What is a WordPress Plugin
WordPress plugins are third-party extensions that can add to or modify the functionality of a WordPress website, boosting its capabilities.
Many WordPress sites use these customizations to meet their specific needs with plugins designed for various aspects like speeding up page loading time and security.
WordPress is the number one blogging, website maintenance, and content management system in use today.
The WordPress plugin ecosystem is vast; there are a virtually endless number of plugins to choose from, but not all of them are created equally. Some plugins are poorly coded, while others may cause problems with your site’s overall performance or security.
We have a dedicated article that will take you through some of the best-known and latest WordPress plugins on the market, so you don’t have to waste time testing out random ones.
As an administrator, you can install and uninstall plugins in the WordPress admin area. There are both free and paid plugins available, but due to the nature of free plugins, there is often no support and they may not be as good quality as the paid ones. The best plugins are those that are up-to-date with the newest version of WordPress. Plugin ratings should also be considered as some may have a high rating while others may have a low rating.
The plugin search criteria you follow depend on what you are looking for. Suppose you want a plugin that can display a social media feed or site-specific content. In that case, the search should be based on Social Media Feeds, Content Display, and Site-Specific Content, respectively.
A quick Google search will give you hundreds of options to choose from! The top results provide links to their WordPress Plugin Directory listing as well as other information about the plugins such as ratings, when they were last updated, and data about its developer.
WordPress plugins do not necessarily slow a site down.
WordPress plugins are a breeze to install: just upload, activate, and they’re ready to go. It’s important to understand that any good plugin developer knows how to make their code perform well in order to decrease the load on your server.
In summary
Plugins are pieces of software that can be added to a WordPress website to increase its functionality or add new features. There are actually thousands of plugins out there, but not all of them are created equally.
Some plugins are poorly coded, while others may cause problems with your site’s overall performance or security. As an administrator, you can install and uninstall plugins in the WordPress admin area.
The vast majority of plugins are free and come with no tech support so take extra care when assessing their quality.
