Tag: What Are Plugins

One of the most powerful advantages of using the WordPress web site management software is that you can quickly and easily enhance your WordPress web site’s functionality using plugins.

What Are WordPress Plugins?

No doubt, you probably own a device like a smart phone. What do you do when you want to access something new on your phone like a new application, game or productivity tool?

You download and install an app!

An app is a little software that is really easy to install and immediately integrates new features and functionality into your mobile device.

(Just like there are social sharing apps for mobile phones …)

A WP plugin is like an app. You download and install a software that provides new functionality to your WP website or blog …

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

Almost always, expanding the functionality of your site involves additional cost. Depending on the complexity of the feature or enhancement, this cost can be quite significant, particularly if website developers need to add new code or edit programs or develop scripts to integrate into your existing site.

This also applies to creating a web site. Businesses sometimes spend money for features and customizations they probably will never need.

As part of sound strategic business planning, we suggest a modular approach when growing a web site and WordPress plugins are ideal for helping you achieve this.

Imagine being able to:

1) Start simply and inexpensively. Get a basic, professional-looking website up and running quickly, then …

2) As new features are needed, simply install new applications with only a couple of mouse clicks that integrate seamlessly with your website and blog, giving your website or blog a whole new range of practical features and capabilities, and …

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

Well, this is precisely what a WordPress plugin allows you to do!

WP Plugins – Benefits & Advantages

I started this article by comparing plugins with apps. In a similar way that many apps are free to download and some apps cost a little bit of money, the same applies with plugins.

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

WordPress plugins that you buy are called “Premium” plugins. The good news, is that when you compare the price of purchasing a Premium WP plugin to the cost of investing in web development services to add the same features and functionality on your site, most Premium plugins cost very little.

Also, as WordPress distributes its software as an Open Source application, anyone can create, rewrite and customize any part of the WordPress code. This has allowed thousands of professional software developers to enhance and contribute to the WordPresssoftware.

• WordPress plugins let you start off with only a basic site and then add new features and enhancements to your site when required.
• Plugins allow you to add almost unlimited functionality to your web site easily, quickly and inexpensively.
• Plugins give you virtually endless expansion capabilities.
• WP plugins allow business owners to have a digital presence that they can self-manage.
• Most plugins will normally work “right out of the box” and only require installation and activation to give your website new capabilities and functionality.
• Some plugins are slightly more advanced and may need some initial configuring.

WordPress Plugins – Powerful, Flexible … And (Often) Completely FREE!

Just like themes, tens of thousands of plugins are currently available to WP users … often at $0 cost!

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

As mentioned earlier, you will find WordPress plugins that will do just about anything you need done.

There are WP plugins for:

• User Management
• Content Distribution
• Web Traffic Generation
• User Engagement
• Social Media
• Media Management Automation
• Improving Website Conversions And Lead Generation
• Data & System Analysis Tools
• Optimizing Your

For example, you can enhance your website with plugins like:

• Contact forms
• Polls and quizzes
• Surveys
• Display banners
• E-commerce (from managing single-item ordering with PayPal buttons, to complete e-commerce stores with shopping carts, payment processing, recurring billing, discount codes, etc …)
• Social sharing buttons
• Membership sites
• Newsletter subscription forms
• Sales funnels
• Mobile conversion
• Improving your site’s SEO
• Image galleries (with rotating images, lightboxes, etc.)
• Customer testimonial forms
• Language translation plugins (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 management
• Faster page loading
• Event management
• Business listing directories
• Automatically sell spots on your website
• Set client appointments and reminders
• Automate reservations and bookings
• Detect broken links on your pages and email you reports
• Redirect web pages
• Monitor what social media users are posting about your business
• Make your pages printable or downloadable as a PDF file
• Add a site map
• Hide specific from showing on areas of your site (e.g. site maps, feeds, etc.)
• Hide post content sections
• Import information from non-WordPress applications
• Search and replace data
• Block SPAM commenting
• Customize guest commenting (e.g. displaying Facebook comments)
• Insert scripts and script elements into your posts, pages and sidebars
• Add formatted tables
• Add animated graphics and advanced font display formatting options
• Add and manage QR codes
• Improve your local search listings on Google
• Add a map of your business location
• Distribute your content automatically on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr and others
• Show countdown timers (for scarcity offers, discount coupons, etc …)
• Display personal greetings, timed offers, etc …
• And so much more!

As you can clearly see, WP plugins give you practically endless possibilities. If you are planning to build a website, or your existing site isn’t powered by WordPress, then consider choosing WordPress in the future.

In case you’re still wondering about the power and flexibility of using plugins, let me show you some practical advantages of installing a plugin on your website.

For example, if you want to publish content which is only accessible to some users, you can install plugins to make just a couple of paragraphs on your page or post inaccessible, or transform your WordPress site into a complete paid membership site with customized login details for each member …

As mentioned before, free plugins can be used to improve your site in so many different ways. From adding functionality that can enhance your business, your site’s user experience and your ability to review site data …

To increasing your business reach and visibility across social sites and search engines …

You can also add sophisticated functionality to your site using relatively inexpensive premium WP plugins. For example, you can buy plugins that automate processes on your pages such as displaying customer testimonials and booking events …

And also set up a complete bookings and reservations system online … all for a small fraction of the cost of hiring programmers to build custom applications for you …

Additionally, you can take advantage of native WordPress commenting features and plugins that will let you engage better with visitors, clients and registered site members …

For example, your visitors can easily:

• Leave comments on your blog posts (which can turn into online discussions) using either the native WordPress commenting function, or integrated Facebook comments (which are then shared throughout your visitors’ Facebook pages, providing you with additional exposure).
• Bookmark your posts on various social sites.
• Contact you using contact forms
• Engage online directly with other customers using online forums or even set up an online community on your domain.
• Engage with your staff via live video chats
• Call your business from their cellphones when browsing your website
• Open support tickets
• And so much more …

Finally you, can even integrate complex 3rd-party applications within a WordPress “front end”. This allows you to control the content that your visitors will see on your site, while the 3rd-party application handles the technological aspects …

Useful Things You Should Know About WordPress Plugins

• There are many great WordPress plugins to choose from. Be careful of overloading your site with an excessive amount of plugins, as this can affect your site’s performance and site loading times. It also means more maintenance issues for you as a consequence of potential conflicts.
• Only keep those plugins that you really need to use. Delete any plugins you don’t use from your site, as these use extra server resources.
• Many free plugins normally receive very little to no support from the plugin author. When considering premium plugins, we recommend that you do a little research first to see what kind of reputation the plugin developer has when it comes to offering support, updates, new features, etc. Be sure to check our plugin recommendations for more information.
• If you see that a plugin has not been updated for a very long time (e.g. two years), then think twice before using it. WordPress is updated often and older plugins that have not been updated can cause conflicts.
• Ensure to always maintain all plugins up-to-date. Outdated plugin not only can create errors and conflicts, they could also contain security vulnerabilities that could be exploited by hackers and malicious software.

As you can see, plugins are an important feature of WordPress and contribute to making WordPress the most powerful, flexible and scalable CMS available. Plugins also provide WordPress users with an easy, simple and inexpensive way to expand quickly without having to spend thousands of dollars on web development.

One last thing on the topic of plugins:

If there is a functionality you need for your web site, you can guarantee that a someone has probably already authored one that will do what you need it to do, and that this plugin can either be accessed at no cost, or if it’s a paid plugin, that the cost to purchase it will be quite affordable.

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

And, if by chance this plugin does not exist, then a custom plugin that does precisely what you would like it to do can certainly be coded for your business for a very reasonable price.

Hopefully, this post has given you a better understanding of WordPress plugins – what plugins are and how they can significantly improve your WordPress website. See our published posts to learn about more great WordPress plugins that we recommend using.

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