Questions to Ask Yourself Before Installing a Plugin

Posted by Christina Hills | Popular WordPress Tips | 3

This post is specifically for people who already have a WordPress website. If you don’t have one yet and want to learn more about building your own WordPress website, go here.

If you have a WordPress website, you’re probably familiar with plugins. WordPress plugins enable you to do things on your website that you couldn’t do with just WordPress alone. Plugins enable us to easily add extra features to our WordPress sites without coding or hiring a web developer.

When designing or editing your website, it can be tempting to install any plugin you read about or that someone recommends. However, before installing a plugin, you should ask yourself some important questions.

Over 59,000 WordPress Plugins? Oh My!

As with apps, there are thousands of plugins to choose from. Some plugins work “behind the scenes” – like backup, SEO, and security plugins. Others allow you to change the look of your website – such as plugins for image sliders, fonts, and testimonials. I’ve shared my top five favorite plugins, but other great ones are out there, too!

With all the thousands of options, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. How do you know which plugin to choose? Or, whether you really need a certain plugin?

Do You Really Need This Plugin?

Here’s a handy flowchart showing the decision-making process you should follow before installing ANY WordPress plugin.

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Graphic courtesy of SixRevisions.com

Questions to Ask Before Installing Any Plugin

Question 1: Do I need this plugin?

What prompted you to investigate this plugin? What does this plugin do? Ask yourself if you really need this plugin to gain a specific desired function or feature on your website.

If you answer YES, move to Question 2…
If not, don’t install it.

Question 2: Can I do what I need without this plugin?

Sometimes, you can accomplish what you want without a specific plugin. It’s always better to have fewer plugins on your site. For example, you don’t need a YouTube plugin on your site because YouTube gives you specific code to embed in your site to show a video.

If you answer YES, don’t install it.
If no, move on to Question 3…

Question 3: Is this plugin better than other competing plugins?

When evaluating plugins to determine if one is superior to another, check on these things:

Is the plugin company or creator credible?
Has this plugin been updated recently, and is it compatible with the latest version of WordPress?
Does it have many, many (perhaps thousands) of active users?
Does it have a five-star rating? What do the reviews say?
How is its customer support?

If YES, install it.
If no, create a list of other plugin options to evaluate

Here’s a short 2 min video that walks you through the diagram:

Final Thoughts on Plugin Decision-making

It’s fun to play around with plugins. However, it’s important to know some plugin basics AND ask yourself a few questions before installing any plugins. For example, installing an old plugin that hasn’t been updated in years could make your site vulnerable to hackers. Also, your WordPress theme might not work well with certain plugins. Badly designed plugins could cause website performance issues.

Before installing a plugin, do your research and go to WordPress.org and look at the popularity of the plugin: the number of active installs, the number of stars, when it was last updated, the reviews, and whether their support forum is active.

Need more help with Plugins?

How to evaluate a plugin is a topic that I’ve taught for years in the Website Creation Workshop™. Even if you already have some plugins installed on your website, reviewing them from time to time is probably a good idea, using the flowchart above. And remember to keep the number of plugins you have to only the ones you need!

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Do you have a website that uses WordPress? Click here to watch my free training on the top 10 plugins that every website needs, and join me in the Website Marketing Workshop. https://www.WebsiteMarketingWorkshop.com/

(Originally published June 2015, Updated Feb. 2025)

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About The Author

Christina Hills

Christina Hills helps entrepreneurs set up their websites using WordPress without having to rely on a webmaster or any tech people. Her trainings are fun and she makes it easy! Get the free PDF "The Do-It-Yourself Website Creation Checklist" Report Here

3 Comments

Anja Skrba on July 1, 2015 at 1:45 am

Agree, but I also think that it’s good to explore as much plugins as possible!
Personally, if I find it interesting, I download it and after exploring it, if I didn’t find it satisfying enough I just remove it 🙂

But truth to be told it’s far easier this way you suggested Christina Simple, clear.

Kindest regards.
Anja
- Christina Hills on July 1, 2015 at 1:55 am
  
  Anja,
  I totally agree!
  Try out a lot and delete the ones that don’t work for you, or don’t make sense.
  - Anja Skrba on July 1, 2015 at 2:03 am
    
    Glad we’re on the same page 🙂
    
    Have a productive day!
    
    Anja

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