am not using, I deactivate and delete.
Why Should you Audit Your Plugins
Every plugin you add to you blog comes with an overhead. The overhead can come in three types:
- A page load overhead
- A database overhead
- Disk Space
Performace of Page Load
Certain plugins add additional components to the page, and every extension of the normal page load will comewith an ocerhead. If you don’t need it remove it and speed up page loads.
There is school of though in SEO land that Google will rank a fast loading page over a slow loading page.
Data base size
Plugins with database functions will write data to tables, and increase the size of your database. The bigger the database, the longer it will take to recover data, backup and require more disk space.
If your hosting company limits your database size, you may exceed your quota more quickly with the plugins installed.
Disk Space
The more plugins you stuff onto your blog, the more disk space they will require. Some plkugins are tiny, but others are quite large, your disk quote may be at risk if you don’t keep an eye on your plugins.
Deactivate and Delete
Once you have have identified the unwatned plugins, deactivate and delete them. Disabling a plugin still leaves the files on disk, so not all of your problems are fixed.
Deleting the Tables
When you remove plugins they don’t always delete the tables from your database. Using an admin tools such as MyPHPAdmin, review your database and delete any unwanted tables.
CAUTION: If You don’t understand the WordPress database layout, do not delet tables without the help of a techie chum.
Audit Regularly
Audit on a regular basis and you will be surprised how many redundant plugins you have installed over time.