WordPress Plugins: Add Functionality To Your WordPress Website

Posted by Madhavi on Oct 20, 2010 in WordPress 101 | 0 comments

A WordPress website installation, by itself, comes built-in with a lot of functionality. However, if one needs to add more functions, then one can easily install a Plugin. These Plugins literally ‘plug’ themselves into the website, and add their promised functionality into the website. For example, WordPress comes built-in with the capability to add Pages and Blog Posts. But you can add a plugin that will automatically Tweet when a new blog post or page has been added to your website.

Advantages of WordPress Plugins

There are several distinct advantages to installing Plugins to your WordPress Website. Lets have a look:

• Chiefly, a Plugin will give you a specific functionality that doesn’t come built-in within a vanilla WordPress Installation.
• A Plugin can give you more flexibility with the way your website is displayed, or the post contents are organized.
• A Plugin can connect your website with your other Social Media presences.
• A Plugin can help you improve your website’s performance.
• A Plugin can help you improve your website’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
• A Plugin can help you see your stats (like the number of hits to your site etc) right within your website’s back-end without having to visit that specific site all the time.

Thus, you can see, Plugins provide a variety of functions to your website – making things easier for you. And of course, adding more into the performance of your website.

Installing WordPress Plugins

So how do you go about adding and activating a Plugin?

Previously, one had to upload the plugin directory into the “wp-content/plugins” folder of the WordPress install. But with more improvements to WordPress, one can now do this process from within the Website’s back-end itself.

Typically, these Plugins are free, but you can also find a variety of paid Plugins available in the market. You can find a complete listing of the different plugins on WordPress’ site.

Lets have a look at the process of installing the Plugins from within your website.

1. After logging into your WordPress Website’s Dashboard, look under the drop-down for Plugins to see the ‘Add New’ link.

2. Click on that, to go to the Plugin Search Page. Once there, you can put in your search term and hit the ‘Search Plugins’ button.

3. Your search Result will reveal a number of Plugins that may match your criteria.

4. You can see more information about the Plugin by clicking on the ‘Details’ link. If the Plugin meets your requirement, click on the ‘Install Now’ button.

5. The Plugin gets automatically uploaded and then all you have to do is click on the ‘Activate Plugin’ link.

6. The Plugin gets activated, and you go back to your Plugins main page.

7. Then, if you need to configure the Plugin, you can find its link under the ‘Settings’ menu drop-down.

8. That’s it! Once you configure your plugin to your settings and requirements, you are good to go!

Resources

There are a number of Plugins you can research and install into your website for added functionality.

Here are some websites which give out a lot of information about WordPress Plugins:

• The Digital Fox: You can find a lot of interesting Videos on this website about a number of interesting WordPress Plugins.
• WP Apprentice: Another good source of information. The link here takes you to a nice video that talks about WordPress Plugins.
• WP Beginner: A wonderful resource for learning a wide variety of tips on tricks related to WordPress.

So, if you are using WordPress on your website, what are your favorite plugins? What are the ones which give you a bunch of functionality? Let me know in the comments below.

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