10 Biggest Drupal Mistakes to Avoid During Web Development

Drupal open source content management system has gained worldwide popularity due to amazing functionality that it incorporates in the websites. Millions of the web pages of different niches such as education, business, blogs, finance, corporate, etc. are running on this magnificent platform of the web development. The world’s high trafficking and the busiest websites have been developed using it. When it comes to building the world class web applications that will definitely deliver optimal performance and speed, then most of the programmers go for Drupal web development. It ranks in the list of the most powerful as well as flexible open source content management systems available today.

Drupal is undoubtedly the best options to choose from multiple content management systems that provides the facility to build the complicated and dynamic web applications enriched with superb features. In fact, this matchless CMS is without a fault or issue and delivers the web pages that are out of the box. But, the developers worldwide, especially newbie, commit several mistakes during development and implementation of this incomparable platform of building the websites. This post is all about those biggest Drupal mistakes programmers are making over the last several years in developing the web pages using it. So, read it carefully if you want to be the next Drupal developer and avoid them at any cost for quality rich web pages.

Here are those Drupal mistakes that need to be avoided:

1. Use of irrelevant architecture of content

First mistake committed by most of the newbie Drupal developers across the world is use of irrelevant content architecture. As all the programmers are very well aware of the fact that content is an essential part of every CMS available today. Following the process of the web development without understanding or analyzing requirements of content properly ensures the failure. The programmers are recommended to reuse standard content types and fields.

2. Wrong folder structure and installation

Second mistake that the newbie Drupal programmers have become habitual of committing is wrong folder structure and installation of themes and modules. This mistake makes debugging and upgrading to the next version highly complicated task for the web developers. Therefore, they are recommended to install modules and themes in the right directories instead of installing them at the root level.

3. Excessive coding

Third mistake the beginners Drupal developers used to make most of the times is excessive coding for developing modules. Writing customized code from the Drupal web development perspectives is always a tedious task for the developers. Drupal, being one of the most multi-featured and flexible content management systems, comes with more than 30,000 modules to ensure a better functionality of the website. The programmers are recommended to use ready-made and custom modules because they are well tested by a community of professionals. These modules provide stability to Drupal web pages and saves both time and money.

4. Not taking backup of the website

Fourth mistake the programmers commit and that impact your Drupal website negatively is not taking backup of the site. The newbie developers, being inexperienced, do not understand the importance of backup in the web development and they avoid it. Therefore, such Drupal programmers are recommended to take backup before making any type of changes or installing new modules in the website. This activity will help them to restore the previous or original data in case of any damage.

5. Not speeding up the searching

Native search in Drupal content management system is quite slow. The web developers must make the use of Solr Search in Drupal websites because it helps to speed up or enhance search functionality of the site.

6. Not doing spam control

Another mistake newbie Drupal developers commit mostly is not doing spam control for the website. Proper use of spam control in Drupal website helps to protect it from getting flooded with spam content as well as comment.

7. Not making user-friendly back-end user interface

The next mistake committed by the developers during Drupal web development is that they do not make user-friendly back-end user interface. Using Drupal must be made as simple as possible, therefore the web application developers are recommended to design user-friendly interface for the back-end.

8. Not coding according to W3C standards & guidelines

Another mistake that is seen most commonly in Drupal websites that are being developed by inexperienced developers is lack of standardized coding structure and format. Such programmers are suggested to write code manually and as per the latest standards as well as guidelines of W3C. It is because this approach makes the code error-free, easily readable, understandable and well-documented.

9. Not focusing SEO techniques

The next mistake developers still continue to commit is not taking SEO techniques into consideration during Drupal website development. A website is useless until it is not indexed properly by the crawlers or rank in the top search results. Use of correct keywords, installing Google Analytics, preparing proper meta, etc. are some important mechanisms from SEO perspectives and must be used for the future benefits.

10. Not assigning appropriate roles and permissions

The last but not the least mistake committed by the newbie Drupal developers across the world is not assigning appropriate roles as well as permissions. Proper roles and permissions help fill the security gap and the developers must ensure that they have checked everything with perfection.

Conclusion:

These were the common yet biggest mistakes executed by Drupal developers around the globe while building the web applications irrespective of their complexity level. Avoiding these mistakes ensures that the application developed are of top-notch quality, error-free, fully-functional, user-friendly and with a lot of features.

This article is written by Clyde Ray. He is a skilled web developer & blogger at PSDtoDrupalDeveloper, which provides world-class PSD to Drupal theme conversion services. He is passionate about writing & sharing blogs that help in resolving various issues.