How to Confidently Conduct a WordPress Plugin Audit

Performing a WordPress plugin audit on your website might not seem urgent– until something goes wrong! Keeping a “clean house” with your plugins is key to maintaining your site’s security, performance, and compatibility over time.

As a WordPress theme designer, one of the most common requests I get is to review someone’s plugins and help them figure out which ones to keep and which ones to ditch, especially when switching themes. The good news? It’s a very easy process you can do yourself!

In this post, I’m going to walk you through how to conduct a thorough plugin audit on your WordPress website! Let’s get started.

Review your installed plugins

First, log in to your WordPress dashboard and navigate to the Plugins page in the left sidebar. Here, you’ll see a list of all the plugins currently installed on your website. It’s a good idea to take note of each plugin– so if it helps, write them down in a notepad or notes app so you can take notes to easily compare and evaluate them. This will give you a clear overview of what’s running on your site and help you identify any plugins that may be redundant or unnecessary. And this way, you’ll have a record in case you delete any plugins and want to add them back later.

Review plugin usage

Evaluate each plugin’s purpose and usage on your website. Ask yourself whether each plugin is still necessary and if it provides essential functionality to your site. Sometimes, plugins may have been installed for a specific purpose but just aren’t needed anymore.

If you’re unsure of exactly what a plugin does, click the View Details button to read the plugin’s description and features in the Description tab. You can also find the settings for the plugin somewhere in the left sidebar of your dashboard to explore what the plugin offers and how it’s configured.

Research plugin reputation

In your Plugins page, click View Details on each plugin to open up the plugin info. On the right, take a look at the reviews and ratings, and see if it’s compatible with your current version of WordPress and PHP (assuming you’re WP and PHP is up to date.) If a plugin has poor ratings and/or lots of negative reviews, it might be time to find a better alternative. Search for reputable plugins with good reviews and active development to ensure you’re using the best tools for your site.

Get rid of duplicate or unnecessary WordPress plugins

Duplicate plugins

As you review your list of plugins, keep an eye out for any plugins that are performing the same function. Having duplicate plugins doing the same job can slow down your site, or worse– cause it to break. Compare the performance and features of these plugins, and keep only the one that’s best optimized, more actively maintained, and offers the most value.

Common plugin duplicates might include:

Unnecessary plugins

Another thing to consider: you might have a plugin installed that isn’t even necessary because your theme can already handle those tasks.

For example, I recently had a customer raise a support ticket about fonts and font styles not displaying properly on her website. The problem? She was using a Google Fonts plugin that was overriding all of her theme customizer settings. Since her Kadence child theme already maintains Google Fonts and offers a ton of typography options, the plugin wasn’t needed (and was actually causing issues!) By deleting the unnecessary plugin with the duplicated feature, the issue was resolved.

So when conducting your audit, ask yourself if each plugin is really necessary, or if your theme can handle the job just as well– if not better.

Update your plugins

This one might seem pretty obvious, but you’d be surprised by how many people never update their plugins. Outdated plugins are vulnerable to security threats and may not be compatible with the latest version of WordPress, which can lead to issues on your site. In the Plugins page, check for updates on each plugin. Update any outdated plugins to their latest versions to keep your site secure and running smoothly.

With that said, it’s absolutely okay not to update a plugin the moment an update is released! And turning off any kind of “automatic plugin update” settings is probably a good thing. This is because sometimes, new updates can come with unexpected bugs, and it’s often a good idea to wait a few days to see if the developer releases any fixes. However, waiting too long can create bigger problems.

Let me share a quick story:

I recently had a customer reach out to me because the Kadence Blocks plugin was breaking her site. Now, this plugin is absolutely essential for our Kadence child themes, so this was a huge problem! The issue? She had heard that the plugin had some bugs in one of the updates, so she was (understandably) afraid to update it– and ended up not updating it for almost two years. While it’s true that there were bugs in that particular update, they were all fixed within about a week.

The lesson here? While it’s okay to wait a few days for bug fixes, just make sure you’re not putting off updates for too long. Remember to check for updates on each plugin, and when you’re confident it’s stable (try Googling: the name of your plugin + changelog), update any outdated plugins to their latest versions.

Cleaning up after the audit

Once you’ve completed your audit and have a clear idea of what to keep and what to remove, start cleaning up your plugins by deleting those that are no longer needed. Simply go to the Plugins page in your dashboard, deactivate the plugin, and then delete it.

I recommend removing each plugin one by one, refreshing your website and clearing your cache after each removal. This way, you can be sure that nothing on your site breaks and everything continues to run smoothly as you go through the process.

Final thoughts…

Performing a regular plugin audit is a great way to maintain a healthy WordPress website. By taking the time to review your list of plugins, you’re ensuring that your site stays secure, fast, and compatible with the latest updates.

But don’t stop there– plugin maintenance is an ongoing process! Try to make it a habit to regularly monitor your plugins for updates, security vulnerabilities, and performance issues. Staying on top of these tasks will keep your site running smoothly and help you avoid problems down the road.