How to Install and Use WordPress Plugins For Beginners

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This post is sponsored by Automattic. While this content is part of a paid partnership, the perspective and experience shared are true, completely my own, and based on my real use of WordPress.com plugins.

If you’ve ever opened your laptop to work on your WordPress.com site, you are not limited to the basic functions that come with your theme or site design. There are thousands of customization tools, or extensions to your software, called plugins, that can add to the navigation and functionality of your site. But if you’ve ever felt overwhelmed at browsing, choosing, installing and activating plugins, you are definitely not the only one. In this blog post I will walk you through how to choose the right plugins for your WordPress.com site and how to install and activate your new plugins as a beginner blogger.

In this post…

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What Is A Plugin?

A plugin is an extension or add-on to your WordPress.com site‘s code that has literally limitless capabilities. You can automatically share to social media, build an online store, automatically put author boxes and affiliate markers on your posts, build your email list through opt-in forms and pop-ups, and more. It’s totally up to you and your goals for your site whether your want to grow, optimize, share, or monetize (or all of the above).

WordPress.com recently made a big change: All paid plans now support plugins and themes. This means: no upgrades needed, no coding required, and access to 50,000+ plugins. For the first time, moms like us can build real systems without being overwhelmed by site design.

How To Choose The Right Plugin For Your WordPress Site

The first thing you should do to try and find the right plugins that work for you is to take some time to identify your goals and your workflow gaps or difficulties.

• Ask yourself if a plugin will fill a hole in your workflow, speed up a slow process, or provide a feature you cannot create otherwise.
• Define your goals for your site: monetization, building an email list, directing to your shop, providing information through interactive articles, etc.
• Do some research on plugins that catch your eye: read the developer’s description on the directory or search online articles and forums. Also look at reviews and number of downloads. It’s safe to say a plugin with a high amount of users and a high user rating will probably be safe and work for you if the functionalities meet your needs.

There’s A Site That Uses A Plugin I Like, How Can I Find Out What It Is?

So you’re browsing a popular blog and see something you like. Rather than emailing directly and asking what they use (weird? I dunno…), you can try to scan for the data yourself. This can be done three ways:

1. Inspect the element on the blog by right clicking, and usually there will be some code that can give an idea.
2. Right click on the web page and select “View page source”. Search “/wp-content/plugins/” in the source code.
3. Copy the URL and paste it into WordPress Detector (wp-detector.com) to detect if the website uses WordPress and if it is using themes and plugins. I tried this using my own URL and it was accurate! It only listed a handful, but it could still give you an idea.

How To Install A Plugin in WordPress (Step By Step)

Once you figure out which plugins work the best for you, installing them and activating them is pretty simple.

1. Open your Dashboard and look down the left hand column until you see Plugins. Click on that. It will then bring you to the plugin directory where you can search and browse from over 50,000 plugins.
2. Look for the Add New button and click.
3. You can search for a new plugin based on keywords or the name of the one you have in mind, and from there you can click “Install” and “Activate” if you want to start using it right away.

That’s it! I would recommend only installing and activating plugins one at a time to see how they affect your site and to make sure they are compatible with the rest of the plugins.

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Start With 3 “Support Plugins”

There are some plugins I would recommend any blogger to start with right away.

1. SEO Plugins – Help you write with SEO so your posts are found on search engines
2. Analytics Plugins – Help you see your traffic and most popular posts and visitor data so you know what’s working and who your audience is
3. Optimization Plugins – Help the performance of your site (no one stays on a slow site)
4. Affiliate Plugins – Help disclose affiliate links (mandatory if you share them)

To see more plugins you might need, read this blog post here: The Best WordPress Plugins for Mom Bloggers and Creators

Turning Plugins Into Systems

Every home needs a system, and your site is like a home. If you have multiple goals, you need systems. To find out how to do this, read these popular blog posts here:

• 3 Easy But Powerful Ways To Customize Your WordPress Blog
• 5 Simple Steps to Update Your WordPress Site (Without Overwhelm)
• Top 5 Ways WordPress Prevents New Blogger Burnout (Great for Moms!)

I Installed Some Plugins And Now My Site Is Broken

Okay, you got a little eager and redesigned your site with some awesome plugins… but now your site doesn’t work. It doesn’t load, it throws out raw code instead of the beautiful site design, it simply doesn’t work, or your site is down entirely. This can be very stressful, and I’ve been there.

The solution is to go through your plugins and deactivate them one by one to find out which one is causing the trouble. Start with the most recent and go down the list, deactivating one by one and inspecting your site after each. If this doesn’t work, it may be multiple plugins, and in this case try deactivating all the new ones and then reactivating one by one (your settings should be saved, so don’t worry).

How To Deactivate Or Uninstall Plugins in WordPress

As you work on your WordPress.com site over time, you may realize some plugins aren’t the right fit, or maybe they have become outdated and cause issues for your site, or maybe you simply just don’t want to use them anymore (or they are causing issues like described above). Deactivating or uninstalling unused plugins will prevent your site from becoming slow and cluttered.

If a plugin is outdated and is causing issues for your site, you may have to update it or deactivate it and reactivate it again. This can be done from your dashboard under Plugins (scroll down the left hand side again). There you will see your installed plugins. You can click update, deactivate, or uninstall.

If the problem is being outdated, I would recommend turning on automatic updates to keep your site running smoothly.

If it is a paid plugin and you’ve decided to deactivate it, just remember to change your plan or billing information through your account with the plugin’s developer so you don’t keep paying your subscription.

To deactivate or uninstall plugins, simply go to your plugin dashboard again and click either deactivate or uninstall. Deactivating will leave it available for later and save your data, while uninstalling will require you to re-install it and set it up again should you choose to use it again.

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The Benefits Of Using Plugins As A Beginner Blogger

WordPress.com‘s directory of over 50,000 plugins have the potential to turn your site into everything you dreamed it could be. Plugins change the entire functionality of your site and are essential to your goals. But they don’t have to be overwhelming!

1. Define your goals
2. Start with one at a time

It’s as simple as that.

Do you have a favourite plugin? Let me know in the comments why you love it and what you use it for!