Category: WordPress Basics

One of the main features of WordPress is the ability to easily increase your WordPress web site’s functionality using plugins.

Understanding Plugins

No doubt, you most likely use a cell phone. What happens when you would like to access something new on your phone like a new software or tool?

Why, simple … you download and install an app!

An app is a little software that is really simple and easy to install and adds new features to a mobile device.

(Just like there are social sharing apps …)

A WordPress plugin is really similar to an app. You install a software that adds new functionality to your site …

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

Normally, if you decide to expand the functionality of an existing website, additional cost is involved. Depending on the complexity of the new features or enhancement, things could get quite expensive, especially if it involves website development.

This also applies when starting a new website. Businesses tend to fork out money upfront for added components they probably will never need.

For sound, strategic business planning reasons, we recommend a cost-effective strategy to developing your presence online presence and WordPress plugins are ideal for doing this.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could:

1) Start simply and with minimal expense involved. Get your business web presence up and running quickly, then …

2) As the need becomes apparent, install new applications with a few mouse clicks that integrate with your current website, giving your web site an entirely new range of useful capabilities, and also …

3) Cost not a single dollar extra to download and install on your web site?

Well, this is just what plugins let you do!

Benefits Of Using WP Plugins

Earlier, we compared WordPress plugins with apps. In the same way that many apps are free to download and some apps cost a little money, the same applies with plugins.

In fact, thousands of plugins can be downloaded and installed on your websites.

WP plugins that cost money are called ’Premium’ plugins. The good news, is that when compared to the price of investing in web development services to add similar features and functionality on your site, most Premium (i.e. paid) plugins are priced quite low.

Also, as WordPress distributes its software as an Open Source application, any person can create, rewrite and customize any portion of the WP code. This has allowed thousands of third-party software development professionals to enhance and contribute to the core WordPress software application.

• Plugins allow you to start simply with only a basic yet professional website and then expand as necessary.
• WordPress plugins let you add practically endless functionality to your site quickly, easily and very cheaply.
• Plugins give you almost endless expanding capabilities.
• Plugins allow business owners to own a web presence that they can self-manage.
• Most plugins normally work “right out of the box” and only require to be installed and activated to give your website or blog new enhancements and features.
• Some plugins are a little more advanced and may require some initial configuring.

Plugins – Powerful, Flexible … And (Many Of Them Are) 100% FREE!

Like many themes, loads of great plugins are available to WP users … for FREE!

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

As mentioned earlier, you will find plugins that will do almost everything you want done.

There are WP plugins for:

• Blog Management
• Content Management
• Web Traffic Generation
• Visitor Engagement
• Social Monitoring
• Uploading Media Files – Videocasts, Images, Podcasts, Multimedia, etc.
• e-Biz And Online Sales Automation
• Improving Website Conversions And Lead Generation
• Data Analysis Tools
• Optimizing Your WP Blog

You can expand a website with plugins like:

• Contact forms
• Quizzes and polls
• User Surveys
• Managing advertising banners
• E-commerce (from managing single ordering with PayPal buttons, to enterprise scale e-commerce stores with shopping carts, invoicing, recurring payments, coupon codes, etc …)
• Social sharing buttons
• Private Membership sites
• List-building subscription forms
• Sales workflow
• Mobile integration
• Improving your website’s Search Engine Optimization
• Image galleries (including rotating images, lightboxes, etc.)
• User testimonial forms
• Language translation (e.g. you can instantly change your website’s content from English to French)
• Statistical reporting (e.g. number of visitors, pages visited, keywords searched, etc.)
• Custom navigation menus
• Customer engagement – contest, live chat, currency conversion, etc.
• Media integration
• Faster page loading
• Managing events & bookings
• Business directories
• Automatically sell spots on your blog
• Set up appointments and reminders
• Manage reservations and bookings
• Detect broken hyperlinks and send you reports
• Redirect website links
• Monitor social conversations
• Make your pages printable or downloadable as a PDF file
• Add sitemaps
• Hide specific from displaying on areas of your site (e.g. sitemaps, feeds, etc.)
• Hide content on your pages and posts
• Import content from non-WP platforms
• Perform bulk content replacements
• Fight SPAM
• Customize guest commenting (e.g. displaying Facebook comments)
• Inserting HTML and script elements into your posts and pages
• Add tables
• Display animated graphic elements and advanced content formatting options
• Add and manage QR codes
• Improve your local search listings on Google
• Add a map
• Post your content automatically on sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and many others
• Display countdown timers (for special offers, coupons, etc …)
• Display personalized greetings, timed offers, etc …
• And so many other features!

As it’s clear to see, plugins give you virtually limitless possibilities. If you plan to build a website for your business, or your existing web site was not built using WordPress, then consider getting a WordPress site or blog in the future, or you will be missing out on some serious features.

If you’re still wondering about the power and flexibility of using WordPress plugins, let’s take a look at some practical uses of adding a plugin to your website.

For example, if you want to protect your content, you can use plugins to make just a couple of paragraphs on a post inaccessible, or create a full membership site with personal login details for all users …

As mentioned before, free plugins can be used to enhance your website in so many ways. From installing functionality that improve your business, your site’s user experience and your understanding of what is taking place on your site …

To increasing your business visibility across social media and search engines …

You can also add advanced features to your website using relatively inexpensive paid plugins. For example, you can buy plugins that integrate and automate tasks on your website like customer feedback and event bookings management …

And even set up a custom-branded bookings and reservations system on your site … all for a tiny fraction of the cost of hiring programmers to design custom applications for you …

Additionally, you can take advantage of native WordPress commenting features and plugins that can make your site even more interactive …

For example, your visitors can easily:

• Leave comments on your site (which can turn into online discussions) using either the native WP commenting function, or integrated Facebook comments (which are then shared throughout a visitors’ Facebook pages, providing you with added exposure).
• Share your posts with other online users on various social sites.
• Contact you via contact forms
• Engage in online discussions with your team via forums or even set up a private social network on your site.
• Engage with members of your team using live chats
• Call your business directly from their mobile phones when browsing your site
• Get help and support via a dedicated customer support helpdesk
• And much more …

You can also integrate sophisticated 3rd-party solutions using a WP “front end”. This lets you manage the content that your visitors will see on your website, while your 3rd-party application handles the technological aspects …

Some Useful Information About Plugins

• There are many good plugins to choose from. Be careful of overloading your server with too many plugins, as this can affect your website’s performance and page loading speed. It can also mean more maintenance work for you resulting from potential conflicts and errors.
• Install only those plugins that you really need. Delete inactive plugins from your site, as these also consume resources.
• Many free plugins often come with very little to no support from the plugin developer. When considering premium WP plugins, make sure you check around a little and see what kind of reputation the developer has when it comes to providing support, updates, new improvements, etc. Be sure to check some of the plugin reviews we publish here for more information.
• If you see that an unsupported plugin has not been updated for a while (e.g. two or more years), then think twice before using it. The WordPress application is updated on a frequent basis and older WordPress plugins can create errors.
• Make sure that you always maintain all plugins upgraded to the latest version. Outdated plugin not only can cause issues, they could also have vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hackers and malware.

As you can see, plugins are an important part of WordPress and contribute to making WordPress the most downloaded content management system available. Plugins also provide WordPress users with easy, simple and inexpensive ways to expand without spending thousands of dollars on outsourced web developers.

One last thing on the topic of plugins:

Whatever feature you want for your web site, you can be sure that a plugin currently exists that will do what you want it to do, and that this plugin will either be available at no cost, or if it’s a paid plugin, that the cost will be minimal.

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

And, if by chance such a WordPress plugin has not been created yet, then a custom plugin that does precisely what you need it to do can probably be coded for your business for a reasonable price.

Hopefully, this article has given you a better understanding of WordPress plugins – what they are and how they can help enhance the functionality of your blog. See our published posts to learn more about using WP plugins.

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