Tag: What Are Plugins

One of the main advantages of building a website using the WordPress software is that you can quickly enhance your WordPress site’s functionality using plugins.

About WP Plugins

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

Why, simple … you download and install an app!

An app is a piece of software that is really simple and easy to install and immediately adds new features to any mobile device.

(Just as you will find social sharing apps for mobile phones …)

A WP plugin is very much like an app. You simply download and install a software application that adds new functionality to your web site …

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

Normally, if you decide to add a new feature to an existing site, additional cost is involved. Depending on how complex the features or enhancements are, this could become quite expensive, especially if website developers have to add new code or modify programs or develop scripts that integrate with your existing site.

This is also applicable when creating a web site. Businesses sometimes pay up-front for extra features or customizations they probably will never need.

As part of sound strategic business planning, we suggest a cost-effective 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 your business website up and running quickly, then …

2) As new features become necessary, install new applications with just a couple of clicks of the mouse directly from your dashboard panel, giving your site an entirely new and expanded range of possibilities, and …

3) Cost not one cent more to install on your web site?

Well, that’s exactly what a WordPress plugin allows you to do!

Benefits Of Plugins

I started this post by comparing plugins with apps. Just like many apps are free to download and some apps may cost a little money, so do plugins.

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

WordPress plugins that you buy are referred to as ’Premium’ plugins. The good news, is that when compared to the price of hiring a professional web developer to get the same functionality on your site, most Premium plugins cost very little.

Also, as WordPress distributes its software as an Open Source application, any web developer can create, rewrite and customize any part of the code. This has allowed many third-party web development companies to create more new plugins that “plug into” WordPress than you can possibly imagine.

• Plugins allow you to get started with just a basic site and then expand only as required.
• WP plugins allow you to add almost endless functionality to any site quickly, easily and inexpensively.
• WordPress plugins give your website practically endless expanding capabilities.
• Plugins allow business owners to own a website that they can self-manage.
• Most plugins typically work “right out of the box” and only require to be installed and activated to provide your website with immediate capabilities and functionality.
• Some plugins can be a little more advanced and could require some initial configuration.

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

Like themes, tens of thousands of great WordPress plugins are available to WordPress users … often at no cost!

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

As previously mentioned, you can find WordPress plugins that can do just about anything you could possibly want your website to do.

There are plugins for:

• Website Administration
• Content Syndication
• Traffic
• Visitor Engagement
• Social Connectivity
• Media Management Automation
• Improving Sales & Opt-In Conversions And Lead Generation
• Data And System Reporting Tools
• Web Site Security

For example, you can add features to a website with plugins like:

• Contact forms
• Quizzes and polls
• Surveys
• Display banners
• E-commerce (from setting up single sales with PayPal buttons, to full scale e-commerce stores with shopping carts, payment processing, recurring billing, discount codes, etc …)
• Social media integration
• Membership sites
• Newsletter subscription forms
• Sales funnels
• Mobile conversion
• Improving your website’s Search Engine Optimization
• Image galleries (including rotating images, lightboxes, etc.)
• User testimonial forms
• Language translation plugins (e.g. you can instantly change all content on your website from English to Italian)
• Statistical reporting (e.g. number of visitors, pages visited, keywords searched, etc.)
• Custom navigation menus
• Customer interactivity – contest, live chat, currency conversion, etc.
• Media management
• Faster page loading
• Managing events & bookings
• Business directories
• Automatically sell and manage advertising on your website
• Set up appointments and appointment reminders
• Automate reservations and bookings
• Detect broken hyperlinks on your pages and email you reports
• Redirect visitors from missing pages to other pages on your site or other websites
• Monitor what social media users are posting about your business
• Make your pages printable or downloadable as a PDF file
• Add a site map
• Exclude specific from displaying on areas of your site (e.g. sitemaps, feeds, etc.)
• Protect page content
• Migrate content from different CMS platforms
• Perform bulk data edits
• Prevent SPAM
• Customize guest commenting (e.g. display Facebook posts)
• Inserting HTML and script elements into your pages
• Add formatted tables
• Add animated graphic elements and advanced text formatting options
• Create and manage QR codes
• Improve Google search listings
• Add a map
• Publish your content automatically on sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr and others
• Show countdown timers (for scarcity offers, coupons, etc …)
• Display custom greetings, timed offers, etc …
• And so many other features!

As you can clearly see, plugins give you endless business flexibility. If you plan to build a website or blog, or your existing web site isn’t built with WordPress, then consider choosing it in the future.

If 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 content protection, you can install plugins to make a section of your post or page inaccessible, or create a complete paid membership site with separate login details for all users …

As mentioned previously, free plugins can be used to improve your web presence in so many different ways. From installing features that will enhance your business, your web users’ experience and your ability to review website data …

To extending your business visibility across social sites and search engines …

You can also add complex functionality to your website using relatively inexpensive premium WP plugins. For example, you can download plugins that integrate and automate tasks on your site such as customer testimonial and event registration management …

And also set up a complete bookings and reservations system on your site … all for a tiny fraction of the cost of hiring web developers to code custom applications for you …

Additionally, you can take advantage of native WP commenting features and plugins that can let you engage even more with your visitors, customers and registered site members …

For example, your web visitors can easily:

• Post comments on your blog posts (which can grow into online discussions) using either the native WP commenting feature, or integrated Facebook comments (which are then shared throughout a visitors’ Facebook pages, giving your site additional exposure).
• Share your content with other online visitors on various social sites.
• Contact you using contact forms
• Engage in online discussions with your team using forums or even set up an online community on your own domain.
• Engage with members of your team via live web conferencing and chatrooms
• Dial your business directly from their laptops when browsing your pages
• Open support tickets
• And so much more …

Finally you, can also integrate complex enterprise-level solutions within a WP “front end”. This enables you to control the content that your visitors see on your website, while the 3rd-party application handles the technological aspects …

Additional Things To Know About WordPress Plugins

• There are loads of WordPress plugins available. Be careful not to overload your site with an excessive amount of plugins, as this will affect your website’s performance and site loading times. It also means more maintenance issues for you resulting from possible errors.
• Install only the plugins that you really need. Delete inactive plugins from your site, as these use resources.
• Many free plugins normally come with very little to no support from the plugin author. When choosing premium plugins, we recommend that you check some reviews online and see what kind of reputation the developer has when it comes to providing support, upgrades, new improvements, etc. Be sure to check some of our WordPress plugin reviews for more expert information.
• If you see that a plugin has not been updated for a while (e.g. two years), then think twice before using it on your site. The WordPress platform is updated on a frequent basis and older WordPress plugins can cause errors.
• Ensure that you always upgrade your plugins. Older plugin not only can create errors, they may also contain vulnerabilities that could be exploited by hackers and malware.

As you can see, WordPress plugins are an integral part of WordPress and contribute to making it the most downloaded online management tool in the world. Plugins also provide WordPress users with an easy, simple and inexpensive way to expand without spending thousands of dollars on outsourced web developers.

One last thing on the subject of plugins:

Whatever functionality you want for your website, you can be sure that a WP plugin currently exists that will do what you need, and that this plugin will either be available for FREE, or if it’s a premium plugin, that it will be fairly affordable.

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

And, if by chance such a plugin is not available, then it can probably be coded for your business for a very reasonable price.

Hopefully, now you have a better understanding of plugins – what they are and how they can expand your website. See our related posts to learn about more popular plugins that we recommend using.

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