Tag: Plugins

One of the main benefits of building a website using the WordPress content publishing software is that you can quickly increase your WordPress website or blog’s functionality using applications called plugins.

About WP Plugins

Like most people, you most likely own a device like a mobile phone. What happens when you want access to something new on your device like a new application, software or a business tool?

Why, simple … you download and install an app!

An app is a little software application that is very simple and easy to install and immediately adds new features and functionality to any smart phone.

(Just as you can find social sharing apps …)

A plugin is like an app. You install a little piece of software that adds new functionality to your WP site …

(… there are also social sharing plugins for WordPress sites!)

Normally, adding a new feature to a site involves additional cost. Depending on the complexity of the new feature or enhancement, this cost can be fairly significant, especially if it involves editing code.

This is also applicable to starting a new website. Organizations tend to pay for added components they probably will never need.

As part of sound strategic business planning, we recommend using a cost-effective strategy to developing your website and WP plugins are ideal for helping you achieve this.

Imagine being able to:

1) Start simply and inexpensively. Get your business website up and running fast, then …

2) As more features or functionality are needed, simply add new applications with only a couple of mouse clicks that integrate with your existing web site, and give your website or blog an entirely new range of useful capabilities, and …

3) Cost not a single dollar more to add to your website?

Well, that’s just what a WP plugin lets you do!

WordPress Plugins – Benefits & Advantages

Earlier, we compared plugins with mobile apps. In the same way that some apps are free to download and some cost a little bit of money, the same is true with WP plugins.

In fact, thousands of plugins can be downloaded to your website for free.

Plugins that you buy are called “Premium” plugins. The good news, is that when you compare these to the cost of hiring a professional web developer to add 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, anyone can create, modify and customize any portion of the code. This has allowed thousands of professional web development companies to build more new plugins that work with WordPress than you can imagine.

• WordPress plugins allow you to start off with just a simple yet professional web presence and expand when required.
• Plugins allow you to add almost endless features to any website easily, quickly and inexpensively.
• WordPress plugins give your digital presence virtually endless expansion capabilities.
• WP plugins allow anyone to have a website that they can fully manage.
• Most plugins typically work “right out of the box” and only require installation and activation to provide your website or blog with immediate enhancements and functionality.
• Some plugins can be a little more complex and could require some configuration.

Plugins – Powerful, Flexible … And (Often) 100% FREE!

Like themes, tens of thousands of plugins are made available for WordPress users … often at $0 cost!

You can access thousands of plugins from the Free WP Plugin Directory …

As mentioned earlier, you can find plugins that can do just about anything you could think of.

WP plugin categories cover:

• Web Site Management
• Content Syndication
• Traffic
• User Engagement
• Social Engagement
• Managing Media Files – Videos, Graphics, Podcasts, Multimedia, etc.
• e-Commerce And Online Sales Automation
• Increasing Sales Conversions And Lead Generation
• Data Monitoring & Reporting
• Website Security

You can expand your website with plugins like the following:

• Contact forms
• Quizzes and polls
• Surveys
• Managing banners
• E-commerce (from managing single sales with PayPal buttons, to full e-commerce stores with shopping carts, invoicing, recurring payments, coupon codes, etc …)
• Social media integration
• Private Membership sites
• Newsletter opt-in forms
• Sales funnels
• Mobile conversion
• Improving your site’s Search Engine Optimization
• Image galleries (including rotating images, lightboxes, etc.)
• Customer testimonials
• Automatic language translation (e.g. you can instantly change all content on your site from English to German)
• Statistical reporting (e.g. number of visitors, pages visited, keywords searched, etc.)
• Custom navigation
• Customer engagement – contest, live chat, currency conversion, etc.
• Media management
• Faster page loading
• Managing events & bookings
• Business listing directories
• Automatically sell and manage spots on your site
• Set client appointments and appointment reminders
• Automate reservations and bookings
• Detect broken hyperlinks and email you reports
• Redirect users from missing pages to other areas on your site or other websites
• Monitor social signals
• Make your pages printable or downloadable as a PDF file
• Add sitemaps
• Exclude certain from showing on areas of your site (e.g. site maps, feeds, etc.)
• Hide content on your pages and posts
• Migrate content from non-WP applications
• Search and replace content
• Prevent SPAM
• Customize visitor discussions (e.g. display Facebook posts)
• Insert HTML and script elements into your posts and pages
• Add and format tables
• Add animated graphics and advanced content formatting options
• Create and manage QR codes
• Improve your local search listings on Google
• Add a map
• Publicize your content automatically on social pages like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr and many others
• Show countdown timers (for expiring offers, discount coupons, etc …)
• Display custom greetings, timed offers, etc …
• And hundreds of other features!

As it’s clear to see, plugins give you practically endless possibilities. If you are planning to build a web site, or your existing web site was not built with WordPress, then consider getting one built on your domain, or you will be missing out on some serious functionality.

If you’re still wondering about the power and flexibility of using plugins, let’s take a look at how you can benefit instantly by adding an inexpensive plugin to your site.

For example, if you need to publish content which is only accessible to some users, you can install plugins to make a section of your page inaccessible, or transform your WordPress site into a full paid membership site with personal login details for all users …

As mentioned before, you can use free plugins to improve your website in so many ways. From installing features that improve your business, your website visitors’ experience and your ability to review website metrics …

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

You can also add complex features to your website using inexpensive paid WP plugins. For example, you can download plugins that automate functionality on your pages such as managing customer testimonials and booking events …

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

You can also take advantage of native WordPress commenting features and plugins that can allow you to engage even more with your web visitors, clients and registered site members …

For example, your visitors can easily:

• Post comments on your site (which can grow into online discussions) using either the built-in WordPress commenting feature, or integrated Facebook comments (which are then shared throughout your visitors’ Facebook pages, giving your site additional exposure).
• Share your posts with other web visitors on social media.
• Contact you via contact forms
• Engage online directly with your staff using online forums or even set up an online social network on your site.
• Engage with members of your team via live chats
• Dial your business from their smart phones while browsing your pages
• Get support via a customer helpdesk
• And so much more …

Finally you, can also integrate complex “back end” applications using a WP “front end”. This lets you control your business marketing, while the 3rd-party application handles the technological aspects …

Some Useful Things You Should Know About Plugins

• There are lots of WordPress plugins available. Be careful not to overload your server with too many plugins, as this will start to affect your site’s performance and page loading times. It can also mean more maintenance work for you resulting from possible errors.
• Only keep the plugins that you really use. Delete inactive plugins from your site, as these also utilize resources.
• Many free plugins typically receive little to no support from the plugin developer. When considering premium WordPress plugins, ensure that you check some reviews online and understand what kind of reputation the plugin developer has when it comes to offering support, upgrades, new features, etc. Be sure to check our plugin reviews for more helpful information.
• If you see that a plugin has not been updated for a while (e.g. two or more years), then think carefully before installing it. The WordPress software is updated often and outdated plugins can cause errors.
• Make sure that you always keep your plugins upgraded to their most recent version. Older plugins not only can create problems, they could also contain vulnerabilities that could be exploited by hackers and malicious software.

As you can see, plugins are an integral part of WordPress and contribute to making WordPress the most preferred CMS in the world. Plugins also provide WordPress users with easy, simple and inexpensive ways to add instant functionality to their web presence without having to spend thousands of dollars on web development.

One last thing on the topic of WordPress plugins:

Whatever feature or functionality you want for your website, you can guarantee that a someone has probably already developed one that will do what you need it to do, and that this plugin will either be available at no cost, or if it’s a paid plugin, that it will be surprisingly affordable.

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

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

Hopefully, now you have a better understanding of plugins – what they are and how they can improve your WordPress website. See our related posts section to learn more about using WordPress plugins.

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