Tag: What Is A Plugin

One of the most unique features of WordPress is the ability to quickly increase your WP web site’s functionality using inexpensive (even completely free) applications called plugins.

About WP Plugins

No doubt, you most likely use a device like a smart phone. What do you do 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 little software application that is very simple and easy to install and integrates new features and functionality into your smart phone.

(Just like there are social sharing apps …)

A plugin is really similar to an app. You install a software application that adds new functionality to your WordPress website or blog …

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

Generally, if you want to add new features to your site, additional cost is involved. Depending on the complexity of the feature or enhancements, this could get quite expensive, particularly if web developers have to add new code or edit code or install scripts to integrate into your current set up.

This also applies when creating a website. Businesses often invest money up-front in components they may simply not need.

To keep expenses down, we recommend a cost-effective strategy to setting up your presence online presence and WP plugins are ideal for doing this.

Imagine being able to:

1) Start simply with minimal expense involved. Get your web site up and running quickly, then …

2) As the need for new features and functionality becomes apparent, simply add new software modules with a few mouse clicks directly from within your WP dashboard section, giving your website an entirely new and expanded range of practical functionality, and …

3) Cost not one cent extra to download and install on your website?

Well, this is just what plugins let you do!

Benefits Of WordPress Plugins

We began this blog post by comparing WordPress plugins with ’apps’. Just like many apps are free to download and some may cost a little money, so do WP plugins.

In fact, loads of plugins are freely available for WordPress users.

Plugins that you purchase are called “Premium” plugins. The good news, is that when you compare these to the price of paying for web development services to get the same features and functionality on your site, most Premium (i.e. paid) plugins are generally very inexpensive.

Also, because WordPress distributes its software as an Open Source application, anybody can create, rewrite and customize any portion of the WordPress code. This has allowed thousands of professional software development professionals to enhance and contribute to the core software application.

• WordPress plugins let you start simply with a simple yet professional site and then expand only as necessary.
• WordPress plugins let you add almost unlimited functionality to any online business presence easily, quickly and inexpensively.
• Plugins give your digital business presence practically unlimited expanding capabilities.
• Plugins allow anyone to have a website that they can self-manage.
• Most plugins will work “right out of the box” and only require installation and activation to give your website instant new capabilities, enhancements and functionality.
• Some plugins are slightly more advanced and could require some initial configuring.

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

Like WordPress themes, loads of great plugins are available for WP users … often at $0 cost!

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

As previously mentioned, you will find plugins that will do just about everything you could think of.

There are plugins for:

• Site Administration
• Content Management
• Driving Web Traffic
• User Engagement
• Social Monitoring
• Inserting Media – Videocasts, Images, Audio, Multimedia, etc.
• e-Commerce And Online Sales Automation
• Increasing Website Conversions And Lead Generation
• Data Analysis Tools
• Securing Your WordPress Site

For example, you can enhance a business online presence with plugins such as:

• Contact forms
• Polls and quizzes
• User Surveys
• Display advertising banners
• E-commerce (from managing single-item sales with PayPal buttons, to complete e-commerce with online shopping carts, invoicing, recurring payments, coupon codes, etc …)
• Social sharing buttons
• Membership sites
• Newsletter opt-in forms
• Sales workflow
• 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
• Customer interactivity – contest, live chat, currency conversion, etc.
• Media integration
• Making pages load faster
• Managing events
• Business listing directories
• Automatically sell spots on your blog
• Set client appointments and reminders
• Manage reservations and bookings
• Detect broken hyperlinks and send you reports
• Redirect URLs
• Monitor what other sites are posting about your business
• Make your pages available for printing or downloading as PDF
• Add sitemaps
• Exclude certain from showing on areas of your site (e.g. sitemaps, feeds, etc.)
• Protect post content sections
• Migrate data from non-WP applications
• Search and replace data
• Block SPAM
• Customize visitor discussions (e.g. displaying Facebook comments)
• Inserting HTML and script elements into your blog’s header or footer
• Add and format tables
• Display animated graphics and advanced font display formatting options
• Create and manage QR codes
• Improve your local search listings on Google
• Add a map of your business location
• Post your content automatically on social pages like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest and many others
• Display countdown timers (for expiring offers, coupons, etc …)
• Display personal greetings, timed offers, etc …
• And hundreds of other features!

As you can clearly see, plugins give you virtually endless possibilities. If you plan to build a web site, or your existing web site isn’t powered by WordPress, then consider using WordPress in the future.

In case you’re still wondering just how powerful and flexible plugins are, let me show you how you can benefit instantly by installing a plugin on your site.

For example, if you want to publish content which is only accessible to some but not all users, you can install plugins to make a section of a page inaccessible, or transform your WordPress site into a complete paid membership site with separate login details for users …

As mentioned previously, you can use free plugins to improve your web site in so many ways. From adding features that enhance your business, your visitors’ experience and your ability to analyze website metrics …

To increasing your business reach across social media and search engines …

You can also add complex features to your website using relatively inexpensive paid WP plugins. For example, you can install plugins that automate tasks on your pages such as managing customer testimonials and booking events …

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

You can also take advantage of built-in WP commenting features and plugins that will enhance your site’s interactivity …

For example, your visitors can:

• Leave comments on your site (which can grow into online discussions) using either the native WordPress commenting function, or integrated Facebook comments (which are then shared throughout your visitors’ Facebook pages, giving your site increased exposure).
• Bookmark your posts on bookmarking sites.
• Contact you via contact forms
• Engage online directly with your team members using forums or even set up a private online community on your site.
• Engage with members of your team via live web conferencing and chatroom facilities
• Dial your business directly from their laptops when visiting your pages
• Get support via a client support helpdesk
• And so much more …

You can even integrate complex 3rd-party applications with a WordPress “front end”. This lets you manage your business marketing, while the 3rd-party application handles the technical side of things …

WP Plugins – Useful Tips

• There are loads of great plugins available. Be careful not to overload your server with an excessive amount of plugins, as this can affect your website’s performance and site loading speed. It also creates more maintenance work for you as a result of possible conflicts.
• Only keep the plugins that you really use. Delete any plugins you don’t use from your site, as these utilize resources.
• Many free plugins typically come with little to no support from the plugin developer. When choosing paid plugins, make sure you check around a little and understand what kind of reputation the plugin developer has when it comes to providing support, upgrades, new improvements, etc. Be sure to check our plugin reviews for additional information.
• If you see that an unsupported plugin has not been updated for a very long time (e.g. two or more years), then think carefully before using it. The WordPress application is updated on a frequent basis and older WordPress plugins can cause issues.
• Ensure that you always update your plugins. Outdated plugins not only can cause problems, they could also contain vulnerabilities that could be exploited by hackers and malicious software.

As you can see, WP plugins are an integral part of WordPress and contribute to making WordPress the most preferred online publishing platform available. Plugins also provide WordPress users with easy, simple and inexpensive ways to expand without having to spend thousands of dollars on web development.

One last thing on the topic of WP plugins:

If there is a feature you need for your web presence, you can be sure that a WordPress plugin probably exists that will do what you want, and that this plugin will either be available for FREE, or if it’s a premium plugin, that it will be fairly inexpensive.

(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 one can probably be developed for your business at a reasonable cost.

Hopefully, now you have a better understanding of plugins – what plugins are and how they can significantly enhance the functionality of your WordPress website. See our related posts to learn more about usingplugins.

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