The biggest and powerful feature that WordPress provides is a huge number of options for plugins. Thousands of WordPress plugins are available for free and for premium cost.
These plugins are responsible to enhance the functionality of your website. Plus you can use these plugins to customize the look and feel of your website in the way you want without knowing the technical code.
But somehow, somewhere plugin is also considered as a weak point of WordPress. Outdated plugins, unsecure code, results in most of the websites get hacked. You will need to take care of your website if you are using too many plugins on your website.
Plus you might face maintenance problems such as problem in theme breaks, the problem in plugins compatibility and technical issues on the website.
If you are a WordPress developer or a website owner you should keep your plugins updated and installed properly. Some points are listed below that will help you out to avoid dangerous WordPress plugins.
1. Before installation new plugins just examine it first
Aas you know WordPress is an open-source platform that means anyone can easily install the WordPress plus anyone can create WordPress plugins very easily.
This is the main reason why WordPress has thousands of plugins. Plus you will find that there are multiple choices for a single functionality.
But its developers choose which kind of plugin they prefer to give look and feel as per their clients need.
Therefore it becomes important to check each and every plugin that fulfills your needs or not. Examine your WordPress plugins before installing it on your website to avoid dangerous WordPress plugins.
* How many active installations have been done until now?
* Do plugins have good reviews?
* What is the last date of updating?
* The plugin is supported with the latest WordPress version or not?
* Does this plugin provide answers to the customer queries through forum support or not?
Suppose you found a plugin that will suit as per your requirement but it has less reviews and few installations then you should ignore such type of plugin. You should also avoid such dangerous WordPress plugins if it was updated a few months ago.
If you found that the plugin has a number of support items on the plugin page it means the developer has given up the plugin. If you encountered this type of issue it means a developer has not responded to the customer queries from a longer time.
Even it will seem like the developer is not interested at all to update the plugin. This means if you add this plugin to your website you will get too many issues even you will face page loading problem.
If you are looking for a new brand plugin you should verify the developer’s site before getting that plugin on your website.
2. Maintain plugin list which is rejected
You will find a number of plugins in WordPress.org that are not in use for your business website. So, you should make sure to keep an eye on such plugins to avoid the future problem.
Especially if you are new in the development field or if you have hired any WordPress developer team then you should try to manage your website properly.
You should also check whether you have chosen a good hosting provider company. Because these hosting companies make sure to disallow such plugin which are not in use. This will not allow plugins that can minimize the website loading speed and the performance of your website.
Before choosing any hosting provider make sure to check if they provide more powerful features or not, for example, a managed WordPress hosting platform gives you a security and backup facility.
Try to install fewer plugins to make your website performance better and to avoid dangerous WordPress plugins and vulnerabilities.
Before making the decision for downloading any plugin a developer should review the plugins and then configure it on their WordPress website. The few steps listed above are very crucial to check if the plugin is in use or not.
3. Update the plugins monthly
It is important to keep your website update and maintain. In the same way, plugins can be updated by solving the queries and problems that were present in the previous code.
The WordPress community or third party developers make sure to add some new functionality to the previous version. This updated version also results in solving the security problem.
Suppose you have installed the plugin and your website is running smoothly but if the new updated are available for the same plugin but if you are ignoring it you might be facing lots of problems in the future.
Your website could face a huge problem for security. Therefore it is the best option to update the plugin with all new updates to make your website run smoothly and effectively.
4. Track on WordPress vulnerabilities
The main targets of hackers are WordPress because it is an open-source platform that is available free of cost. Thousands and millions of people are using WordPress platform to showcase their online presence on the internet. Therefore WordPress has a high number of chances of being hacked.
In the same way, if you use outdated plugins you chances of getting hacked will get increases. To avoid such a hacking problem you should update the plugin.
WPScan vulnerability database is the best tool to check the security issues. This plugin is useful which keeps track of your WordPress themes, plugins if there any security problem. If this tool found any plugin or a theme has a problem you should uninstall that plugin and theme and try to add a new one.
5. Update to the latest PHP
Every month PHP comes with the new updates and released. If you are running an old version of PHP on your website, then it is possible that your website is at high risk.
This is because PHP is a server-side programming language. If a hacker succeeds in finding your PHP to be an outdated version it will hack your website and will run unwanted code. Therefore make sure to update your PHP code to the latest code.
Conclusion:
The key points listed above might take time to work but that is the most essential factor that should be considered in high demand.
With the latest theme, plugin, code updates you can take your business to the next level. Try to avoid dangerous WordPress plugins which will result in high search engine and user traffic.
