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GLOSSARY

What is Plugin?

DEFINITION

A plugin is an add-on that gives a WordPress site a new feature, such as contact forms, SEO settings, caching, backups or security scanning. Plugins save a great deal of development work, but each one is extra code that must be kept up to date.

An old, abandoned or poorly built plugin is one of the most common ways sites get hacked or slowed down. More plugins is not automatically worse, but plugins that overlap in what they do, or that you no longer use, are worth removing. Updates should be tested first because a plugin can conflict with another. Why it matters: Plugins are behind many breakages and security holes, so changes to them should be deliberate, not casual.

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