Tag: What Is A Plugin

One of the main benefits of WordPress is that you can quickly enhance your WP web site’s functionality using plugins.

About WP Plugins

Like most people, you probably own a device like a smart phone. What happens when you want access to something new on your phone like a new application, game or a tool?

You download and install an app!

An app is a little software application that is really easy to install and instantly adds new functionality to any smart phone.

(Just as you will find social sharing apps …)

A WP plugin is similar to an app. You simply download and install a software application that provides new functionality to your website or blog …

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

Normally, expanding the functionality of your web site involves additional cost. Depending on the complexity of the new features or enhancement, this could become quite expensive, especially if it involves website development.

This also applies when starting a web site. Business owners will often spend money up front on added bells and whistles they probably will never need.

To avoid incurring unnecessary costs, we recommend considering a sustainable strategy to developing a web site and WordPress plugins are ideal for helping you achieve this.

Imagine being able to:

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

2) As you need new features and functionality, simply add new software modules with a couple of clicks of the mouse that integrate seamlessly with your existing site, and give your website a completely new and expanded range of useful features, and …

3) Cost not a single dollar more to download and install on your site?

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

Plugins – Benefits & Advantages

I began this article by comparing WP plugins with apps. Just like some apps are free to download and some apps may cost a little bit of money, the same applies with WordPress plugins.

In fact, thousands of useful plugins can be downloaded to your website for free.

WordPress plugins that you have to buy are called “Premium” plugins. The good news, is that when compared to the price of hiring a professional web developer to add the same functionality on your site, most Premium plugins are generally quite inexpensive.

Also, because WordPress distributes its software as an Open Source application, any person can create, modify and customize any part of the WP code. This has allowed thousands of professional web development companies to create more new tools that integrate with WordPress than you can imagine.

• Plugins let you get started simply with just a simple web presence and add new features and enhancements to your site when required.
• WP plugins allow you to add practically endless features to any site easily, quickly and cheaply.
• WP plugins give you practically endless expansion capabilities.
• Plugins allow business owners to have a website that they can self-manage.
• Most plugins will typically work “right out of the box” and only require installation and activation to provide your web site with new capabilities and functionality.
• Some plugins provide more extensive features and require some initial configuring.

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

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

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

As previously mentioned, you can find plugins that can do almost anything you could possibly need a website to do.

WordPress plugin categories cover:

• Web Site Administration
• Content Distribution
• Driving Site Visitors
• User Interactivity
• Social Engagement
• Uploading Media – Videocasts, Graphics & Images, Podcasts, Multimedia, etc.
• e-Biz And Online Sales & Advertising Automation
• Increasing Sales & Opt-In Conversions And Lead Generation
• Data & System Reporting
• Securing Your WordPress Blog

For example, you can enhance your website with plugins such as:

• Contact forms
• Polls and quizzes
• Surveys
• Display ad banners
• E-commerce (from setting up single-item ordering with PayPal buttons, to complete e-commerce with shopping carts, invoicing, recurring billing, coupons, etc …)
• Social sharing buttons
• Membership sites
• Newsletter subscription forms
• Sales funnels
• Mobile conversion
• Improving your site’s Search Engine Optimization
• Image galleries (with rotating images, lightboxes, etc.)
• User testimonials
• Language translation plugins (e.g. you can instantly change your website’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.
• Cloud storage integration
• Faster page loading
• Event management
• Niche directories
• Automatically sell and manage advertising on your site
• Set up client appointments and reminders
• Automate reservations and bookings
• Detect broken hyperlinks and send you reports
• Redirect URLs
• Monitor social signals
• Make your pages printable or downloadable as a PDF file
• Add a site map
• Hide certain from showing on areas of your site (e.g. sitemaps, feeds, etc.)
• Hide page content sections
• Import information from non-WordPress platforms
• Search and replace data
• Block SPAM
• Customize visitor discussions (e.g. displaying Facebook comments)
• Inserting HTML and script elements into your content
• Add and format tables
• Add animated graphic elements 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 posts automatically on sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, StumbleUpon and many others
• Display countdown timers (for scarcity offers, discount coupons, etc …)
• Display personal greetings, timed offers, etc …
• And so much more!

As it’s clear to see, plugins give you limitless possibilities. If you plan to build a website or blog, or your existing web site was not built using WordPress, then consider getting one in the future, or you could be missing out on some serious features.

In case you’re still wondering about the power and flexibility of using plugins, let me show you some practical uses of installing a plugin on your web site.

For example, if you need to protect your content, you can install plugins to make an area of a post or page inaccessible, or create a full membership site with customized login details for users …

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

To extending your business reach and visibility across social networks and search engines …

You can also add sophisticated features to your site using inexpensive premium WP plugins. For example, you can download plugins that automate functions on your website such as managing customer testimonials and event bookings …

And even run a complete bookings and reservations system on your site … all for a tiny fraction of the cost of paying software developers to build the same applications for you …

Additionally, you can take advantage of native WordPress commenting features and plugins that will increase your site’s interactivity …

For example, your visitors can:

• Post comments on your site (which can grow into online discussions) using either the native WordPress commenting function, or integrated Facebook comments (which are then displayed throughout your visitors’ Facebook pages, providing you with additional exposure).
• Bookmark your posts on various social sites.
• Contact you using contact forms
• Engage online directly with other members through online forums or even set up a private community on your domain.
• Engage with members of your team via live chats
• Dial your business from their cellphones when visiting your website
• Get help and support via a dedicated client helpdesk
• And so much more …

Finally you, can even integrate complex enterprise-level solutions within a WP “front end”. This lets you manage the content that your visitors will see on your site, while the 3rd-party application handles the technical aspects …

WordPress Plugins – Useful Tips

• There are many great WordPress plugins available. Be careful of overloading your server with an excessive amount of plugins, as this can eventually affect your site’s resources and site loading speed. It can also mean more maintenance issues for you as a consequence of potential conflicts.
• Only keep the plugins that you really need. Delete inactive plugins from your site, as these utilize server resources.
• Many free plugins often receive very little to no support from the plugin developer. When choosing paid WP plugins, make sure you do a little research first to understand what kind of reputation the plugin developer has when it comes to providing support, upgrades, new features, etc. Be sure to check our WP plugin recommendations for more useful 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 twice before installing it. The WordPress platform is updated regularly and out-of-date plugins can create errors.
• Make sure that you always upgrade your plugins to the most recent software version. Older plugin not only can cause errors and conflicts, they may also contain vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hackers and malware.

As you can see, WordPress plugins are an important aspect of WordPress and contribute to making it the most used 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 developers.

One last thing about plugins:

Whatever feature you need for your website, you can guarantee that a WP plugin currently exists that will do just what you want it to do, and that this plugin will either be available for FREE, or if it’s a premium plugin, that the price to buy it will be reasonable.

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

And, if by any chance this WordPress plugin does not exist, then it can probably be written for your business at a reasonable cost.

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

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