Tag: What Is A Plugin

One of the main features of the WordPress web site publishing software is the ability to easily increase your WP web site’s functionality using applications called plugins.

What Are Plugins?

No doubt, you most likely own a device like a smart phone. What happens when you would like access to something new on your phone like a new software or a new business productivity tool?

Why, simple … you download and install an app!

An app is a little software that is simple and easy to install and instantly adds new features and functionality to any mobile device.

(Just like you can find social sharing apps …)

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

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

Typically, expanding the functionality of an already-built web site involves additional cost. Depending on the complexity of the new features or enhancement, things could get fairly expensive, especially if it requires modifying code.

This also applies to developing a website. Companies often spend up front on features they probably will never need.

To keep your business costs down, we recommend a modular approach when setting up a web presence and WP plugins are ideal for helping you achieve this.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could:

1) Start simply with minimal expense involved. Get a professional-looking web site up and running quickly, then …

2) As more features and functionality become necessary, you can add new software modules with a couple of mouse clicks that integrate with your website or blog, giving your site a completely new range of possibilities, and …

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

Well, this is exactly what WordPress plugins allow you to do!

Benefits & Advantages Of Plugins

I started this article by comparing WP plugins with smartphone apps. Just like some apps are free to download and some apps cost a little money, so do plugins.

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

Plugins that you purchase are referred to as ’Premium’ plugins. The good news, is that when compared to the price of hiring a professional web developer to get the same features and functionality on your site, most Premium plugins cost very little.

Also, since WordPress makes its source code available to everyone, anybody can create, rewrite and customize any part of the code. This has allowed many professional software developers to create more new plugins that “plug into” WordPress than you can imagine.

• WP plugins allow you to get started with just a simple website and then add new features and enhancements to your site if necessary.
• WP plugins allow you to add practically endless functionality to your website easily, quickly and inexpensively.
• WordPress plugins give you virtually unlimited expanding capabilities.
• WP plugins allow non-technical users to own a digital presence that they can fully manage.
• Most plugins will typically work “right out of the box” and only require to be installed and activated to give your web site instant new enhancements and functionality.
• Some plugins provide more extensive options and require some initial configuration.

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

Like themes, loads of WordPress plugins are available for WordPress users … and many of these great plugins are 100% FREE!

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

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

There are WordPress plugins for:

• Site Administration
• Content Syndication
• Increasing Site Traffic
• User Interactivity
• Social Engagement
• Media Management Automation
• Increasing Website Conversions And Lead Generation
• Data And System Analysis Applications
• Optimizing Your WordPress Web Site

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

• Contact forms
• Quizzes and polls
• Surveys
• Rotating advertising banners
• E-commerce (from managing single-item ordering with PayPal buttons, to full e-commerce with online shopping carts, payment processing, recurring payments, discount codes, etc …)
• Social media integration
• Private Membership sites
• Newsletter opt-in forms
• Sales funnels
• Mobile conversion
• Improving your website’s SEO
• Image galleries (including rotating images, lightboxes, etc.)
• Customer testimonials
• Automatic language translation (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 menus
• Customer interactivity – contest, live chat, currency conversion, etc.
• Offline storage integration
• Faster page loading
• Managing events
• Business directories
• Automatically sell advertising on your site
• Set up appointments and reminders
• Help customers make reservations and bookings
• Detect broken links on your pages and email you reports
• Redirect URLs
• Monitor what other sites are posting about your business
• Make your pages available for printing or downloading as PDF
• Add a site map
• Exclude specific from displaying on areas of your site (e.g. site maps, feeds, etc.)
• Hide content on your posts and pages
• Import content from other CMS platforms
• Search and replace content
• Fight SPAM
• Customize visitor comment displays (e.g. displaying Facebook posts)
• Inserting scripts and script elements into your pages
• Add formatted tables
• Display animated graphics and advanced text 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, StumbleUpon and others
• Show countdown timers (for special offers, coupons, etc …)
• Display personalized greetings, timed offers, etc …
• And hundreds of other features!

As you can clearly see, WordPress plugins give you endless possibilities. If you plan to build a web site for your business, or your existing site isn’t built with WordPress, then consider using it in the future.

If you’re still wondering about the power and flexibility of using plugins, let me show you how you can benefit instantly by adding a plugin to your web site.

For example, if you want to publish content which is only accessible to some but not all users, you can use plugins to make an area of a page inaccessible, or create a complete paid membership site with customized login details for users …

As mentioned previously, free plugins can be used to improve your web site in lots of different ways. From installing features that enhance your business, your visitors’ experience and your understanding of what is happening on your site …

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

You can also add complex features to your site using relatively inexpensive premium plugins. For example, you can download plugins that integrate and automate tasks on your website like customer testimonial and event registration management …

And also run a custom-branded bookings and reservations system online … all for a small fraction of the cost of hiring programmers to design custom functionality for you …

You can also take advantage of native WP commenting features and plugins that will allow you to engage more with visitors, customers and registered site users …

For example, your visitors can:

• Post comments on your blog posts (which can grow into online discussions) using either the built-in WordPress commenting feature, or integrated Facebook comments (which are then shared throughout your visitors’ Facebook pages, providing you with added exposure).
• Share your content with other web users on social networks.
• Contact you via contact forms
• Engage in online discussions with other members through online forums or even set up a private online social network on your site.
• Engage with members of your team through live video chats
• Call your business from their mobile phones when browsing your site
• Get help and support via a customer support helpdesk
• And so much more …

You can also integrate sophisticated “back end” applications with 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 technological areas …

Additional Information About WordPress Plugins

• There are loads of great WordPress plugins available. Be careful of overloading your server with an excessive amount of plugins, as this can invariably affect your website’s performance and page loading times. It also means more maintenance issues for you resulting from possible conflicts and errors.
• Only keep the plugins that you really need to use. Delete any plugins you don’t need from your site, as these utilize resources.
• Many free plugins typically come with very little to no support from the plugin developer. When choosing paid plugins, ensure that you do a little research first to understand what kind of reputation the plugin developer has when it comes to offering support, updates, new features, etc. Be sure to check our WP plugin reviews for additional helpful 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 installing it. WordPress updates often and outdated plugins can cause problems.
• Ensure that you always update your plugins. Older plugin not only can create errors, they could also contain vulnerabilities that could be exploited by hackers and malware.

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

One last thing about WP plugins:

If there is any feature or functionality you want for your web presence, you can be sure that a someone has probably already authored one that will do what you want, and that it will either be available for FREE, or if it’s a paid plugin, that the price will be minimal.

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

And, if by any chance such a WP plugin is not available, then it can probably be created for your business for a very reasonable price.

Hopefully, now you have a better understanding of WordPress plugins – what they are and how they can significantly improve your web site. See our published posts to learn more about using WordPress plugins.

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