Tag: What Is A Plugin

One of the main benefits of using the WordPress web site publishing software is that you can quickly and easily enhance your WordPress site’s functionality using inexpensive (and often 100% free) applications called ’plugins’.

What Are WordPress Plugins?

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

You download and install an app!

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

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

A plugin is very much like an app. You simply install and activate a little piece of software that provides new functionality to your website …

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

Almost always, if you want to add a new feature to your web site, additional cost is involved. Depending on the complexity of the feature or enhancements, things could become quite expensive, particularly if it involves website development.

This is also applicable when developing a web site. Businesses will often invest money in advance in extra components they probably will never need.

As part of sound strategic business planning, we suggest considering a modular approach when setting up a website and WP plugins are ideal for doing this.

Imagine being able to:

1) Start simply and with minimal cost involved. Get your business web site up and running fast, then …

2) As you need new features, install new software modules with just a few clicks of the mouse directly from within your dashboard area, and give your website or blog a whole new range of practical features and capabilities, and …

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

Well, this is precisely what plugins let you do!

WP Plugins – Benefits And Advantages

Earlier, we compared plugins with ’apps’. Just like many apps are free to download and some may cost a little money, the same is true for WordPress plugins.

In fact, many fantastic plugins can be downloaded and installed on your sites.

WP plugins that cost money are called ’Premium’ plugins. The good news, is that when compared to the price of hiring a professional web developer to get similar features and functionality on your site, most Premium plugins are priced quite cheaply.

Also, because WordPress makes its code available to everyone, any web developer can create, rewrite and customize any portion of the WP code. This has enabled many professional software development companies to enhance the core software application.

• WordPress plugins let you get started with just a simple site and then expand only when necessary.
• WordPress plugins let you add almost unlimited features to your site quickly, easily and inexpensively.
• WP plugins give your web site almost unlimited expansion capabilities.
• WP plugins allow non-technical website owners to own a website that they can fully manage.
• Most plugins typically work “right out of the box” and only require installation and activation to provide your website or blog with instant new capabilities and functionality.
• Some plugins are slightly more complex and require some initial configuration.

Plugins – Powerful, Flexible … And (Many Of Them Are) 100% FREE!

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

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

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

Plugin categories cover:

• Web Site Administration
• Content Management
• Online Traffic Generation
• Visitor Interactivity
• Social Sharing
• Media Utilities Automation
• Improving Sales Conversions And Lead Generation
• Data Monitoring & Reporting Tools
• Web Site Optimization

For example, you can add features to your WordPress site with plugins like the following:

• Contact forms
• Polls and quizzes
• Surveys
• Rotating advertising banners
• E-commerce (from managing single-item sales with PayPal buttons, to complete e-commerce with shopping carts, invoicing, recurring billing, coupons, etc …)
• Social sharing buttons
• Membership sites
• Newsletter opt-in forms
• Sales funnels
• Mobile integration
• 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 your site’s content 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.
• Offline storage management
• Making pages load faster
• Event management
• Niche directories
• Automatically sell and manage advertising on your website
• Set up appointments and reminders
• Help customers make reservations and bookings
• Detect broken hyperlinks and email you reports
• Redirect visitors from certain pages to other pages on your site or other websites
• Monitor what other sites are posting about your business
• Make your pages printable or downloadable as a PDF file
• Add a site map
• Hide specific from displaying on areas of your site (e.g. site maps, feeds, etc.)
• Protect post content
• Migrate information from non-WordPress applications
• Search and replace content
• Block SPAM commenting
• Customize visitor comment displays (e.g. display Facebook discussions)
• Insert code and script elements into your pages
• Add tables
• Display animated graphics and advanced font display formatting options
• Create and manage QR codes
• Improve your local search listings on Google
• Add location maps
• Post your posts automatically on sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon and others
• Display countdown timers (for expiring offers, coupons, etc …)
• Display personalized greetings, timed offers, etc …
• And so much more!

As you can clearly see, WordPress plugins give you limitless business flexibility. If you are planning to build a web site, or your existing site isn’t built with WordPress, then consider getting one in the future, or you could 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 how you can benefit instantly by adding a plugin to your website.

For example, if you need content protection, you can use plugins to make a section of a page inaccessible, or create a complete membership site with customized login details for all users …

As mentioned before, you can use free plugins to enhance your site in lots of ways. From adding functionality that improve your business, your web users’ experience and your understanding of what is taking place on your site …

To increasing your business reach across multiple social networks and search engines …

You can also add complex functionality to your site using inexpensive paid plugins. For example, you can download plugins that integrate and automate functionality on your site such as displaying customer testimonials and event bookings …

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

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

For example, your web visitors can easily:

• Post comments on your blog posts (which can turn into online discussions) using either the built-in WP commenting feature, or integrated Facebook comments (which are then displayed throughout your visitors’ Facebook pages, providing you with added exposure).
• Bookmark your posts on various social sites.
• Contact you via contact forms
• Engage in online discussions with other customers via forums or even set up a private community on your own site.
• Engage with members of your team using live video chats
• Call your business directly from their laptops when visiting your website
• Get support via a customer helpdesk
• And much more …

You can also integrate complex enterprise-level solutions with a WordPress “front end”. This lets you control the content that your visitors see on your website, while the third-party application handles the technological side of things …

Useful Tips About WP Plugins

• There are loads of plugins to choose from. Be careful not to overload your site with too many plugins, as this can inevitably affect your website’s performance and page loading times. It also means more maintenance work for you as a result of possible conflicts and errors.
• Only keep the plugins you really use. Delete any plugins you don’t use from your site, as these use extra server resources.
• Many free plugins typically receive very little to no support from the plugin author. When choosing paid plugins, we recommend that you do a little research first to see what kind of reputation the developer has when it comes to offering support, updates, new improvements, etc. Be sure to check some of our WordPress plugin reviews for additional helpful information.
• If you see that a plugin has not been updated for a very long time (e.g. two years), then think carefully before using it. WordPress changes regularly and older plugins can create issues.
• Always upgrade your plugins to their most recent version. Older plugin not only can cause conflicts, they may also have security vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hackers and malicious users.

As you can see, WordPress plugins are an important component of WordPress and contribute to making WordPress the most downloaded content management system in the world. Plugins also provide WordPress users with easy, simple and inexpensive ways to add instant functionality to their website without having to spend thousands of dollars on web development.

One last thing regarding WordPress plugins:

If there is a feature or functionality you need for your web site, you can be sure that a someone has probably already authored one that will do just what you need, and that it can either be accessed for FREE, or if it’s a premium plugin, that the price to buy it will be minimal.

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

And, if by any chance such a plugin does not exist, then it can certainly be developed for you at a reasonable cost.

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

***

***