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15 minutes to a prettier blog: cut down the plugins and widgets

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15 Minutes to a Prettier Blog - http://www.thepixelboutique.com

Wow, its been foreeevs since the last 15 Mins. to a Prettier Blog post. But today I’m going to let a bit of my geekery show and talk about plugins and widgets. This post mainly refers to WordPress blogs, but if you’re on Blogger, just think sidebar gadgets…they’re basically the same thing.

To put it broadly, plugins are small snippets of code that add functionally. Plugins range anywhere from adding share button to the bottom of your posts (Shareaholic), to numbering your comments (Greg’s Threaded Comment Numbering), to making your site more Google friendly (Google XML Sitemaps).

Plugins are great. They add functionality to your blog, and that’s pretty. But, plugins also add load time to your site, and lots of load time is not so pretty. Its a balancing act, really. You want to add enough functionality and zoozoos to your blog, but you dont want to create a long wait time for your visitors. They will surely bail on you without a second thought.

The same thing goes for widgets. Widgets are nothing more than sidebar items. See the Pinterest widget right there? ——————————————————————————>
Perfect example. They can be image or text links, ads, lists of posts, etc. But beware of fancy dancy things like Amazon’s bookshelf or “recommended products” widget. Some of them require a lot of communication between servers and can really slow down your load time. If that pretty Pinterest widget bogged down my site, I’d be ditching it. Its just not worth a poor user experience.

Here are a few recommendations…

  1. Be a little selective with plugins and widgets you put on your site. You only have so much load time and screen space. Be sure to allot it to the features that are going to be the most useful for you…and pleasant for your readers.
  2. If you have deactivated plugin or inactive widgets that you aren’t planning on using, delete them! They clutter up your server space and if there’s a bug in one of them, can still cause problems until they’re completely deleted.
  3. Don’t overcrowd your sidebar with unnecessary widgets. Do you really need “Latest Comments”, “Latest Posts” and “Archives”? And 37 ads? No. It just gets too busy to have your sidebar filled with every conceivable button and link. The longer you blog, the more selective you have to be, and some of those choices are hard. But I firmly believe this is a perfect example where less is more.
  4. If you notice your site suddenly becoming sluggish after adding a plugin or widget, remove it. The best way to figure out which one is the culprit is to always always always test the front end of your blog after installing a plugin or widget. That way, you will also know if a new or updated plugin is incompatible with another plugin. Good practice!

So that’s my recommendation for using plugins and widgets. Yes, they matter in the overall pretty factor of your site. Remember your canvas is not infinite and you want to maximize your impact so your readers come back again and again.

The post 15 minutes to a prettier blog: cut down the plugins and widgets appeared first on the pixel boutique • web design • wordpress tips & services • wedding websites.


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