Tag: What Is A Plugin

One of the main advantages of using the WordPress software is that you can quickly and easily increase your WordPress website’s functionality using plugins.

Understanding WP Plugins

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

Why, simple … you download and install an app!

An app is a software that is simple and easy to install and immediately integrates new functionality into any mobile phone.

(Just as there are social sharing apps …)

A plugin is similar to an app. You simply install and activate an application that adds new functionality to your WP website …

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

Almost always, if you need to expand the functionality of a web site, additional cost is involved. Depending on the complexity of the new feature or enhancement, the cost can be fairly significant, especially if website developers have to create new code or edit templates or install programs that integrate into your existing site.

This is also applicable when creating a new web site. Businesses tend to spend upfront on components they probably will never need.

To minimize business costs, we recommend considering a cost-effective strategy when growing your web site and WordPress plugins are ideal for doing this.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could:

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

2) As you need new features, just install new software modules with a couple of mouse clicks directly from your administration panel, giving your website an entirely new range of practical capabilities, and …

3) Cost not a single dollar extra to add to your site?

Well, this is precisely what plugins let you do!

Benefits Of Using Plugins

Earlier, we compared plugins with mobile apps. Just like many apps are free to download and some apps may cost a little bit of money, so do WordPress plugins.

In fact, thousands of wonderful plugins are freely available for users.

WP plugins that you have to pay for are called “Premium” plugins. The good news, is that when you compare these to the price of investing in web development services to add similar features and functionality on your site, most Premium (i.e. paid) plugins are priced quite low.

Also, since WordPress makes its code publicly available, any web developer can create, rewrite and customize any portion of the code. This has allowed many third-party software development companies to enhance and contribute to the WordPresssoftware.

• WP plugins allow you to start off with only a basic web presence and then expand only as required.
• WordPress plugins let you add practically unlimited features to any online business presence quickly, easily and very cheaply.
• Plugins give your web site almost unlimited expanding capabilities.
• WordPress plugins allow non-technical users to have a website that they can manage themselves.
• Most plugins normally work “right out of the box” and only require installation and activation to give your website or blog immediate capabilities, enhancements and functionality.
• Some plugins are slightly more advanced and could require some configuring.

WordPress Plugins – Powerful, Flexible … And (Many Of Them Are) Completely FREE!

Like themes, tens of thousands of WP plugins are currently available for WordPress users … often at no cost!

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

As mentioned earlier, you will find plugins that can do almost everything you could imagine.

Plugin categories cover:

• Website Management
• Content Distribution
• Traffic
• User Engagement
• Social Monitoring
• Media Management Automation
• Improving Website Conversions And Lead Generation
• Data Reporting Applications
• WordPress Security

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

• Contact forms
• Polls and quizzes
• Surveys
• Rotating ad banners
• E-commerce (from managing single ordering with PayPal buttons, to full scale e-commerce stores with shopping carts, invoicing, recurring payments, discount codes, etc …)
• Social sharing buttons
• Private Membership sites
• List-building subscription forms
• Sales workflow
• Mobile conversion
• Improving your site’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 site from English to Portuguese)
• 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
• Making pages load faster
• Event management
• Niche directories
• Automatically sell and manage advertising on your site
• Set appointments and reminders
• Manage reservations and bookings
• Detect broken links on your pages and email you reports
• Redirect URLs
• Monitor social conversations
• Make your pages printable or downloadable as a PDF file
• Add sitemaps
• Hide certain from showing on areas of your site (e.g. sitemaps, feeds, etc.)
• Protect page content
• Import information from other CMS platforms
• Search and replace data
• Prevent SPAM
• Customize guest commenting (e.g. displaying Facebook posts)
• Inserting HTML and code elements into your pages
• Add and format tables
• Display animated graphics and advanced content formatting options
• Create and manage QR codes
• Improve your local search listings on Google
• Add a map of your business location
• Distribute your content automatically on social pages like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, StumbleUpon and others
• Display countdown timers (for scarcity offers, coupons, etc …)
• Display personal greetings, timed offers, etc …
• And so much more!

As it’s clear to see, WP plugins give you virtually limitless possibilities. If you are planning to build a website or blog, or your existing site was not built with WordPress, then consider using WordPress in the future.

If you’re still wondering about the power and flexibility of using plugins, let’s take a look at some practical advantages of adding an inexpensive plugin to your web site.

For example, if you need content protection, you can install plugins to make a section of a page inaccessible, or transform your WordPress site into a professional paid membership site with separate login details for all users …

As mentioned previously, free plugins can be used to improve your business site in so many ways. From installing functionality that improve your business, your site’s user experience and your ability to review visitor metrics …

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

You can also add advanced features to your website using relatively inexpensive premium plugins. For example, you can purchase plugins that automate features on your website such as displaying customer testimonials and booking events …

And even run a custom bookings and reservations system online … all for a small fraction of the cost of hiring web developers to design custom applications for you …

You can also take advantage of native WP commenting features and plugins that can enhance your site’s interactivity …

For example, your visitors can easily:

• Leave comments on your site (which can grow into online discussions) using either the built-in WordPress commenting function, or integrated Facebook comments (which are then shared throughout the visitors’ Facebook pages, providing you with increased exposure).
• Bookmark your content on social media.
• Contact you using contact forms
• Engage online with other members through online forums or even set up an online community on your own domain.
• Engage with members of your team using live web conferencing and chatroom facilities
• Call your business from their devices when browsing your website
• Open a support ticket
• And so much more …

You can even integrate complex enterprise applications within a WordPress “front end”. This enables you to manage your business sales and marketing, while your 3rd-party application handles the technological functions …

Some Useful Information About Plugins

• There are loads of good plugins to choose from. Be careful of overloading your site with an excessive amount of plugins, as this will eventually affect your site’s resources and page loading times. It also creates more maintenance work for you resulting from possible errors.
• Install only those plugins that you really use. Delete any plugins from your site, as these utilize server resources.
• Many free plugins normally receive very little to no support from the plugin author. When choosing premium WordPress plugins, ensure that you do a little research first to understand what kind of reputation the developer has when it comes to offering support, upgrades, new features, etc. Be sure to check some of our WP plugin reviews for additional expert information.
• If you see that an unsupported plugin has not been updated for a while (e.g. two or more years), then think carefully before using it on your website or blog. WordPress is updated frequently and older WordPress plugins can cause conflicts.
• Always keep all plugins upgraded to the latest version. Outdated plugins not only can create errors and conflicts, they could also have security vulnerabilities that could be exploited by hackers and malicious users.

As you can see, WordPress plugins are an integral part of WordPress and contribute to making WordPress the most popular CMS available. Plugins also provide WordPress users with an easy, simple and inexpensive way to add new features to their web presence without having to spend thousands of dollars on outsourced web developers.

One last thing on the topic of WP plugins:

If there is a feature you need for your web site, you can guarantee that a plugin probably exists that will do just what you want, and that it will either be available at no cost, or if it’s a premium plugin, that the price will be reasonable.

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

And, if by any chance such a plugin is not available, then a custom plugin that does exactly what you need it to do can probably be created for your business for a very reasonable price.

Hopefully, this article has given you a better understanding of WordPress plugins – what they are and how they can significantly expand your web site. See our published posts to learn more about using WP plugins.

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