Category: WordPress Basics

One of the most unique advantages of building a website with the WordPress platform is the ability to easily enhance your WP web site’s functionality using inexpensive (even completely free) software called ’plugins’.

Understanding WP Plugins

No doubt, you most likely have a device like a cell phone. What do you do when you would like to access something new on your device like a new application, game or a business tool?

Why, simple … you download and install an app!

An app is a little software application that is easy to install and integrates new functionality into a smart device.

(Just like you can find social sharing apps …)

A plugin is like an app. You install and activate an application that provides new functionality to your WordPress web site …

(… you can also find social sharing plugins for WP!)

Almost always, if you decide to add a new feature to an existing site, additional cost is involved. Depending on the complexity of the feature or enhancement, this cost can be fairly significant, particularly if website developers need to create new code or edit programs or develop scripts that integrate with your existing set up.

This also applies to developing a new web site. Organizations often spend up-front on extra features they may probably never need.

For this reason, we recommend a sustainable approach to growing a web site and WordPress plugins are ideal for doing this.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could:

1) Start simply and inexpensively. Get your business web presence up and running quickly, then …

2) As the need becomes apparent, simply add new applications with a couple of clicks of the mouse directly from your WordPress administration area, giving your website or blog an entirely new and expanded range of practical features and capabilities, and …

3) Cost not one dollar extra to add to your site?

Well, this is exactly what WP plugins allow you to do!

WP Plugins – Benefits And Advantages

We began this article by comparing WordPress plugins with ’apps’. Just like some apps are free to download and some cost a little money, the same applies with WP plugins.

In fact, many fantastic plugins can be installed and activated on your sites.

WP plugins that you have to pay for are called “Premium” plugins. The good news, is that when compared to the price of investing in web development services to get similar functionality on your site, most Premium (i.e. ”paid”) plugins cost very little.

Also, because WordPress distributes its software as an Open Source application, any web developer can create, edit and customize any part of the code. This has allowed many third-party software development professionals to enhance and contribute to the core WordPress software application.

• WordPress plugins allow you to start off with only a basic online business presence and expand only as necessary.
• Plugins allow you to add practically endless functionality to any web presence quickly, easily and inexpensively.
• Plugins give you virtually unlimited expanding capabilities.
• WordPress plugins allow non-technical website owners to own a web presence that they can manage.
• Most plugins normally work “right out of the box” and only require to be installed and activated to give your website or blog instant new capabilities, enhancements and functionality.
• Some plugins can be a little more advanced and require some initial configuring.

WP Plugins – Powerful, Flexible … And (Many Of Them Are) Completely FREE!

Like many WP themes, tens of thousands of great plugins are made available to WordPress users … often at $0 cost!

You can view and download thousands of plugins from the Free WP Plugin Repository …

As mentioned earlier, you can find WordPress plugins that will do almost everything you could think of.

There are WP plugins for:

• Blog Administration
• Content Management
• Traffic
• Visitor Engagement
• Social Sharing
• Uploading Media – Video, Graphics & Images, Podcasts, Multimedia, etc.
• e-Commerce And Online Sales Automation
• Increasing Sales Conversions And Lead Generation
• Data Analysis Applications
• WordPress Security

You can expand a website with plugins such as:

• Contact forms
• Quizzes and polls
• Surveys
• Rotating ad banners
• E-commerce (from setting up single-item ordering with PayPal buttons, to full e-commerce with shopping carts, invoicing, recurring billing, coupon codes, etc …)
• Social media integration
• Private Membership sites
• Newsletter opt-in forms
• Sales workflow
• Mobile conversion
• Improving your site’s Search Engine Optimization
• Image galleries (including rotating images, lightboxes, etc.)
• User testimonial forms
• Automatic language translation (e.g. you can instantly change your site’s content from English to Norwegian)
• Statistical reporting (e.g. number of visitors, pages visited, keywords searched, etc.)
• Custom navigation
• Customer interactivity – contest, live chat, currency conversion, etc.
• Media integration
• Making pages load faster
• Managing events
• Niche directories
• Automatically sell spots on your site
• Set up appointments and reminders
• Help customers make reservations and bookings
• Detect broken links and email you reports
• Redirect users from certain pages to other pages on your site or other websites
• Monitor social conversations
• Make your pages printable or downloadable as a PDF file
• Add a site map
• Hide pages from showing on areas of your site (e.g. site maps, feeds, etc.)
• Protect content on your posts and pages
• Import information from non-WordPress applications
• Search and replace content
• Fight SPAM commenting
• Customize visitor commenting (e.g. display Facebook comments)
• Insert scripts and script elements into your content
• Add and format tables
• Add animated graphic elements and advanced content formatting options
• Create and manage QR codes
• Improve your local search listings on Google
• Add a map of your business location
• Post your content automatically on sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, StumbleUpon and many others
• Show countdown timers (for special offers, coupons, etc …)
• Display personalized greetings, timed offers, etc …
• And so much more!

As it’s clear to see, plugins give you practically endless business flexibility. If you are planning to build a web site, or your existing web site was not built using WordPress, then consider getting one in the future, or you could be missing out on some serious functionality.

In case you’re still wondering just how powerful and flexible plugins are, let’s take a look at some practical uses of adding a plugin to your web site.

For example, if you need content protection, you can install plugins to make an area of your post or page inaccessible, or transform your WordPress site into a complete paid membership site with customized login details for all users …

As mentioned before, you can use free plugins to enhance your web site in lots of ways. From adding features that can enhance your business, your site’s user experience and your understanding of what is taking place on your site …

To extending your site’s visibility across social sites and search engines …

You can also add advanced functionality to your site using relatively inexpensive premium WordPress plugins. For example, you can set up plugins that integrate and automate processes on your website such as customer feedback and event bookings management …

And also run a custom-branded bookings and reservations system on your site … all for a tiny fraction of the cost of paying programmers to build custom functionality for you …

Additionally, you can take advantage of built-in WordPress commenting features and plugins that will increase your site’s interactivity …

For example, your web visitors can easily:

• Post comments on your site (which can grow into online discussions) using either the native WP commenting feature, or integrated Facebook comments (which are then displayed throughout the visitors’ Facebook pages, providing you with increased exposure).
• Bookmark your content on various social sites.
• Contact you using contact forms
• Engage online with your team using online forums or even set up a private community on your own site.
• Engage with your support staff using live web conferencing and chatroom facilities
• Call your business from their laptops while visiting your website
• Get help via a dedicated client support helpdesk
• And much more …

Finally you, can even integrate complex “back end” applications within a WordPress “front end”. This allows you to control your business sales and marketing, while the third-party application handles the technological aspects …

Additional Information About WP Plugins

• There are lots of plugins available. Be careful not to overload your site with an excessive amount of plugins, as this will invariably affect your site’s performance and site loading speed. It can also mean more maintenance issues for you resulting from possible conflicts.
• Install only those plugins that you really need to use. Delete any plugins from your site, as these utilize extra resources.
• Many free plugins normally come with very little to no support from the plugin developer. When considering premium WP plugins, make sure you check around a little and understand what kind of reputation the developer has when it comes to providing support, updates, new features, etc. Be sure to check the plugin reviews we provide here for more information.
• If you see that a plugin has not been updated for a very long time (e.g. two or more years), then think carefully before using it on your website or blog. The WordPress core application is updated often and older plugins that have not been updated can cause issues.
• Always upgrade your plugins to their most recent software version. Older plugins not only can cause issues, they could also contain security vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hackers and malware.

As you can see, WP plugins are an integral part of WordPress and contribute to making WordPress the most used content management system in the world. Plugins also provide WordPress users with easy, simple and inexpensive ways to expand quickly without having to spend thousands of dollars on outsourced web development.

One last thing on the subject of plugins:

Whatever functionality you need for your web site, you can be sure that a someone has probably already authored one that will do exactly what you want, and that this plugin can either be accessed at no cost, or if it’s a paid plugin, that it will be fairly inexpensive.

(Whatever you need done, there’s a WordPress plugin for that!)

And, if by chance such a WordPress plugin is not available, then a custom plugin that does exactly what you would like it to do can certainly be coded for you for a reasonable price.

Hopefully, now you have a better understanding of plugins – what they are and how they can significantly enhance the functionality of your blog. See our related posts to learn more about using WP plugins.

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