Tag: WordPress Plugin

One of the main benefits of WordPress is the ability to easily expand your WP website or blog’s functionality using plugins.

What Are WP Plugins?

No doubt, you probably have a device like a mobile phone. What happens when you would like to access 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 software application that is very easy to install and instantly adds new features to any smart device.

(Just like you will find social sharing apps for smart phones …)

A WordPress plugin is like an app. You install and activate an application that provides new functionality to your WordPress website or blog …

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

Typically, adding new features to an existing site involves additional cost. Depending on the complexity of the feature or enhancements, this could become quite expensive, particularly if it requires website development.

This also applies when creating a website. Organizations sometimes fork out money up-front on additional components they probably will never need.

For sound, strategic business planning reasons, we suggest using a sustainable approach when setting up a web presence and WP plugins are ideal for doing this.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could:

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

2) As more features are required, install new applications with only a few clicks of the mouse directly from within your WordPress admin panel, to give your website or blog a whole new and expanded range of features and functionality, and also …

3) Cost not a single cent more to install on your web site?

Well, this is precisely what a WP plugin enables you to do!

Plugins – Benefits

We began this article by comparing WordPress plugins with apps. In the same way that many apps are free to download and some cost a little bit of money, the same applies with WP plugins.

In fact, many useful plugins are available at no cost to WordPress users.

WP plugins that cost money are called “Premium” plugins. The good news, is that when you compare these to the cost of investing in web development services to add the same features and functionality on your site, most Premium (i.e. ”paid”) plugins are generally quite inexpensive.

Also, because WordPress makes its code available to everyone, anybody can create, modify and customize any part of the WP code. This has allowed many professional software development professionals to create more new tools that enhance WordPress than you can possibly imagine.

• WordPress plugins let you get started with just a basic yet professional site and then expand only when required.
• Plugins let you add almost endless functionality to your site easily, quickly and very cheaply.
• WP plugins give you virtually unlimited expansion capabilities.
• Plugins allow anyone to own a site that they can self-manage.
• Most plugins normally work “right out of the box” and only require installation and activation to provide your web site with immediate capabilities and enhancements.
• Some plugins offer more extensive options and require some initial configuring.

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

Just like WP themes, thousands of great WordPress plugins are available for WP users … often at $0 cost!

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

As previously mentioned, you can find WordPress plugins that will do almost anything you need your website to do.

WordPress plugin categories cover:

• Web Site Administration
• Content Syndication
• Traffic
• User Engagement
• Social Engagement
• Media Management Automation
• Improving Website Conversions And Lead Generation
• Data Monitoring & Reporting Tools
• Web Site SEO

You can enhance your WP site with plugins such as:

• Contact forms
• Polls and quizzes
• User Surveys
• Managing banners
• E-commerce (from managing single ordering with PayPal buttons, to full e-commerce with shopping carts, payment processing, recurring payments, discount codes, etc …)
• Social media integration
• Membership sites
• List-building opt-in forms
• Sales workflow
• Mobile conversion
• Improving your site’s Search Engine Optimization
• Image galleries (with rotating images, lightboxes, etc.)
• User testimonials
• Instant language translation (e.g. you can instantly change your site’s content from English to Norwegian)
• Statistical reporting (e.g. number of visitors, pages visited, keywords searched, etc.)
• Custom navigation menus
• Customer engagement – contest, live chat, currency conversion, etc.
• Media management
• Faster page loading
• Managing events & bookings
• Business directories
• Automatically sell advertising on your website
• Set appointments and reminders
• Manage reservations and bookings
• Detect broken links and email you reports
• Redirect URLs
• Monitor social signals
• Make your pages printable or downloadable as a PDF file
• Add a site map
• Exclude certain from showing on areas of your site (e.g. site maps, feeds, etc.)
• Hide content on your pages and posts
• Import information from non-WordPress applications
• Perform bulk content replacements
• Prevent SPAM
• Customize visitor commenting (e.g. displaying Facebook comments)
• Insert scripts and code elements into your posts and pages
• Add and format tables
• Display animated graphics and advanced content formatting options
• Add and manage QR codes
• Improve Google search
• Add a map
• Post your posts automatically on social pages like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr and many others
• Display countdown timers (for expiring offers, coupons, etc …)
• Display personal greetings, timed offers, etc …
• And so much more!

As it’s clear to see, WP plugins give you practically endless business scalability. If you plan to build a website or blog, or your existing web site isn’t built with WordPress, then consider using WordPress in the future.

If you’re still wondering about the power and flexibility of using WP plugins, let me show you some practical advantages of adding an inexpensive plugin to your website.

For example, if you need content protection, you can use plugins to make an area of your post inaccessible, or create a professional membership site with separate login details for users …

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

To extending your business reach across various social sites and search engines …

You can also add complex features to your site using relatively inexpensive premium plugins. For example, you can set up plugins that integrate and automate processes on your site like displaying customer testimonials and booking events …

And even set up a custom-branded bookings and reservations system online … all for a tiny fraction of the cost of hiring web developers to code the same applications for you …

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

For example, your visitors can easily:

• Post comments on your blog posts (which can grow into online discussions) using either the native WordPress commenting feature, or integrated Facebook comments (which are then shared throughout a visitors’ Facebook pages, providing you with increased exposure).
• Bookmark your content on social networking sites.
• Contact you using contact forms
• Engage in online discussions with other customers via forums or even set up a private social network on your site.
• Engage with members of your team via live video chats
• Call your business directly from their smart phones while browsing your website
• Get help via a dedicated client help desk
• And much more …

Finally you, can even integrate complex third-party solutions using a WP “front end”. This allows you to manage the content that your visitors see on your website, while the third-party application handles the technical areas …

WP Plugins – Some Useful Tips

• There are so many WordPress plugins available. Be careful of overloading your site with too many plugins, as this can start to affect your website’s performance and site loading times. It also creates more maintenance work for you as a result of potential errors.
• Install only those plugins that you really use. Delete any plugins you don’t use from your site, as these also consume resources.
• Many free plugins normally come with very little to no support from the plugin author. When considering premium WordPress plugins, make sure you do a little research first to see what kind of reputation the plugin developer has when it comes to offering support, upgrades, new improvements, etc. Be sure to check the plugin reviews we provide here for additional expert information.
• If you see that a plugin has not been updated for a very long time (e.g. two years), then think carefully before installing it. WordPress updates frequently and out-of-date WordPress plugins can cause errors.
• Ensure that you always update your plugins. Older plugin not only can cause errors, they could also contain vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hackers and malware.

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

One last thing on the topic of WordPress plugins:

If there is any functionality you need for your web presence, you can be sure that a someone has probably already developed one that will do just what you need it to do, and that it can either be accessed at no cost, or if it’s a premium plugin, that the price will be surprisingly affordable.

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

And, if by any chance this WordPress plugin does not exist, then one can most certainly be created for your business at a reasonable cost.

Hopefully, now you have a better understanding of WordPress plugins – what plugins are and how they can help to improve your WordPress web site. See our related posts section to learn about more great WordPress plugins that we recommend using.

***

***