WordPress plugins greatly increase the power of WordPress and they are the main reason that WordPress has become so popular.
A fresh WordPress Install
- Doesn’t support Polls
- Doesn’t have a contact forms
- Isn’t search engine friendly
- Doesn’t support e-commerce
- Doesn’t do a lot of things
But there are plugins available that do, and with a few simple mouse clicks you can add a contact form to your site, turn a simple website into an e-commerce platform, and much more.
Installing Plugins
WordPress plugins are now very easy to install just go to the plugins page and click the add plugin tab.
Clicking add new takes you to the install plugin page where you can search for a plugin.
If you are just browsing then a good place to start is the popular plugins page.
To install just click the install now link and the plugin will be installed. There is no longer any need to ftp files to your web server. Updates are just as easy.
Many plugins will add new tabs to the WordPress admin control panel so that you can configure them.
Compatibility on Upgrades
WordPress is updated quite frequently and it is important that when you update that you make sure that your plugins are supported by the new version.
For this reason I tend to wait a few months after a new WordPress upgrade to let the plugin developers update their plugins.
Recommended Plugins – All Installations
