WordPress Features Explained – WordPress Plugins

WordPress Plugins – Adding New Functionality To Your Website

WordPress is a powerful blogging platform because of its ability to add new applications that will enhance the performance of your website.

In WordPress, these applications are called “plugins“.

Watch the video below that shows you how to install plugins.

Typically, adding a new feature to your website or enhancing its functionality involves additional cost. Depending on the complexity of the feature or enhancement, this cost can be significant, especially if web developers have to create new code or modify programs or scripts to integrate with your existing site.

When setting up a website, businesses will often either spend money upfront buying features that they may or may not need, or pay extra later for new features, enhancements, and/or customizations.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could:

1) Get your web presence up and running quickly with a simple, easy-to-manage and professional-looking website that communicates exactly what your business is about, and then …

2) As the need arises, easily add new software modules with the click of a mouse button that would integrate seamlessly with your existing website and give your site a whole new range of capabilities and functionality, and also …

3) Cost not a single cent extra to download and install on your site?

Well, that’s exactly what plugins allow you to do!

If you own a smartphone, then most likely you are familiar with the concept of the “app”. Apps is like a software program that can be instantly downloaded and installed on your phone to give your phone added functionality. Some apps are free to download, and some apps cost a little money.

plugins are similar to phone apps.

Because WordPress distributes its application as Open Source software and makes its code publicly available, anyone can create, modify and customize any portion of the code to enhance and contribute to the core software application. This has allowed many third-party software developers to create more applications that seamlessly “plug into” the WordPress platform than you can imagine.

Plugins – Benefits And Advantages

Plugins let you start off with a basic, simple website and then add new features and enhancements to your site only when required.
Plugins allow you to add almost unlimited functionality to your website easily and inexpensively.
Plugins allow non-technical users to have a website that they can fully manage themselves. Most plugins typically work “out of the box” and only require installation and activation to give your site new capabilities, enhancements and functionality. Some plugins are a little more complex and require some initial configuration.

Plugins – Powerful, Flexible … And Often 100% FREE!

Just like themes, thousands of plugins are made available for WordPress users and many of these great plugins are 100% FREE!

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

As mentioned earlier, you can find plugins that will do just about anything you can imagine.

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

Contact forms
Polls and quizzes
Surveys
Rotating banners (promote different products or advertising on your site)
E-commerce (from single ordering with PayPal buttons, to full scale e-commerce with shopping carts, invoicing, etc …)
Social media integration
Creating a full scale membership sites
Newsletter subscription forms
Mobile integration
Improve your site’s SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Image galleries (with rotating images, light boxes, etc.)
Customer testimonials
Instant language translation instantly change your site’s content from English to German)
Statistical report
Custom navigation
Customer interactivity
Media integration
Faster page loading
Event management
Business directories
Automatically sell advertising on your site
Set client appointments and reminders
Help customers make reservations and bookings
Detect broken hyperlinks on your pages and send you a report
Redirect visitors from certain pages to other pages or other websites
Monitor what other sites are posting about your business
Make your page printable or downloadable as a PDF file
Exclude pages from showing on your site
Protect / hide content on your pages
Migrate / Import data from different publishing platforms
Search and replace data
Prevent SPAM
Custom visitor commenting (display Facebook comments)
Insert code and elements into your pages
Add code to your site’s header or footer
Add tables
Add graphic elements
Provide advanced text formatting options
Add/Create QR codes
Improve your local search listings on Google
Add a map of your business location
Post your content automatically on sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others
Show countdown timers (for expiring special offers, coupons, etc …)
Add coupons and special offers
Display personal (and personalized) greetings
And hundreds of other features!

As you can see, the possibilities of what you can do with a WordPress site are just about endless when you add plugins.

If you need to protect your content, you can use plugins to make just a couple of paragraphs on your page inaccessible, or transform your WordPress site into a full membership site with separate login details for every member …

You can use free plugins to enhance your site in so many ways. From adding new features that will improve the “user experience” of your site …

To extend your site’s reach across social media networks and search engines …

You can also add complex functionality to your site using inexpensive Premium (i.e. paid) plugins. For example, you can purchase plugins that automate the process of managing customer testimonials and booking events on your site …

And even run a complete bookings and reservation system on your site, all for a tiny fraction of the cost of hiring programmers to create these applications for you …

You can take advantage of the WordPress built-in commenting features and add plugins that will make your site even more interactive and allow you to better engage with your visitors, customers and registered users / members. …

For example, visitors on your site can:

Leave comments on your site (which can turn into online discussions) using WordPress built-in comments, or Facebook comments (which get shared throughout the visitor’s Facebook pages giving your site additional exposure).
Share and bookmark your content with other online users on all major social networking and social bookmarking sites.
Contact you via contact forms
Engage in online discussions with you and other customers / members of your site through forums
Engage via live chats (text and video/audio)
Call your business directly from a mobile phone while visiting your site
Open support tickets via a customer support helpdesk
And so much more …

You can even integrate complex “Back End” third party applications and solutions with a WordPress “Front End” site. This allows you to manage the marketing content that your visitors see on your site, while your third-party applications handle the “business” end without visitors leaving your site …

Plugins – Some Useful Tips

There are many WordPress plugins to choose from. Be careful of overloading your site with too many plugins, as this can start to affect your site’s performance and loading times. It also means more maintenance and more possibilities of conflicts and errors arising.
Only keep the plugins you really need and use. Delete any plugins you don’t need from your site.
Free plugins often come with little to no support from the plugin developer. Even when choosing paid plugins, check around to see what kind of reputation the developer has when it comes to offering support, upgrades, etc.
If you see that a plugin has not been updated for a very long time (e.g. two years), then think twice before downloading it or continuing to use it.
Always keep your plugins up-to-date. Outdated plugins can cause errors and may have vulnerabilities that could be exploited by malicious users.

As you can see, WordPress plugins are an important feature of WordPress.

Hopefully this information has given you a better understanding of plugins what they are and how they can significantly enhance the functionality of your WordPress site or blog.

We provide detailed step-by-step tutorials on how to use WordPress plugins and how to configure many of the most popular and useful WordPress plugins.

WordPress is huge and can sometimes be overwhelming about where to start. As you move on to the next Page, you will have a clearer picture of where to start and progress to building a professional WordPress Site.

Understanding the Benefits of WordPress Plugins

One of the main advantages of choosing WordPress is the ability to easily expand your WordPress site’s functionality using applications called plugins.

Do you use WordPress for business? Learn what plugins are and how you can use these to expand your site’s functionality.

Understanding the Benefits of WordPress Plugins

One of the main features of the WordPress software is that you can easily enhance your WP site’s functionality using applications called plugins.

About Plugins

Like most of us, you probably have a device like a mobile phone. What do you do when you would like to access something new on your device like a new game or business productivity tool?

You download and install an app!

An app is a piece of software that is really simple and easy to install and integrates new features and functionality into any mobile device.

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

A plugin is very much like an app. You install a software that adds new functionality to your website or blog…

(… There are also social sharing plugins for WordPress sites!)

Typically, adding a new feature to an already-built site involves additional cost. Depending on the complexity of the new features or enhancement, things can become fairly expensive, particularly if website developers have to create new code or modify code or install scripts that integrate into your current site.

This also applies to creating a new website. Companies often spend up front on bells and whistles they may simply not need.

As part of sound strategic business planning, we recommend a modular approach when growing a website and WP plugins are ideal for doing this.

Imagine being able to:

1) Start simply and inexpensively. Get a web presence up and running fast, then…

2) As new features are required, add new software modules with a few mouse clicks that integrate seamlessly with your existing website or blog, to give your web site an entirely new range of practical functionality, and…

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

Well, that’s precisely what WordPress plugins allow you to do!

Benefits Of Using WP Plugins

We started this article by comparing plugins with smartphone apps. In the same way that some apps are free to download and some may cost a little bit of money, so do WP plugins.

In fact, many plugins can be installed on your sites.

Plugins that cost money are called Premium plugins. The good news, is that when you compare this to the cost of hiring a professional web developer to add similar features and functionality on your site, most Premium (i.e. “Paid”) plugins cost very little.

Also, since WordPress is an Open Source application, any person can create, modify and customize any portion of the WP code. This has enabled thousands of professional web development companies to enhance the WP software.

WP plugins allow you to get started simply with a basic web site and then add new features and enhancements to your site only as necessary.
WP plugins let you add almost unlimited functionality to your website easily, quickly and cheaply.
WP plugins give you virtually unlimited expansion capabilities.
WP plugins allow anyone to have a website that they can manage themselves.
Most plugins will work “right out of the box” and only require installation and activation to give your web site instant new enhancements and features.
Some plugins can be slightly more advanced and could require some configuring.

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

Like WordPress themes, thousands of plugins are available to WordPress users… Often at no cost!

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

As previously mentioned, you will find WP plugins that can do just about anything you could possibly need a site to do.

WP plugin categories cover:

Web Site Administration
Content Management
Online Traffic Generation
User Engagement
Social Media
Media Utilities Automation
Improving Sales Conversions And Lead Generation
Data Monitoring & Reporting
Web Site SEO

You can expand a WP site with plugins such as:

Contact forms
Quizzes and polls
Social contests
Rotating advertising banners
E-commerce (from managing single-item sales with PayPal buttons, to enterprise scale e-commerce with online shopping carts, payment processing, recurring billing, discount codes, etc.…)
Social sharing buttons
Membership sites
Newsletter opt-in forms
Sales workflow
Mobile conversion
Improving your site’s SEO
Image galleries (with rotating images, lightboxes, etc.)
User feedback forms
Language translation (e.g. You can instantly change your website’s content from English to German)
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 blog
Set appointments and appointment reminders
Automate reservations and bookings
Detect broken hyperlinks and email you the reports
Redirect website pages
Monitor what other sites are posting about your business
Make pages available for your printing or downloading as PDF
Add a site map
Hide specific from displaying in areas of your site (e.g. Sitemaps, feeds, etc.)
Hide content on your pages and posts
Migrate content from non-WordPress applications
Search and replace content
Block SPAM commenting
Customize guest comment displays (e.g. Displaying Facebook posts)
Inserting HTML and script elements into your posts, pages and sidebar menus
Add formatted tables
Add animated graphics and advanced content formatting options
Add and manage QR codes
Improve your local search listings on Google
Add location maps
Post your posts automatically on sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest and many others
Display countdown timers (for expiring offers, discount coupons, etc….)
Display personal greetings, timed offers, etc….
And so much more!

As it’s clear to see, plugins give you practically endless possibilities. If you are currently planning to build a website for your business, or your existing site was not built with WordPress, then consider getting one built on your domain, or you could be missing out on some serious features.

In case you’re still wondering just how powerful and flexible plugins are, let’s take a look at how you can benefit instantly by installing a plugin on your website.

For example, if you need to publish content which is only accessible to some users, you can use plugins to make an area of a post inaccessible, or create a full membership site with separate login details for users…

As mentioned before, free plugins can be used to enhance your web presence in lots of ways. From installing features that will enhance your business, your visitors’ experience and your ability to review visitor metrics …

To increase your business visibility across social media and search engines…

You can also add complex features to your site using relatively inexpensive paid WordPress plugins. For example, you can download plugins that integrate and automate tasks on your site like a customer testimonial and event bookings management…

And even set up a complete bookings and reservations system online… All for a small fraction of the cost of paying web developers to create custom functionality for you…

Additionally, you can take advantage of native WP commenting features and plugins that can make your site even more interactive…

For example, your web visitors can easily:

Leave comments on your site (which can turn into online discussions) using either the built-in WordPress commenting feature, or integrated Facebook comments (which are then displayed throughout the visitors’ Facebook pages, providing you with added exposure).
Bookmark your posts on various social sites.
Contact you using contact forms
Engage in online discussions with your team members through online forums or even set up a private social network on your own site.
Engage with members of your team via live webcam conferencing and chat room facilities
Call your business from their mobile phones while browsing your pages
Open a support ticket
And so much more…

You can also integrate sophisticated enterprise applications with a WP “front end”. This lets you control the content that your visitors will see on your site, while your 3rd-party application handles the technical aspects…

Some Useful Things You Should Know About Plugins

There are many plugins to choose from. Be careful of overloading your site with an excessive amount of plugins, as this will inevitably start to affect your website’s resources and site loading times. It can also create more maintenance issues for you as a result of potential conflicts.
Install only those plugins you really need to use. Delete all deactivated plugins from your site, as these use server resources.
Many free plugins normally come with little to no support from the plugin developer. When choosing premium plugins, we recommend that you do a little research first to see what kind of reputation the plugin developer has when it comes to providing support, updates, new improvements, etc. Be sure to check the plugin reviews we publish here for additional information.
If you see that an unsupported plugin has not been updated for a very long time (e.g. Two years), then think twice before using it on your site. WordPress is updated often and older plugins can create issues.
Ensure to always maintain your plugins updated. Older plugins not only can create errors, they could also have security vulnerabilities that could be exploited by hackers and malware.

As you can see, plugins are an important feature of WordPress and contribute to making it the most popular content management system available. Plugins also provide WordPress users with easy, simple and inexpensive ways to add instant functionality to their website without having to spend thousands of dollars on outsourced web developers.

One last thing on the topic of plugins:

If there is any feature you want for your website, you can be sure that a someone has probably already created one that will do exactly 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 cost will be quite reasonable.

And, if by chance such a WordPress plugin is not available, then one can probably be created for your business for a very reasonable price.

Hopefully this post has given you a better understanding of plugins – what they are and how they can enhance the functionality of your web site. See our published posts to learn more about using WordPress plugins.

Want more help with WordPress? Please tell us what you think below and feel free to share this article with your friends.

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Disclaimer: This site is not associated with WordPress or any of the WP products reviewed on this site. We may derive a financial benefit from sales of products advertised, reviewed or linked to from this site. The product images and information on this page have been supplied from the plugin’s own website and sites that provide Premium WordPress Services

WordPress Plugin Detector Tutorial for Utmost Performance

WordPress Plugin Detector Tutorial

How To Use WordPress: How To Automatically Upgrade And Delete a Plugin From Your Dashboard. This WordPress Plugin Tutorial explains how to automatically upgrade and delete them safely from the WordPress admin dashboard without coding knowledge necessary.

In a previous article, we explain what a plugin is and how you can use them to enhance your blog’s functionality.

WordPress Plugin Detector Tutorial

In this tutorial you will learn why plugins need to be kept up-to-date, how to easily upgrade and delete a them, and discover the management tools if you plan to own or manage multiple WordPress sites or blogs.

Why Many WordPress Plugin Needs Upgrading

The WordPress software is regularly updated (about every three to four months) to fix bugs and address security issues and vulnerabilities discovered in earlier software releases, and to improve existing features.

Depending on how many plugins you have installed on your site, you can expect to see at least some new updates for WordPress plugins tutorial every.

WordPress Plugin Detector Tutorial

The reason for this, is because most WordPress plugins are created by third-party developers, so sometimes code or features in the newly-released WordPress version conflict with plugins that were developed for a previous version. When this happens, conflicts can sometimes develop.

Fortunately, most WordPress developers (and the WordPress developer community itself) are fairly proactive when it comes to making sure that a plugin get updated when a new version of WordPress is released (if required). All you have to do on your end, is keep the plugin up-to-date, which, as you will soon discover, is really easy to do.

WordPress Plugin Detector Tutorial

Keeping your WordPress plugins regularly updated and removing old plugins you no longer use is an essential aspect of good WordPress management and helps to avoid any problems or errors.

The step-by-step tutorial below explains how to automatically update and delete plugins without touching web code.

How To Automatically Upgrade And Delete a Plugin – Step-By-Step WordPress Plugin Tutorial

WordPress uses a few methods to inform users when a plugin need to be updated.

For example, you can immediately see how many plugins are out-of-date as soon as you log into your WP Dashboard simply by looking at the “Plugin” menu.

In the example below, nine plugins have older versions that need to be updated …

You can also tell how many plugins need to be updated from your WP Admin Toolbar (as shown below, a number of plugins require updating) …

The Plugins screen (Plugins > Installed Plugins) also notifies you about a plugin that need updating …

WordPress Plugins Tutorial

As well as providing information about which a plugin due for an update, the Plugins section provides links to the plugin download pages and gives you the option to update the plugins instantly …

Let’s start by showing you how to update one plugin at a time.

WordPress Plugins Tutorial

How To Update WordPress Plugins Individually

Always make a full backup of your data and files before updating your website.

In your admin menu, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins …

You will be taken to the “Plugins” area. The list of plugins can run down your screen for some length, depending on how many plugins you have installed in your site …

(Plugins Page)

Useful Information: WordPress Plugins Tutorial

If you have too many plugins and would like to reduce the number of plugins displaying on your page, then click on the Screen Options tab at the top of your Plugins screen and type in a smaller number of items per page (all plugins show on the screen by default, i.e. “999”), then click the ‘Apply’ button …

Your Plugins area will now be made more manageable with a ‘numbered pages’ feature added. You can find an installed plugin by scrolling through the pages or using the “Search” field …

You will see the plugin information in different backgrounds depending on the status of your plugins (inactive vs. active and up-to-date vs. out-of-date) …

Plugins in need of updating show the following notification message: “There is a new version of [Plugin] available” …

WordPress Plugins Tutorial

Locate the plugin that needs updating and click on the update now link …

WordPress Plugins tutorial provides smooth & simpler plugin updates, so that the process of updating your plugins happens with just “one click” without leaving your Plugins screen …

Repeat the above process for any other plugins on your site that need to be updated, or see the section below if you have many plugins that are out-of-date and would like to upgrade them all in bulk.

WordPress Plugins Tutorial

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Now that you know how to update one WordPress plugin at a time, let’s show you how to upgrade many plugins simultaneously.

WordPress Plugins Tutorial: How To Bulk-Update Plugins

To upgrade multiple plugins in a single operation directly inside your dashboard, go to the “Plugins” page and click on the Update Available link on the menu at the top of the page …

Click on the check box in the Plugin column header to select all plugins at once, or select each plugin you want to upgrade by checking its box …

In the Bulk Actions pull-down menu above the list of plugins, choose Update …

And then click Apply …

The plugins you have selected will automatically begin updating …

Once all updates have completed, you can click on the Return to Plugins page link to go back to the Plugins area, or select another option from the sidebar menu …

Once your plugins are all up-to-date, any plugin alerts will disappear (i.e. the “at-a-glance” indicators and “There is a new version of XYZ plugin available” notices no longer display) …

You have updated all plugins on your site to their latest version!

(When your site uses the latest version of all plugins, the notification icons no longer show)

Now that you know how to automatically upgrade plugins, it’s time to learn how to remove plugins from your WordPress site.

WordPress Plugin Tutorial: Deleting Plugin.

It’s a good idea to uninstall plugins that are no longer needed or being used on your site. This reduces resources on your server and also help to eliminate causes of problems.

In this section, we show you how to safely uninstall unused plugins from your WordPress site.

We strongly recommend creating a full back up of your WordPress site before installing, upgrading or deleting plugins, in case something goes wrong and you need to recover data or restore your site.

To remove a plugin, go to your dashboard menu and select Plugins > Installed Plugins …

In the Plugins area, find the plugin you want to remove and make sure it is deactivated.

Hint: Inactive plugins appear in a different colored background than active plugins and show an “Activate” link below the plugin name …

If the plugin is active, then click on Deactivate before proceeding …

Click Delete …

If you need to have a look at all the files that will be deleted before taking the next step, then click on the “Click to view entire list of files which will be deleted” link in the “Delete Plugin” section …

A complete list of files belonging to the plugin selected for removal will display on your screen …

If you are certain that you would like to proceed and delete these plugin files, just click on the Yes, Delete these files button …

The selected plugins and related files will be deleted …

Deleting Multiple WP Plugins Simultaneously

You can bulk-delete all inactive plugins on your site, or select a combination of active and inactive plugins to be removed.

WordPress Plugins Tutorial

Note: To delete any plugins that are currently active, you must first deactivate them.

Go to the “Plugins” section and select all of the active plugins that you want to delete by either placing a tick next to their check box, or selecting the check box next to the Plugin column header to select all plugins (warning: this will deactivate all plugins) …

Once you have done this, choose Deactivate from the Bulk Actions drop down menu …

Click the Apply button …

Your selected plugins will be deactivated …

Once you have deactivated these plugins, click on the Inactive link on the menu at the top of the page …

Select all of the plugins you want to delete by either placing a tick next to their check box, or click on the check box next to the Plugin column header to select and delete all inactive plugins …

Once you have ticked all the check boxes next to the plugins that you want deleted, choose Delete from the Bulk Actions drop-down menu …

Click Apply …

A list of all selected plugins will be displayed in the Delete Plugins area. Click on “click to view entire list of files which will be deleted” to review all the plugin files that you are about to delete, or click on the Yes, Delete these files button if you are absolutely sure that you would like to go ahead and remove all of the selected plugins …

All plugins will be deleted and their associated files will be removed from your server …

WordPress Plugins Tutorial Management – Tools

As well as the methods shown above, you can install a number of tools to manage your plugins.

For example, Plugin Central helps you manage your plugins with options that let you install plugins directly, displays the status of plugins in need of update in your Dashboard and lets you update many plugins at once in one click …

To learn more about this plugin, go here: Plugin Central – WordPress Plugin

WordPress Plugins Tutorials Managing On Multiple Sites

Whenever plugin updates are released, the best practice is to upgrade that plugin right away.

What if you have multiple sites using the same plugin? Typically, you would have to login to every site and then update the plugin manually from that site’s own WP dashboard. With multiple sites, this process can take quite a while to complete!

WordPress Power User Tip: If you own or manage multiple WordPress sites or blogs, you can install, update or uninstall plugins on multiple sites automatically and simultaneously using various WordPress management tools.

Below are just some WordPress management tools that are worth knowing about:

Jetpack Plugin By WordPress.com

The Jetpack plugin is a multifunctional plugin for WordPress that offers users a powerful range of features, allowing self-hosted WordPress site users to benefit from WordPress.com’s infrastructure and take advantage of things like robust stats, easy social sharing, and a whole lot more.

(Jetpack lets you access a range of powerful WordPress.com features)

One of these features is “Jetpack Manage”.

Jetpack Manage allows you to manage your WordPress sites and plugins from a central interface.

With Manage, you can upgrade a plugin, set a plugin to update automatically, and activate or deactivate plugin on a per-site basis or all at once, whether youâ€™re on your laptop, tablet, or mobile phone.

To download the plugin, visit this site: Jetpack By WordPress.com

ManageWP – Manage All Your WordPress Plugins From One Dashboard

(ManageWP is a leading WordPress management tool for multiple WordPress sites)

ManageWP lets you manage all your WordPress sites from one place, including upgrades, backups, security and more. This tool features easy one-click management and instant login to your WP sites.

To learn more about the plugin, visit this site: ManageWP.com

WP Pipeline.com

(With WP Pipeline, you can update all of your WordPress sites, plugins and themes from one single dashboard)

WP Pipeline is very similar to ManageWP, but has a one-time purchase fee instead of monthly payments. It lets you control and organize your entire online WordPress presence and perform multiple updates from one central location.

Go here to download the plugin: WP Pipeline.com

Congratulations! Now you know how to update and delete plugins safely without editing web code.

WordPress Resources Guide

WordPress is constantly changing and evolving.

It’s an open source software which means themes, new plugins and tools are constantly being developed to enhance the productivity and benefit of the WordPress user community.

This section provides additional tips, reviews, and links to new tools and resources that will help you work better and achieve results faster using WordPress.

Note: We will be adding more content to this section on a regular basis.