Tag: What Are WordPress Plugins

One of the most powerful benefits of building a website with the WordPress software is that you can easily expand your WordPress web site’s functionality using plugins.

What Are Plugins?

Like most people, you most likely have a device like a smart phone. What happens when you would like to access something new on your phone like a new application, software or tool?

Why, simple … you download and install an app!

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

(Just like you can find social sharing apps …)

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

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

Almost always, adding a new feature to an existing web site involves additional cost. Depending on the complexity of the new feature or enhancement, things can become quite expensive, particularly if it requires modifying code.

This is also applicable to developing a website or business blog. Many organizations tend to pay upfront for added features they probably will never need.

As part of sound strategic business planning, we suggest using a cost-effective approach when setting up your web site and WordPress plugins are ideal for doing this.

Imagine being able to:

1) Start simply with minimal cost involved. Get a web presence up and running quickly, then …

2) As you need new features, you can add new software modules with a few clicks of the mouse that integrate seamlessly with your existing web site, giving your site a completely new and expanded range of practical capabilities, and also …

3) Cost not one dollar extra to install on your site?

Well, that’s just what a plugin enables you to do!

Benefits & Advantages Of WordPress Plugins

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

In fact, thousands of plugins can be downloaded to your site at no cost.

WP plugins that you have to buy are referred to as ’Premium’ plugins. The good news, is that when compared to the cost of hiring a professional web developer to get the same features and functionality on your site, most Premium plugins are generally very inexpensive.

Also, as WordPress is an Open Source application, anyone can create, modify and customize any portion of the code. This has enabled many third-party web developers to create more new tools that integrate seamlessly with the WordPress engine than you can possibly imagine.

• Plugins allow you to start off with just a simple website and add new features and enhancements to your site only as necessary.
• WP plugins let you add practically endless functionality to your website quickly, easily and inexpensively.
• WordPress plugins give your online business presence almost unlimited expansion capabilities.
• Plugins allow non-technical users to own a website that they can self-manage.
• Most plugins typically work “right out of the box” and only require installation and activation to provide your site with new capabilities and functionality.
• Some plugins provide more advanced features and may require some initial configuring.

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

Just like themes, thousands of WP plugins are made available to WordPress users … often at no cost!

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

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

WordPress plugin categories cover:

• Website Administration
• Content Management
• Traffic
• User Engagement
• Social Connectivity
• Media Management Automation
• Increasing Sales & Opt-In Conversions And Lead Generation
• Data Monitoring & Reporting Tools
• Site Optimization

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

• Contact forms
• Polls and quizzes
• Social contests
• Managing advertising banners
• E-commerce (from setting up single sales with PayPal buttons, to full e-commerce with online shopping carts, payment processing, recurring payments, discount codes, etc …)
• Social media integration
• Membership sites
• List-building subscription forms
• Sales funnels
• Mobile conversion
• Improving your website’s Search Engine Optimization
• Image galleries (with rotating images, lightboxes, etc.)
• Customer testimonials
• Language translation plugins (e.g. you can instantly change your website’s content 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 integration
• Faster page loading
• Managing events & bookings
• Business directories
• Automatically sell spots on your site
• Set up client appointments and reminders
• Automate reservations and bookings
• Detect broken links and email you reports
• Redirect visitors from specified pages to other areas on your site or other sites
• Monitor what social media users are posting about your business
• Make your pages available for printing or downloading as PDF
• Add a site map
• Hide pages from showing on areas of your site (e.g. sitemaps, feeds, etc.)
• Hide post content sections
• Import information from non-WP applications
• Search and replace data
• Block SPAM
• Customize visitor commenting (e.g. display Facebook discussions)
• Inserting code and script elements into your content
• Add formatted tables
• Display animated graphic elements and advanced font display formatting options
• Create and manage QR codes
• Improve your local search listings on Google
• Add business location maps
• Post your posts automatically on social pages like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr and others
• Display countdown timers (for scarcity offers, discount coupons, etc …)
• Display custom greetings, timed offers, etc …
• And so many other features!

As you can clearly see, plugins give you limitless possibilities. If you plan to build a website or blog, or your existing website isn’t powered by WordPress, then consider getting one added to your domain, or you will be missing out on some serious features.

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

For example, if you want content protection, you can install plugins to make an area of a post or page inaccessible, or create a full paid membership site with separate login details for each user …

As mentioned before, free plugins can be used to enhance your business site in lots of different ways. From installing features that can improve your business, your visitors’ experience and your ability to analyze site metrics …

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

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

And even run a custom-branded bookings and reservations system online … all for a tiny fraction of the cost of hiring software developers to code similar functionality for you …

You can also take advantage of native WordPress commenting features and plugins that will let you engage more with visitors, customers and registered site members …

For example, your web visitors can easily:

• Post comments on your blog posts (which can turn into online discussions) using either the built-in WordPress commenting function, or integrated Facebook comments (which are then shared throughout the visitors’ Facebook pages, giving your site added exposure).
• Share your posts with other online users on social media.
• Contact you using contact forms
• Engage online with your team using online forums or even set up an online community on your site.
• Engage with your staff through live webcam conferencing and chatroom facilities
• Dial your business directly from their laptops when browsing your pages
• Open support tickets
• And much more …

You can even integrate complex third-party applications within a WordPress “front end”. This enables you to control the content that your visitors will see on your site, while the third-party application handles the technical areas …

Additional Tips About Plugins

• There are many plugins available. Be careful of overloading your site with an excessive amount of plugins, as this can begin to affect your website’s performance and site loading speed. It can also create more maintenance work for you as a result of possible errors.
• Install only the plugins that you really use. Delete inactive plugins from your site, as these utilize server resources.
• Many free plugins normally come with little to no support from the plugin author. When considering paid plugins, ensure that you do a little research first to see what kind of reputation the plugin developer has when it comes to offering support, upgrades, new improvements, etc. Be sure to check some of the plugin reviews we provide here for additional 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. WordPress updates frequently and older plugins that have not been updated can create issues.
• Always upgrade your plugins to the latest version. Older plugins not only can create conflicts, they could also contain security vulnerabilities that could be exploited by hackers and malicious software.

As you can see, WordPress plugins are an integral part of WordPress and contribute to making it the most used website publishing platform in the world. Plugins also provide WordPress users with easy, simple and inexpensive ways to add instant features to their website without spending thousands of dollars on web developers.

One last thing about WP plugins:

If there is any feature you want for your website, you can be sure that a WP plugin already exists that will do just what you want, and that this plugin will either be available at no cost, or if it’s a paid plugin, that the price will be surprisingly reasonable.

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

And, if by any chance such a WP plugin has not been created yet, then a custom plugin that does exactly what you need it to do can probably be developed for your business at a reasonable cost.

Hopefully, now you have a better understanding of WordPress plugins – what they are and how they can to improve your business blog. See our published posts to learn about more popular WP plugins that we recommend using.

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