If you are like many WordPress users, you may have a love/hate relationship with plugins. Plugins can drastically transform a WordPress-powered website into something full of awesomeness. And, they can wreak some serious havoc that can drive you to find your way to the bottom of a fifth of Vodka!
Many killer plugins will help you achieve the functionality you are looking for, but they can have a drastically negative impact on your site’s performance. Thus, it is important that you do an analysis and identify those plugins that are doing more harm than good.
What is Your Purpose P3?
Speed. Site speed! Again, plugins are great but many of them can turn your hare-of-a-website into a tortoise. The P3 Profiler plugin is a great tool for helping you see which plugins are more tortoise than hare with respect to speed. The plugin will create a profile of all of the plugins you have on your site and measure their impact on load time.
So, how exactly does P3 work?
[quote] When you activate the plugin by clicking “Start Scan,” it detects visits from your IP address, and actively monitors all php user defined function calls while the server generates your WordPress pages. It then records the information in a report file you can view later. When the scan is complete, or you click “Stop Scan,” the plugin becomes dormant again.[/quote]Below are some examples of the types of results you will get.
The P3 plugin has a good “help” section that will help answer some basic questions about what it does and how to interpret your results. Over the last several years, search engines have placed a greater emphasis on user experience; noting specifically a website’s load time. Do not underestimate the influence your website’s speed has on both user experience, conversion rates and SEO. The P3 Performance Profiler is a great place to start looking into your website’s site speed, and identify if any of your plugins are doing more harm than good.