Am I Dreaming? My Head In The Wordpress Clouds?

by KenJ

Posted: 11 years ago 12 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

Following some major issues with recent wordpress upgrades that clashed with some of my wordpress themes and plugins, I have been thinking. These deep thoughts have led to a series of suppositions about the wordpress platform. Are they true, or do I have my head in the clouds?

Running the default theme will make my site load faster.
My site will be more secure without plugins.
My website will automatically display nicely on tablets and smart phones.
Upgrading wordpress promptly will never create a compatability issue.
The simplicity of a standard wordpress set up will be better for SEO.

Tell me if I am Dreaming!

KenJ

#clouds #dreaming #head #wordpress

Jill Carpenter

11 years ago

Originally Posted by KenJ

Running the default theme will make my site load faster.
My site will be more secure without plugins.
My website will automatically display nicely on tablets and smart phones.
Upgrading wordpress promptly will never create a compatability issue.
The simplicity of a standard wordpress set up will be better for SEO.

Tell me if I am Dreaming!

KenJ

I don't know your current set up, but I'd bet on 4 out of 5.

I'm hesitantly prompt when upgrading new wordpress installs. There are sometimes some kinks in those upgrades that are found out after a month.

The less plugins you have on the site, the quicker it'll load. Lack of plugins means less opportunity for others to hack in - but I think it has more to do with the quality/coding of the plugins themselves and where you are getting them from. Old plugins that have not been updated and are in the wordpress repository can give a place for a hacker to get in.

Some themes can slow down load time.

You're not dreaming, but you may want to continue using a couple of things to make your site stand out from the rest. The key is to be highly selective.

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webss

11 years ago

Originally Posted by KenJ

Running the default theme will make my site load faster.
My site will be more secure without plugins.
My website will automatically display nicely on tablets and smart phones.
Upgrading wordpress promptly will never create a compatability issue.
The simplicity of a standard wordpress set up will be better for SEO.

1. Sure running the default theme versus a poorly coded them will load faster. But as mentioned above, there is lots of fast loading themes available in the marketplace for use.

2.Most breaks in security usually come from/through plugins. Running outdated or poorly created plugins leave holes for attackers to get through.

3. Depends on what you call nice. Im very picky with layouts and rarely see to many sites look good on all devices. Me, I like for most sites a separate type of mobile site to fully let me adjust appearance. Thats me.

4. Yes. Most WP updates are done for security reasons.

5.Depends on a lot of factors. Sure a lightweight site may have some minor advantages then an over bloated plugin filled, poorly coded theme site that may cause issues with speed and a few other things. I have seen plugins fail that caused seo issues on a site. As seo is a huge area all in its own I think theres lots of factors.

Just my opinion of the questions

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KenJ 11 years ago

Thanks for the replys.
I am now using the new twenty thirteen theme on a couple of sites and can't believe how fast they are to load up.
Anymore views/comments

KenJ
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- Steve B 11 years ago
  
  Ken,
  
  Here are my thoughts . . .
  
  1. Running the default theme will make my site load faster.
  
  I think you are right, but not because it's the default theme. I think it loads faster because it is "sparse" and kind of a simple theme. There are "minimalist" themes at many of the WP theme sites that will also load comparatively quickly. Lots of images, do-dads, scripts and plugins seem to be the heavy contributors to slow load times.
  
  2. My site will be more secure without plugins.
  
  True. I'm no expert in the security arena, but from what I read by reputable WP thinkers, it's always a susceptible entry point for culprits.
  
  3. My website will automatically display nicely on tablets and smart phones.
  
  Not true in my opinion. WordPress is highly configurable but all themes (including the default) can be tweaked and customized to the point that responsiveness to devices can be sacrificed. Some themes are sold as being completely responsive by I think anyone can destroy that capability.
  
  4. Upgrading wordpress promptly will never create a compatibility issue.
  
  I sincerely doubt it. WordPress upgrades still manage to alter the way a theme presents itself. Even the default theme can be susceptible to glitches, especially if it is customized.
  
  5. The simplicity of a standard WordPress set up will be better for SEO.
  
  Maybe, maybe not. Just as one example - Google has said that adding an XML Site Map is a good thing but I don't think the "standard set up" includes such a page. If this were true, what good would any of the thousands of SEO plug-ins be? Are none of them helpful for SEO?
  
  I hope you are able to sort through your thinking and come up with a good WP strategy as, in my opinion, it's currently the best blogging platform for most IMers.
  
  Good luck,
  
  Steve
  
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dsouravs 11 years ago

Hi,

Running the default theme will make my site load faster.

May be yes... there are some cache plugins which are said to increase site load but I dont like them.

My site will be more secure without plugins.

Not necessarily... Plugins like bulletproof and securi increases security.

My website will automatically display nicely on tablets and smart phones.

2013 theme .. yes its responsive... but all themes are not responsive... you have to use a responsive theme.

Upgrading wordpress promptly will never create a compatability issue.

Even wordpress.org engineers say to have a backup of database and all before any theme or plugin or WP core upgradation.

The simplicity of a standard wordpress set up will be better for SEO.
yes may be... but then again there are many plugins like seo all in one, yoast, google xml gen. etc etc. to increase seo actually... dead backlink checker is my favooorite plugin

thank youuss
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AlexGeorge 11 years ago

I will chime in for number 5 about the SEO. Use to be "SEO Optimized" was a buzz word theme developers would use, now it is assumed the theme is ready for SEO.

That being said the only factor I can think of besides being ready to be crawled by the SE spiders is the loading speed for the site which has already be touched on above.

The more plugins you have on your installation the slower the site will be in most cases. You can still get different cache plugins that was present a faster load time. However, it may be best to just cut out old and unused plugins.

Some themes are ready to be shown on smart devices I do not think this is a built in function of Wordpress yet. I may be mistaken.

I have seen plugins work just fine until you upgrade. If you have a plugin no longer being developed you may want to weigh the pros and cons of upgrading. If you need the plugin and it's doing it's job.......

Good Luck
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KenJ

11 years ago

I am truly grateful for these replies.

They have confirmed what I thought in the main.

I have used WP cache and found in clunky. I also felt that it did the opposite of what it was supposed to do. It made my site load very slowly. Part of the problem is users like myself who can follow directions and install WordPress with all the extras, but do not really know what they are doing. I am therefore creating problems for myself because of this lack of complete understanding.

I am going to keep things simple for a while and see how things go.

Anymore input?

KenJ

Thanks
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Fredbou

11 years ago

@KenJ

I would firstly question if you do, indeed, need WP.

Yes, it's clunky, cumbersome, server heavy, slow loading, insecure, disgustingly hard to use, but it's THE most used CMS on the planet. That doesn't mean it's the best, it means that not many people have explored the alternatives. WP for mobile users is EXPENSIVE! You owe it to your users to make your site fast, data minimal. HTML is probably 1 per cent of the WP PHP code.

I would opt for learning HTML if you don't absolutely need a blog. There are many excellent responsive HTML templates on ThemeForest.net that will display correctly across 99.99% of devices. Don't worry about the rest, they are not the most popular!

Purchase an HTML template, download BlueGriffon or similar, edit the template, upload to your server and it will fly!

If you are just a marketer, o.k. but if you are serious about Web development, then learn HTML at the very least.

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keyon 11 years ago

I'm going side with Fredbou---unless blogging is a big part of why your site exists, I'm not seeing the advantage in using WP for content management. Sure, there was a time when blogs worked just dandy for quickly getting on page one of Google, but I think we all know those days are gone. Google has even said so. So what's the big advantage in building websites with WP in 2013? I'm not sure anymore. I'll take html over php any ol' day.
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KenJ

11 years ago

Originally Posted by Fredbou

@KenJ

I would opt for learning HTML if you don't absolutely need a blog. There are many excellent responsive HTML templates on ThemeForest.net that will display correctly across 99.99% of devices. Don't worry about the rest, they are not the most popular!

Hi Fred

I used to use notepad and html. I have also used Kompozer and frontpage. The beauty of WordPress is that in its basic form it loads much faster and looks better than anything I could come up with.
Also, for Clients websites you can set up a look and feel in minutes to show them. Doing things so fast will usually get you the order.

KenJ

Thanks

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Mrs S 11 years ago

The default theme does seem to run quickly - but it still worries me that they include the full version of all content on the home page, category and author pages. I can never understand why they don't code in the excerpt as standard.
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mrgoe 11 years ago

The simpler it is, the faster your website will load. The issue is that you can`t have all the websites looking the same and you will need plugins when adding different settings and options to your website. So for a .0 secs faster website, losing some precious addons and a unique look, I`d say pass.
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