Tag: What Are WordPress Plugins

One of the most useful features of the WordPress platform is that you can quickly increase your WP site’s functionality using plugins.

About Plugins

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

You download and install an app!

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

(Just like you can find social sharing apps for mobile phones …)

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

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

Generally, expanding the functionality of an existing site involves additional cost. Depending on how complex the feature or enhancement is, this can get fairly expensive, especially if web developers have to add new code or modify programs or install scripts that integrate into your existing site.

This also applies to setting up a new web site. Organizations often invest up-front for added components they probably will never need.

For sound, strategic business planning reasons, we suggest considering a cost-effective approach when growing a web presence and WP plugins are ideal for helping you achieve this.

Imagine being able to:

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

2) As new features and functionality are needed, add new applications with just a few clicks of the mouse that integrate with your web site, giving your website an entirely new range of capabilities and functionality, and also …

3) Cost not a single cent extra to install on your site?

Well, that’s exactly what plugins allow you to do!

Benefits And Advantages Of Plugins

Earlier, we compared WordPress plugins with smartphone apps. In a similar way that many apps are free to download and some may cost a little bit of money, so do plugins.

In fact, thousands of powerful plugins are available at no cost to users.

Plugins that you purchase are called ’Premium’ plugins. The good news, is that when compared to the cost of investing in professional web development services to add the same features and functionality on your site, most Premium (i.e. paid) plugins cost very little.

Also, as WordPress is an Open Source application, anybody can create, modify and customize any portion of the WordPress code. This has allowed thousands of professional web development companies to create more new tools that expand WordPress than you can possibly imagine.

• WP plugins let you get started with only a basic website and then expand only when required.
• WP plugins let you add practically endless features to your web site quickly, easily and cheaply.
• WP plugins give your web site almost unlimited expanding capabilities.
• WordPress plugins allow business owners to own a website that they can self-manage.
• Most plugins normally work “right out of the box” and only require installation and activation to give your site new capabilities and enhancements.
• Some plugins offer more extensive features and require some initial configuration.

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

Like many WordPress themes, tens of thousands of WP plugins are currently available for WordPress users … and many of these great plugins are 100% FREE!

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

As previously mentioned, you can find WordPress plugins that can do almost anything you can imagine.

There are plugins for:

• User Management
• Content Management
• Driving Site Visitors
• Visitor Interactivity
• Social Sharing
• Media Utilities Automation
• Improving Sales Conversions And Lead Generation
• Data Reporting Applications
• Blog Optimization

For example, you can enhance your WordPress site with plugins like the following:

• Contact forms
• Polls and quizzes
• Social contests
• Rotating ad banners
• E-commerce (from setting up single-item sales with PayPal buttons, to enterprise scale e-commerce with online shopping carts, invoicing, recurring payments, coupons, etc …)
• Social sharing buttons
• Private Membership sites
• Newsletter opt-in 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 pages 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 integration
• Faster page loading
• Event management
• Business directories
• Automatically sell spots on your blog
• Set appointments and appointment reminders
• Automate reservations and bookings
• Detect broken links and send you reports
• Redirect users from missing pages to other areas on your site or other sites
• Monitor social conversations
• Make your pages printable or downloadable as a PDF file
• Add a site map
• Exclude pages from showing on areas of your site (e.g. sitemaps, feeds, etc.)
• Hide page content sections
• Migrate information from other CMS applications
• Search and replace data
• Fight SPAM
• Customize visitor comment displays (e.g. display Facebook posts)
• Insert HTML and code elements into your posts
• Add tables
• Display animated graphic elements and advanced content formatting options
• Create and manage QR codes
• Improve Google local search
• Add a map
• Post your posts automatically on sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr and many others
• Display countdown timers (for expiring offers, coupons, etc …)
• Display custom greetings, timed offers, etc …
• And so much more!

As you can clearly see, WordPress plugins give you practically endless possibilities. If you plan to build a website or blog for your business, or your existing website was not built using WordPress, then consider getting one in the future, or you will be missing out on some serious features.

In case you’re still wondering just how powerful and flexible WordPress plugins are, let’s take a look at some practical uses of installing a plugin on your web site.

For example, if you want content protection, you can install plugins to make a section of a post inaccessible, or create a complete paid membership site with customized login details for users …

As mentioned previously, you can use free plugins to enhance your web presence in so many ways. From installing features that can enhance your business, your visitors’ experience and your ability to review visitor metrics …

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

You can also add sophisticated features to your website using inexpensive paid WordPress plugins. For example, you can set up plugins that automate processes on your website such as managing customer testimonials and event registration details …

And even set up a custom-branded bookings and reservations system on your site … all for a tiny fraction of the cost of paying programmers to build similar functionality for you …

You can also take advantage of built-in WordPress commenting features and plugins that can make your site even more interactive …

For example, your web visitors can:

• Post comments on your site (which can turn into online discussions) using either the native WP commenting function, or integrated Facebook comments (which then get shared throughout a visitors’ Facebook pages, providing you with additional exposure).
• Share your content with other web users on various social sites.
• Contact you via contact forms
• Engage in online discussions with your support staff via forums or even set up an online social network on your site.
• Engage with members of your team through live video chats
• Call your business directly from their cellphones while visiting your website
• Get help via a client helpdesk
• And so much more …

You can also integrate sophisticated “back end” applications using a WP “front end”. This lets you manage the content that your visitors will see on your site, while your 3rd-party application handles the technical functions …

Additional Things To Know About Plugins

• There are many awesome plugins available. Be careful not to overload your site with too many plugins, as this will begin to affect your site’s performance and page loading times. It can also mean more maintenance work for you resulting from potential errors.
• Only keep those plugins that you really use. Delete all unnecessary 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 premium plugins, ensure that you do a little research first to understand what kind of reputation the developer has when it comes to providing support, upgrades, new features, etc. Be sure to check our WordPress plugin recommendations for more helpful information.
• If you see that a plugin has not been updated for a while (e.g. two years), then think twice before installing it. WordPress changes frequently and older plugins that have not been updated can cause issues.
• Ensure that you always keep your plugins upgraded to their latest software version. Outdated plugin not only can create errors and conflicts, they may also have vulnerabilities that could be exploited by hackers and malicious users.

As you can see, WP plugins are an integral part of WordPress and contribute to making it the most preferred website management solution available. Plugins also provide WordPress users with an easy, simple and inexpensive way to add new functionality to their website without having to spend thousands of dollars on web development.

One last thing regarding plugins:

Whatever functionality you need for your web presence, you can be sure that a WordPress plugin probably exists that will do just what you need, and that it can either be downloaded for FREE, 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 chance such a WordPress plugin does not exist, then it can certainly be written for your business for a reasonable price.

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

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