Tag: What Is A Plugin

One of the main features of the WordPress software is the ability to quickly enhance your WordPress web site’s functionality using inexpensive called ’plugins’.

Understanding Plugins

Like most people, you most likely use a device like a mobile phone. What do you do when you want access to something new on your phone like a new application, game or a business tool?

Why, simple … you download and install an app!

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

(Just like there are social sharing apps for smart devices …)

A WordPress plugin is similar to an app. You install and activate a software application that provides new functionality to your site …

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

Typically, adding a new feature to your website involves additional cost. Depending on the complexity of the feature or enhancement, the cost can be fairly significant, especially if it requires website development.

This is also applicable when setting up a new website or business blog. Many organizations often invest money up front for added components they may not ever need.

As part of sound strategic business planning, we suggest a sustainable strategy when growing a website and WordPress plugins are ideal for doing this.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could:

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

2) As you need more features and functionality, just install new applications with a few clicks of the mouse that integrate seamlessly with your site, to give your web site a whole new and expanded range of possibilities, and …

3) Cost not a single dollar more to add to your website?

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

Plugins – Benefits And Advantages

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

In fact, loads of 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 you compare it to the price of hiring a professional web developer to add similar functionality on your site, most Premium (i.e. paid) plugins are generally quite inexpensive.

Also, since WordPress distributes its software as an Open Source application, any person can create, edit and customize any portion of the code. This has allowed many professional web development companies to enhance the WordPresssoftware.

• WP plugins allow you to start off simply with just a simple web site and then add new features and enhancements to your site only when necessary.
• WP plugins let you add practically endless functionality to any online business presence quickly and inexpensively.
• Plugins give you virtually unlimited expanding capabilities.
• Plugins allow ”non-techies” to own a website that they can manage.
• Most plugins will normally work “right out of the box” and only require installation and activation to provide your site with immediate capabilities and functionality.
• Some plugins are a little more complex and may require some configuring.

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

Like many WP themes, thousands of WordPress plugins are currently available for WordPress users … often at $0 cost!

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

As mentioned earlier, you will find plugins that will do just about everything you need your web site to do.

Plugin categories cover:

• Website Management
• Content Syndication
• Increasing Site Visitors
• Visitor Interactivity
• Social Engagement
• Managing Media – Videocasts, Graphics, Podcasts, Multimedia, etc.
• e-Commerce And Online Sales Automation
• Improving Website Conversions And Lead Generation
• Data & System Reporting Tools
• Optimizing Your

For example, you can add features to your business online presence with plugins such as:

• Contact forms
• Quizzes and polls
• User Surveys
• Rotating advertising banners
• E-commerce (from managing single-item ordering with PayPal buttons, to full e-commerce stores with shopping carts, invoicing, recurring billing, discount codes, etc …)
• Social sharing buttons
• Private Membership sites
• Newsletter subscription forms
• Sales funnels
• Mobile conversion
• Improving your website’s Search Engine Optimization
• Image galleries (with rotating images, lightboxes, etc.)
• User feedback forms
• Language translation plugins (e.g. you can instantly change your site’s content from English to French)
• 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
• Event management
• Business directories
• Automatically sell and manage advertising on your website
• Set appointments and appointment reminders
• Set up reservations and bookings
• Detect broken links and send you reports
• Redirect visitors from missing pages to other areas on your site or other websites
• Monitor what social media users are posting about your business
• Make your pages available for printing or downloading as PDF
• Add a site map
• Hide certain from showing on areas of your site (e.g. site maps, feeds, etc.)
• Protect post content sections
• Migrate content from different publishing applications
• Perform bulk data edits
• Block SPAM
• Customize guest comment displays (e.g. display Facebook comments)
• Inserting code and code elements into your posts
• Add and format tables
• Add animated graphic elements and advanced content formatting options
• Create and manage QR codes
• Improve your local search listings on Google
• Add a map
• Post your content automatically on social pages like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr and many others
• Show countdown timers (for special offers, discount coupons, etc …)
• Display personalized greetings, timed offers, etc …
• And so much more!

As you can clearly see, plugins give you virtually limitless possibilities. If you plan to build a website for your business, or your existing website isn’t built with WordPress, then consider choosing WordPress in the future.

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

For example, if you need to protect your content, you can use plugins to make a section of a page or post inaccessible, or transform your WordPress site into a full membership site with separate login details for each member …

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

To extending your site’s reach across multiple social networks and search engines …

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

And even set up a custom-branded bookings and reservations system online … all for a small fraction of the cost of paying software developers to build similar applications for you …

Additionally, you can take advantage of built-in WordPress commenting features and plugins that can allow you to engage in various ways with web visitors, clients and registered site users …

For example, your visitors can:

• 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 your visitors’ Facebook pages, providing you with added exposure).
• Bookmark your content on social media.
• Contact you via contact forms
• Engage in online discussions with other customers using online forums or even set up an online social network on your own site.
• Engage with your staff using live chats
• Call your business directly from their laptops while browsing your pages
• Open a support ticket
• And much more …

You can even integrate complex 3rd-party solutions within a WordPress “front end”. This enables you to control your business marketing, while the third-party application handles the technological aspects …

Useful Information About Plugins

• There are lots of terrific plugins to choose from. Be careful not to overload your site with an excessive amount of plugins, as this can inevitably start to affect your website’s performance and page loading speed. It also means more maintenance work for you as a consequence of possible conflicts.
• Only keep the plugins that you really need. Delete any plugins you don’t use from your site, as these utilize extra server resources.
• Many free plugins often come with very little to no support from the plugin developer. When considering paid plugins, ensure that you check around a little and see what kind of reputation the plugin developer has when it comes to providing support, upgrades, new improvements, etc. Be sure to check the plugin reviews we provide on this site for additional expert information.
• If you see that a plugin has not been updated for a while (e.g. two years), then think twice before installing it on your site. The WordPress application is updated regularly and older plugins that have not been updated can create issues.
• Ensure that you always keep your plugins updated. Older plugins not only can create problems, they may also contain vulnerabilities that could be exploited by hackers and malware.

As you can see, plugins are an integral part of WordPress and contribute to making it the most preferred online open source tool in the world. Plugins also provide WordPress users with an easy, simple and inexpensive way to add instant functionality to their website without spending thousands of dollars on web developers.

One last thing about plugins:

If there is a functionality you need for your website, you can be sure that a someone has probably already created one that will do just what you need, and that this plugin will either be available at no cost, or if it’s a premium plugin, that it will be surprisingly affordable.

(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 it can probably be written for you for a very reasonable price.

Hopefully, this post has given you a better understanding of WP plugins – what they are and how they can help enhance the functionality of your WordPress site. See our related posts to learn about more popular plugins that we recommend using.

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