Tag: WP Plugins

One of the most useful benefits of building a web presence with WordPress is that you can easily enhance your WordPress web site’s functionality using plugins.

Understanding Plugins

Like most of us, you most likely have a smart phone. What happens when you want access to something new on your device like a new application, software or a new productivity tool?

Why, simple … you download and install an app!

An app is a little piece of software that is really easy to install and integrates new features and functionality into your smart phone.

(Just as there are social sharing apps for smart phones …)

A plugin is very much like an app. You simply download and install a software that provides new functionality to your web site …

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

Normally, if you want to expand the functionality of your website, additional cost is involved. Depending on the complexity of the features or enhancement, the cost can be significant, especially if it involves website development.

This also applies to setting up a new website. Organizations often spend money in advance on added components they probably will never need.

For sound, strategic business planning reasons, we recommend a cost-effective strategy to setting up your website and WordPress plugins are ideal for doing this.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could:

1) Start simply and with minimal expense involved. Get your website up and running fast, then …

2) As the need for new capabilities arises, you can add new software modules with just a few mouse clicks directly from your WordPress admin section, giving your web site a whole new and expanded range of possibilities, and also …

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

Well, that’s precisely what WP plugins let you do!

Plugins – Benefits & Advantages

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

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

Plugins that cost money are referred to as ’Premium’ plugins. The good news, is that when compared to the price of investing in web development services to get similar features and functionality on your site, most Premium plugins are priced quite low.

Also, because WordPress is an Open Source application, anyone can create, modify and customize any portion of the code. This has allowed many third-party web developers to create more new applications that “plug into” the WordPress software than you can probably imagine.

• WP plugins allow you to get started with a basic web presence and expand if required.
• WP plugins allow you to add almost unlimited features to your website quickly and very inexpensively.
• Plugins give you virtually endless expansion capabilities.
• Plugins allow anyone to have a site that they can self-manage.
• Most plugins will typically work “right out of the box” and only require installation and activation to provide your website with immediate capabilities, enhancements and functionality.
• Some plugins offer more extensive features and may need some initial configuration.

WP Plugins – Powerful, Flexible … And (Often) Completely FREE!

Just like WP themes, thousands of plugins are available for WordPress users … for FREE!

You can access thousands of plugins from the Free WordPress Plugin Repository …

As previously mentioned, you can find WP plugins that will do almost everything you could think of.

WP plugin categories cover:

• Web Site Management
• Content Management
• Web Traffic Generation
• Visitor Interactivity
• Social Connectivity
• Managing Media Files – Videocasts, Images, Podcasts, Multimedia, etc.
• e-Biz And Online Sales Automation
• Increasing Sales Conversions And Lead Generation
• Data & System Monitoring & Reporting
• Optimizing Your WP Website

For example, you can add features to a website with plugins like:

• Contact forms
• Quizzes and polls
• User Surveys
• Display advertising banners
• E-commerce (from setting up single ordering with PayPal buttons, to full e-commerce stores with shopping carts, payment processing, recurring payments, coupons, etc …)
• Social media integration
• Private Membership sites
• Newsletter subscription forms
• Sales funnels
• Mobile integration
• Improving your website’s Search Engine Optimization
• Image galleries (including rotating images, lightboxes, etc.)
• User testimonial forms
• Language translation (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.
• Media management
• Faster page loading
• Managing events & bookings
• Niche directories
• Automatically sell and manage advertising on your website
• Set client appointments and reminders
• Automate reservations and bookings
• Detect broken links and email you reports
• Redirect affiliate links
• Monitor social signals
• Make your pages available for printing or downloading as PDF
• Add a site map
• Hide specific from displaying on areas of your site (e.g. site maps, feeds, etc.)
• Protect page content sections
• Migrate data from non-WP applications
• Perform bulk content edits
• Fight SPAM
• Customize guest commenting (e.g. display Facebook comments)
• Insert HTML and code elements into your posts, pages and sidebar menus
• Add tables
• Add animated graphics and advanced font display formatting options
• Create and manage QR codes
• Improve Google local search
• Add location maps
• Syndicate your content automatically on social pages like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, StumbleUpon and many others
• Display countdown timers (for special offers, discount coupons, etc …)
• Display personalized greetings, timed offers, etc …
• And so many other features!

As it’s clear to see, WP plugins give you virtually endless 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.

If you’re still wondering about the power and flexibility of using plugins, let’s take a look at some practical uses of installing a plugin on your site.

For example, if you want to publish private content, you can install plugins to make just a couple of paragraphs on a post inaccessible, or transform your WordPress site into a professional paid membership site with personal login details for users …

As mentioned previously, you can use free plugins to enhance your web site in so many different ways. From installing features that will improve your business, your website visitors’ experience and your understanding of what is happening on your site …

To increasing your business reach and visibility across a number of social networks and search engines …

You can also add sophisticated functionality to your website using relatively inexpensive paid WP plugins. For example, you can buy plugins that automate functionality on your pages like user testimonial and event registrations management …

And even set up a custom-branded bookings and reservations system on your site … all for a tiny fraction of the cost of paying web developers to design similar functionality for you …

Additionally, you can take advantage of built-in WordPress commenting features and plugins that can make your site even more interactive …

For example, your visitors can:

• Leave comments on your blog posts (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, giving your site added exposure).
• Share your content with other online visitors on bookmarking sites.
• Contact you using contact forms
• Engage online with other customers via online forums or even set up a private online community on your own site.
• Engage with members of your team via live chats
• Call your business from their devices while visiting your pages
• Get help and support via a user help desk
• And so much more …

You can even integrate complex “back end” solutions with a WP “front end”. This enables you to control your business sales and marketing, while your third-party application handles the technical side of things …

Additional Information About WP Plugins

• There are so many plugins to choose from. Be careful not to overload your site with too many plugins, as this can invariably affect your website’s resources and page loading speed. It also means more maintenance issues for you as a consequence of possible conflicts and errors.
• Only keep those plugins that you really need. Delete any plugins you don’t use from your site, as these also use server resources.
• Many free plugins normally come with very little to no support from the plugin developer. When choosing premium plugins, ensure that 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 some of the plugin reviews we publish on this site for more useful information.
• If you see that a plugin has not been updated for a very long time (e.g. two or more years), then think twice before installing it on your website. The WordPress platform is updated on a regular basis and older plugins that have not been updated can create problems.
• Always keep all plugins up-to-date. Older plugins not only can cause problems, they may also contain vulnerabilities that could be exploited by hackers and malware.

As you can see, WP plugins are an important part of WordPress and contribute to making it the most used content management system available. Plugins also provide WordPress users with an easy, simple and inexpensive way to add instant features to their website without spending thousands of dollars on outsourced web development.

One last thing regarding WordPress plugins:

If there is any feature or functionality you want for your website, you can be sure that a plugin probably exists that will do what you need, and that it will either be available at no cost, or if it’s a premium plugin, that the cost will be quite affordable.

(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 coded for you for a very reasonable price.

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

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