In our previous four articles we showed you how to registering your domain name (Step #1), set up your domain hosting (Step #2), install WordPress (Step #3) and introduced theme (Step #4). In this week’s article we’ll have a look at Plugins that allow you to extend WordPress to do almost anything you can imagine.
Introduction
Some people criticise WordPress saying that it lacks functionality that should be core to the project / platform. Plugins allow users to extend the core functionality and there is a massive collection of Plugins available (11,974 at the time of writing this article). WordPress is a well supported open-source project and as such new Plugins are being created every day.
You’ll find this approach used with a lot of open source projects including Mozilla’s FireFox – called Addons – that allow users to customise their software to meet their specific requirements and it is one of the things I love about open source software projects.
Installing Plugins
So lets get started and have a look at how you find and install new Plugins for your site. The dashboard menu (shown on the right hand side) includes and expandable menu for Plugins and will include more / less options depending on which Plugins you have already installed.
To find / add new Plugins click on the “Add New” option where you find you can search for Plugins either by functionality or by name. You find a useful tag cloud that highlights the most popular Plugins. I am going to search for “All in One SEO Pack” that allows you to Optimises your site for the Search Engines; often referred to as Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
The search results will give you a rating – which is voted for by other WordPress users – and brief description of for each one. You can either view more information about it (click details) or install it right away (click install now).
Before being able to install a Plugin you will need to provide your connection information – which you should have already if you completed step #3.
Once installed you may be required to configure the new functionality, but this will vary from Plugin to Plugin and there are normally instructions that are easy to follow.
If you are installing the “All in One SEO Pack” you will need to go to the Settings and the select the option All in One SEO and configure it accordingly.
Essential Plugins
Obviously you will want to have a look around and choose the most relevant Plugins for your site, but here is a list of essential Plugins you should use: -
- AddThis Social Bookmarking Widget - help your visitor promote your site! The AddThis Social Bookmarking Widget allows any visitor to bookmark your site easily with many popular services.
- All in One SEO Pack – out-of-the-box SEO for your blog.
- Google Analyticator – adds the necessary JavaScript code to enable Google’s Analytics.
- Google XML Sitemaps – generates a special XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask.com to better index your blog.
- SI CAPTCHA Anti-Spam – adds CAPTCHA anti-spam methods to WordPress on the comment form, registration form, login, or all and prevents spam from automated bots.
- WordPress Firewall – blocks suspicious-looking requests to WordPress.
Feel free to suggest others that you think are “must haves” as I am sure others will appreciate your comments.
Step #6 – House keeping
In next weeks post we’ll have a look at general house keeping issues – updates and security – and how to make sure your site gets listed on the search engines.
Resources
Plugin Directory
5 Essential WordPress Plugins for Small Businesses
10 Essential WordPress Plugins For New WordPress Installation
17 Really Useful WordPress Plugins That Probably Are Essential
Tags: plugins, web site design, wordpress
[...] themes (Step #4) and showed you how to extend the basic functionality of WordPress using plugins (Step #5). In this week’s article we’ll pull everything together showing you how you can turn [...]