{"id":108487,"date":"2025-02-25T05:18:33","date_gmt":"2025-02-25T05:18:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/business\/internet-business\/why-adding-more-to-a-site-isnt-always-the-best-solution\/"},"modified":"2025-02-25T05:18:33","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T05:18:33","slug":"why-adding-more-to-a-site-isnt-always-the-best-solution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=108487","title":{"rendered":"Why Adding More to a Site Isn\u2019t Always the Best Solution"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Whether you\u2019re troubleshooting a bug, adding new functionality, or trying to improve how well a website performs, you might be inclined to add something to it. That\u2019s because, as humans, we see a challenge and wonder what we need to add rather than take away in order to solve it.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not always the best solution \u2013 especially when it comes to WordPress which is already susceptible to bloat.<\/p>\n

What I\u2019d like to do is briefly take a look at a recent study on this concept of less is more and then apply it to a few examples in WordPress.<\/p>\n

Why Less May Be More in Web Design<\/h2>\n

A study recently published in Nature<\/span><\/a> observed this inclination we have to add more rather than take away.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAcross a series of similar experiments, the authors observe that people consistently consider changes that add components over those that subtract them \u2013 a tendency that has broad implications for everyday decision-making.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The study\u2019s authors<\/a> hypothesized how this failure to consider potentially superior subtractive solutions could have far-reaching effects on our lives:<\/p>\n

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\u201cDefaulting to searches for additive changes may be one reason that people struggle to mitigate overburdened schedules, institutional red tape and damaging effects on the planet.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

What\u2019s really interesting is why the study\u2019s participants (and humans, in general) opted for additive solutions as opposed to subtractive ones.<\/p>\n

The main reason is that they weren\u2019t explicitly prompted to look for subtractive solutions. Without the mention of it, most participants didn\u2019t even think to consider it, so it just goes to show you how ingrained it is in all of us to add rather than to subtract.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s another reason hypothesized by the study\u2019s authors:<\/p>\n

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\u201cPeople might expect to receive less credit for subtractive solutions than for additive ones.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is something I\u2019ve encountered both in web design and content writing with clients, so I can totally see how this expectation could affect how one approaches a challenge. It doesn\u2019t make it right, but it explains why a less efficient and more costly solution might be pursued when there\u2019s the pressure of \u201cI\u2019m paying you a lot of money, so I expect you to do more for me\u201d.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the thing:<\/p>\n

We know that simplicity is better than complexity in design. There\u2019s an entire problem-solving principle<\/a><\/span> in UX design dedicated to it:<\/p>\n

\"occam's<\/a><\/p>\n

Knowing this, we need to be more cognizant of our tendency to choose additive solutions over subtractive in web design. As we\u2019ll see next, taking away from a website is often better for the user experience in the long run.<\/p>\n

4 Times When a Website Doesn\u2019t Need More Added to It<\/h2>\n

Let\u2019s take a look at some examples of when you\u2019d be better off taking something away from a WordPress site than adding more:<\/p>\n

1. Your Caching Plugin Isn\u2019t Helping Improve Site Speed<\/h3>\n

WordPress caching plugins can be useful up to a point. However, there are limits to how much a caching plugin can help a growing site.<\/p>\n

To fix this, you could pile more on to try and make up for where the caching plugin fails \u2013 like installing an image optimization plugin, a database cleanup plugin, or a CDN. However, every time you add something new to the site, it\u2019s going to consume more server resources and eat slowly away at your page speeds.<\/p>\n

In many cases, you\u2019d be better off moving a slow site to a web hosting plan that is fully optimized for performance. You may need to consider a different hosting provider altogether or it could be as simple as upgrading from shared to VPS hosting<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

Either way, you can remove the caching plugin<\/span><\/a> and allow the host to do the optimization work instead.<\/p>\n

2. Google Says the Images on Your Site Are Too Big<\/h3>\n

Images are an important part of brand identity and web design. However, unless they\u2019re resized and compressed, a website\u2019s imagery<\/a> <\/span>can slowly degrade page loading speeds and, with them, the user\u2019s satisfaction with the brand.<\/p>\n

Image optimization plugins can handle resizing and compressing uploaded images. Some will even automate the process, so you don\u2019t have to remember to resize or compress new ones.<\/p>\n

That said, these plugins aren\u2019t perfect. I\u2019ve used a number of them over the last decade and Google PageSpeed Insights<\/span><\/a> isn\u2019t always happy with the work that they do.<\/p>\n

So, rather than keep the plugin on your site if it\u2019s not helping optimize your images to the fullest, it\u2019s probably worth it to do the resizing and compression yourself.<\/p>\n

There are plenty of tools that allow you to do this in bulk. What I do is resize my images to the exact dimensions they need to fit using my design software. Then, I run them through TinyPNG<\/span><\/a> to compress them.<\/p>\n

\"tiny<\/a><\/p>\n

That does the trick just fine and allows me to run with one less plugin on my site.<\/p>\n

3. You\u2019re Only Using a Few Features From Your Plugins or Theme<\/h3>\n

There used to be a really great plugin you could install on your site to evaluate the speed of all your other plugins (and then uninstall it when you\u2019re done). Whenever I needed to diagnose a slow site, that was one of the first tools I turned to.<\/p>\n

What I often found was that it was the all-in-one plugins that consumed the most resources. Huge multipurpose themes were usually guilty of this as well.<\/p>\n

While I definitely think there\u2019s a time and place for these types of plugins and themes \u2013 like for enterprise sites and ecommerce stores that\u2019ll maximize the features \u2013 most of the time they\u2019re just resource hogs.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re not doing an audit of your theme and plugins at least once a year, it\u2019s something I\u2019d recommend you start doing now. In addition to weeding out wasteful all-in-one solutions, use this audit to look for:<\/p>\n