How to Find Out What Are Plugins in WordPress Website?

WordPress is one of the most popular Content Management Systems around, with over 70 million downloads. It is extremely popular with bloggers, but even power users utilize the plugins developed for WordPress.

You can’t have a WordPress website without having plugins installed on it, as the platform is powered by them. The problem is that not all plugins are created equal, and it’s quite easy to install a plugin that does more harm than good. It’s important to understand how to find out what are the good plugins for WordPress, and this article will help you get started.

What Are Plugins?

Plugins in WordPress are small pieces of software that extend the functionality of your web hosting account. They can do things like manage images for you or offer e-commerce functions. When a visitor or subscriber clicks the download button or uses the Get button on your WordPress website, they are downloading a plugin from the WordPress plugin repository that will work with your installed WordPress plugins.

WordPress plugins are categorized into three distinct groups – functionality, appearance, and security – based on the type of functionality they offer. Here’s a quick overview of each group:

  • Functionality: These plugins offer functionality that is directly connected to a user’s interaction with your site, like e-commerce, membership, or social media login. You’ll need to evaluate whether or not these plugins are right for your site.
  • Appearance: These plugins are responsible for altering the way your site looks, from the colors and styles used to the overall layout. When choosing an appearance plugin, make sure to also consider whether or not you want a mobile-friendly design.
  • Security: These plugins control the way your site handles security. Do you want to prevent logged in users from accessing certain parts of your site? If so, then you’ll need a security plugin.

What Types of Plugins Should I Avoid?

While there’s nothing wrong with WordPress plugins per se, there are certain types of plugins that you should avoid. Here’s a short list:

  • Malware and Spyware: Malware and spyware are two other names for software that can be used to automatically track your online activities or collect private data about you. As the names suggest, malware is malware that can damage your PC, and spyware is malware that can be used to track your online activities.
  • CRM & E-commerce: This combination of keywords searches for a type of plugin that aids businesses in managing customer relationships and performing e-commerce transactions. While you can use these plugins on a personal blog, you should avoid them on a professional website as they could be used to track your activity across all platforms.
  • WordPress Database Cleanser: The purpose of this plugin is to cleanse your WordPress database of obsolete entries and unused terms. While this is a useful plugin for reclaiming storage space on your site, you should not use it if you’re concerned about the stability of your site.
  • Password Reset: We all forget our passwords at one point or another. Luckily, there’s a quick and easy way to restore them. But if you’re constantly forgetting your WordPress password, then this plugin could be troublesome. Restoring your passwords is a tedious process that some people avoid altogether.
  • Page Rewrite: The purpose of this plugin is to let you easily change the content on a specific page or post without having to touch a single line of code. Although this can be useful on a personal blog, you should avoid using it on a professional website as it can lead to unexpected results.
  • Duplicate Content Finder: This plugin will scan your entire site for duplicate content and then notify you when there’s a blog article, gallery, or podcast that is a duplicate of one you’ve already published. While it’s easy to follow WordPress best practices and remove duplicate content as you go along, sometimes you don’t know what’s been copied over from another site. This plugin can help you identify duplicate content and remove the burden from your shoulders.
  • SEO Packages: These plugins are designed to help you “game the system” and get your site “optimized” for search engine traffic. While it’s true that the better your content is the more you will drive traffic to your site, you should avoid these plugins as they can seriously damage your site’s SEO.

Once you have a clear idea of what types of plugins you need and which ones you should avoid, you can start looking for the right plugins for your needs.

How Do I Install Plugins On WordPress Website?

Now that you know what types of plugins you should avoid, let’s take a quick look at how to install plugins on a WordPress website. The process is quite simple, but you should follow this step-by-step guide to ensure you don’t end up creating unnecessary problems for yourself.

First, you’ll need to visit the WordPress Plugin Directory and choose a plugin that suits your needs. You can search for plugins using the Get Started button at the top of the page, or you can browse the plugin categories or read the reviews for suggestions.

Once you’ve chosen a suitable plugin, click the Install button to download and install it. When you click the Install button, you’ll be presented with a dialog box that asks you to verify the download. Once you’ve verified the download, click the Activate button in the dialog box to activate the plugin.

Now that the plugin is activated, go back to your WordPress Dashboard and click the Plugins button in the top right corner to view installed plugins. You can click the individual plugins to see more information, including the reviews.

If you’re looking for a specific feature in a plugin, click the Plugin Options button when viewing a plugin’s information page. This will bring up a dialog box that contains a list of all the features that plugin can offer. From here you can change settings or activate new features as required.

How Do I Use Plugins On WordPress Websites?

Once you’ve installed plugins on your WordPress website, how do you use them? You really just need to activate them and then click on the features that you need. You don’t need to do anything else as the plugin will take care of the rest.

If you’re looking for a way to manage images on your site, then the one above the fold is a good place to start. From here you can choose an image from your computer’s hard drive or a URL to an image hosted by a third-party (like Flickr, Twitter, or Instagram).

For a more advanced user, the Appearance Settings tab in the WordPress dashboard is a good place to make changes to the look and feel of your site. Here you can change the colors used on your site and alter the settings for different types of content (like posts, pages, or comments).

The last tab in the WordPress dashboard – Sources – is where you can manage the plugins that were installed on your site. Here you can see a list of all the plugins and their status (like Enabled or Disabled). If you click on the name of a plugin, you’ll be presented with a screen that contains more information about that plugin, including its rating. You can click on the star (or the little check mark) next to the rating to determine whether or not you want to enable a specific plugin on your site.

As you can see from the above screen shot, the Better WordPress Merge plugin offers a number of features that can help you keep your WordPress database in sync across all platforms. With hundreds of thousands of sites utilizing the WordPress platform, this plugin can be quite useful. But if you’re not comfortable using any automated tool, then you can also perform the database migration yourself by following the instructions in the documentation.

As you can see above, the SEO Settings tab in the WordPress dashboard offers several options that can help you “game the system” and get your site “optimized” for search engine traffic. The SEO Status indicator at the top right of the tab shows you the current status of your site’s SEO settings. This is also where you can access the Google Search Console (formerly known as Google Search Appliance) if you’re not familiar with it. It’s a free tool that can be accessed from any web browser and allows you to monitor and track the performance of your site in real-time.