WordPress has so many downsides, Cultrix Digital prefer not to use it for building high-quality, fast, secure websites. The issues lead to poor SEO, website vulnerability and poor page speed, that ultimately result in a potentially lower share of business for website owners than if they had commissioned a higher quality website.
However, because WordPress is cheap, and often free, it’s still a popular option. Here are some of the downsides worth knowing about WordPress, which all contribute to the underperformance of SEO, vulnerability to hackers and sluggish page speed:
It needs keeping up to date regularly
If you don’t run the updates, the breaks will happen and keep on happening. WordPress is ‘open-source’ so all the vulnerabilities are there for the internet to see. Hackers only have to search the internet for WordPress sites older than the version that contains the fixes.
Keep plugins up to date
For a start, plugins are required by many WordPress sites because there’s so much the sites do not do. But these need to be kept up to date, and the ones not used, deleted. Leaving the unused plugins to be inactive is not advisable.
Anyone can write a plugin
Many WordPress hacks are via plugins. They are, not always, but often written by people who don’t know any other way to achieve something, and with no consideration for security.
Too many plugins
Because there is a plugin for everything, and often simple things that shouldn’t need a plugin, sites become bulky and slow. But don’t worry – there’s a cache plugin to speed it back up again!
Keep themes up to date
Similarly, with plugins, themes need to be kept up to date and any not used, deleted. Leaving unused themes inactive is also not advisable. And also, like plugins, anyone can write a theme, with no regard to security. Plus, if a theme has been customised, you’ll need to make sure any updates to the parent theme are manually applied to the customised templates and files.
We’ll let you make up your own mind about whether it’s counterproductive to have a cheap WordPress site that leaves you constantly trying to find someone to fix it. But we see so many WordPress website owners who need help to clean-up after a hack, it’s not hard to see the sense in paying for an expertly built clean website in the first place.
Not all WordPress sites are done badly, but the problem is that they are open to being done badly. Anyone can call themselves a Web Developer and put a WordPress site together with endless plugins that they end up being messy and unproductive, causing vulnerabilities and poor page speeds. As technology changes, they’ll need constant adaptations, updates and fixes also.
All too often web developers pick up the brunt of WordPress fixes for sites that don’t work as they should. So, it’s no surprise that they get to know well the limitations of WordPress websites and the limitations of the so-called web developers who built them.
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