If you run a Wordpress blog, installing a lot of Wordpress Plugins may be risky. As Wordpress plugins provide added features and enhancements to your blog they may also create problems with your Wordpress install. Many of the programmers who create Wordpress plugins are labeled as “Class B” level programmers. In other words, you will find that many people who create these various plugins are teens and very young adults who just got done reading their “How To Program in PHP” book that was purchased at Barnes & Noble.

Wordpress itself is stable and is maintained by highly skilled programmers. And when problems arise with Wordpress such as security holes and various bugs in their software, a fix is offered and a message is sent to all the Wordpress users via the admin dashboard. The message usually warns Wordpress users about a security concern and prompts users to download and install a new version of Wordpress. Wordpress plugins modify the MySQL database that is used to run the Wordpress blog. Many Wordpress plugins actually create insecurities and make the Wordpress blog vulnerable to hackers. Some Wordpress plugins can conflict with each other causing the Wordpress blog to fail.

As Wordpress plugins do give more functionality to a Wordpress blog, it might not be worth the risk installing. Most bloggers are not experienced programmers and it is common for bloggers to not know what to do when a Wordpress failure happens. If you do insist on installing a Wordpress Plugin, it would be advisable to see if the programmer provides technical support and has a great track record.

All in all, it is best to keep your Wordpress install as original and updated as possible. Most Wordpress plugins do not aid in search engine optimization, in fact a lot of Wordpress plugins hinder your blog’s ability to rank well in the search engines. Many Wordpress plugins such as the Ultimate Tag Warrior duplicate your content and display it in many areas of your blog. This makes it difficult for search engines to determine the actual location of your post or article.

Blogging is fun. Wordpress is great software. You may find that in the long run of running a blog, it may be for beneficial to keep things simple and stable instead of highly functional with fear of failures.