Your WordPress website is a delicate ecosystem; it requires functionalities and attributes that depend on each other to provide a sustainable habitat. Plugins play a significant role within the WordPress ecosystem, impacting virtually every aspect of your site. So when plugins are outdated, competing against each other, or overwhelming your website, they can reverse all of your hard work and ruin the user experience.
That’s where Evolve Systems comes in. Our Technical Webmaster Services is a plan designed for proactive technical support to improve website performance and security. We properly update your website while conducting routine quality checks to ensure everything is operating at peak performance. We may not have studied ecology – but we know Content Management System (CMS) websites inside and out.
What is User Experience?
User experience (or UX for short) is generating a lot of buzz these days. In the most general sense, it is defined as the overall experience people have when they are using or interacting with something – basically, everything! For the sake of what we do, we’ll stick to the context of ‘technical’ experiences such as websites.
When it comes to user experience on your WordPress site, people tend to remember (and reference back to) the negative incidents more than the positive ones. A great user interface is so seamless we don’t even think about it, we simply use it and carry on with our lives. However, if your website experience tends to make people feel frustrated, confused, or inconvenienced, don’t expect them to come back and visit any time soon.
Why is User Experience Important?
No matter your industry or business type, user experience is more important than ever before. Someone’s overall experience with your website could be the difference between them buying, inquiring, or more importantly, coming back to your site, versus looking elsewhere. In a world where online reviews and feedback reign supreme, one bad experience could deter potential customers from even giving your site a chance.
In today’s competitive market, users decide within seconds whether they want to stay on your site or move on to somewhere else. With such a short opportunity to make a good first impression, your website needs to have the tools and mechanisms in place to make it a positive experience for everyone who visits.
How Do Plugins Affect User Experience
As much as WordPress plugins can help your website, they can also hurt it in ways you may not even realize. If your plugins are outdated, they can cause serious website problems such as compatibility issues, slow load times, broken links, security risks, negative SEO, and a lack of new/advanced features.
- Compatibility Issues: As WordPress core software evolves, outdated plugins may not be compatible with the latest versions. This can lead to conflicts, errors, and functionality issues, ultimately affecting the overall user experience. Users may encounter broken website features and links, slow load times, or even complete website failures.
- Security Risks: Outdated plugins lack essential security updates, making them a weak point in your overall website security. Hackers can exploit these vulnerabilities to gain unauthorized access, inject malware, and steal or compromise user data.
- Negative Impact on SEO: When your plugins are outdated and causing broken links, this can also negatively impact your website’s SEO. Search engines consider broken links to be a sign of poor website quality, which can result in lower search rankings and reduced organic traffic – resulting in decreased engagement and conversions.
- Outdated Features: Plugin developers regularly enhance their plugins with new features, improvements, and bug fixes to keep up with evolving web standards and user expectations. By not updating plugins, you miss out on these updates, which can lead to limited functionality. Users may find your website less engaging or not as user-friendly compared to sites using updated plugins.
To maintain a positive UX/UI experience for customers, it is crucial to consistently update your WordPress plugins to their latest version; this includes regularly checking for plugin updates and ensuring that any plugins you use are compatible with the latest version of WordPress.
Evolve Systems Technical Webmaster Service (TWS) is a plan designed for proactive technical support to improve your website performance and security. We regularly monitor and update your website while performing quality checks to make sure everything is working as intended (but better). Our team of developers supports and provides monthly recommendations to improve your website’s performance and capabilities, giving you digestible information about your website every month so that you can understand your website beyond the data.
By following these practices, our technical developers can keep your WordPress website up to date to guarantee a positive user experience. Doing so also ensures security against threats, optimized performance, and the chance for your site to generate revenue effectively. For more information, you can download our TWS Example Report, or connect with our team to learn how Evolve Systems can help you successfully manage your #1 digital marketing tool.
