Lesson 6:

There's a Plugin for That

Chapter 1: Introduction

Welcome to Lesson 6! Today we'll be discussing plugins.

From the start, the people behind WordPress realized their software couldn't include every feature

its users wanted. So they decided to keep the platform simple, stable, and secure. Instead of

building extras into the core program, the developers designed WordPress to accommodate small

applications written in PHP that users could add to it. They called these features plugins and invited

the WP community to create and share them.

Today you'll find upwards of 50,000 WordPress plugins available, mostly free of charge. The plugin

system lets you equip your website with only the features you want. And because it's modular,

your site isn't burdened by a clunky, bloated platform to slow it down.

Here are just a few of the things you can do with plugins:

• Make WordPress run faster

• Add special security features

• Automatically back up the entire site

• Create and send your site map to Google and other search engines

• Simplify the WP administration area for employees or contributors

• Build any kind of form

• Create an online store

• Publicize your site in the social media

• Set up appointment and events calendars

If there's a need, chances are there's a plugin to fill that need.

In this lesson, you'll find out where to find WordPress plugins and how to install them.

And I'll introduce you to some of the best plugins by category.

I think you're going to be amazed by how these add-ons can make your site easier to configure and

provide your visitors with the best possible online experience.

Ready to get started? See you in Chapter 2!

Chapter 2: How to Find and Install Plugins

While you could do an online search to look for WordPress plugins, you can find more than 30,000

without even leaving your WP installation.

Start by going to the WordPress menu and clicking Plugins > Add New.

Search for plugins on this screen

The Add Plugins screen lets you search for the most popular plugins. Or, you can type a name or

function into the search box and get a categorized list.

A Note about Plugin Versions

You might notice that the plugin version numbers in the illustrations below are often different from

what shows in your WordPress installation.

Don't be concerned about this. Plugin and theme developers often make minor updates to their

work to eliminate bugs and to conform to the latest version of WordPress. When they make a

major change that could affect the way your existing plugin or theme operates, you'll see a number

next to the website title in the admin bar, at the top of the page.

The number 4 indicates how many plugins and themes need to be updated

When you click the number, WordPress takes you to a page where you can install the updates in

two mouse clicks.

Please keep an eye out for update notifications, and take care of them as soon as possible. This isn’t

always just a cosmetic upgrade. Just as with operating systems like Windows, some WordPress

updates involve fixing security issues.

You'll also occasionally see a warning that a "plugin has not been tested with your current version

of WordPress." If you do, check the date it was last updated. If nobody has tended to the plugin for

more than a year, it's a sign that either the plugin isn't well supported or that all the major bugs are

gone and it hasn't needed an update. The odds are that it will work fine, but it's up to you to check

by installing it and giving it a test drive.

Adding Plugins to Your Website

Let's try installing a plugin. One of the most important functions is backing up your website, so we’ll

start with a backup plugin. There are dozens of free backup plugins in the directory. You’ll see them

when you go to Plugins > Add New, and type backup in the search bar.

Updraft Plus

The first plugin on the list is called Updraft Plus: It has a five-star rating and more than one million

installations. Those are impressive numbers, but it’s a good idea to examine a plugin a little further,

so click the More Details link.

Updraft Plus message box

Like all the others in the WordPress plugin directory, this one has a tabbed message box that tells

you all about it. It includes a detailed description, data on the most recent update, compatibility

with WP versions, the number of installations, and a link to the plugin’s own Web page, which

usually contains plenty of additional info.

Look through the frequently asked questions, the screenshots, and the reviews. You’ll see that

Updraft Plus is a highly-regarded and well-designed plugin. So let’s go ahead and install it.

Just as with WP themes, there are two ways to install plugins—automatically, and via FTP. I'll

demonstrate the automatic method here, but if this doesn't work for any reason, check the

FAQs for this lesson where I’ve included instructions on using FTP to upload the plugin.

The WordPress installation couldn't be easier:

1. Click the Install Now button, and WordPress loads the plugin for you. After a few seconds

you’ll see an Activate button.

Click Activate, and WordPress will open its Installed Plugins page, where you can

reactivate, deactivate, and delete this or any previously installed plugins.

2. . Scroll down to find Updraft Plus.

3. Most plugins – including this one – require at least some configuration. Click Settings to

open the setup area.

Current Status screen in the Updraft Plus Settings area

4. If you want, you could back up your site simply by clicking the Backup Now button on the

main Current Status page. But Updraft Plus gives you more control in its Settings tab, so

click that now.

Now you can choose how often to automatically back up and how many backups to save.

You can tell Updraft Plus to back up to a remote storage site, like Dropbox, the Amazon

cloud, or Google Plus, if you have such an account. (If not, the plugin will by default save

the backup on your server’s website directory, in an updraft folder in the wp-content

directory.)

5. Next, you can select which files to back up and to ignore, including plugins, themes, and

uploads. If you want, Updraft Plus will even send you an email after each backup. When

you’ve finished, scroll down and click the Save Changes button.

6. Need to restore the backup? Just click the Restore button on the main screen.

There’s plenty more this plugin will do: Check the Updraft Plus FAQ for more information.

Congratulations! You've added and configured your first plugin.

Activating and Removing Plugins

Before we look at a sampling of plugins, we need to do some housekeeping. Let's get started!

1. Click the Plugins submenu.

List of installed plugins

There might be two or three remaining installed but inactive plugins: Akismet, Hello

Dolly, and—if you're using BlueHost—Mojo Marketplace. They're included in the

original installation script. Hello Dolly will reprint the lyrics from the Broadway musical

near the top of your administrative pages. I don't think so. Mojo Marketplace is tool

designed to sell you products. Probably not needed.

2. Click Delete to remove Hello Dolly and Mojo Marketplace.

Akismet, created by the company that developed WordPress, is far more useful. It's an

excellent spam filter that will block unwanted comments from being blasted into your blog

posts. You'll need a special code called an API to be able to use it. Until recently, Akismet

was free to everyone. Now there's a charge for using it on for-profit websites, but this

payment is made on the honor system. (You can get the API without paying: Follow all the

prompts, and when you’re asked how much you’re donating, at the end, select $0.00.)

3. Decide if you want to activate Akismet. You can get more information by clicking the

Sign up for an Akismet API key link in the plugin's description.

Now that you know where to find and how to install WordPress plugins, it's time to take a closer

look at what they can do.

Chapter 3: Plugins for Every Purpose

We're only going to skim the surface here—examining just a few of the most useful plugins out

there (remember, there are thousands!).

Let's look at the plugins in categories based on what they do for you. In most cases, these plugins

don't come with detailed instructions. So before you install any of them, please look over the

installation directions in the plugin description's Details tab.

To find out more—and to download—enter the plugin's name (exactly as I've spelled it) into the

search box on the Add Plugins page.

Jetpack

Jetpack is a master plugin, containing more than

three dozen features originally designed for

WordPress.com hosted websites. Depending on

when you established your WordPress account, it

may or may not have come with WordPress

itself. However, if you don’t already have it, you

can just go ahead and install Jetpack. It’s a single

plugin, but contains many useful utilities. You enable each of the features individually. Here

are some of its notable tools:

• Additional CSS: Like a child theme but easier to use. Additional CSS saves all the

changes you've made to the website's appearance.

• Monitor: Sends a message if your site goes down.

• Single Sign On: Lets users log in through their WordPress.com accounts.

• Widget Visibility: Allows you to choose the pages any widget will appear on.

• Carousel: Turns a standard image gallery into a full-screen slide show.

• Contact Form: Adds an easy-to-create contact form you can access from any backend

page or post.

• Publicize: Shares your posts on the social network websites.

• Mobile theme: Displays your site in a mobile-friendly format for tablets and phones.

If you've used WordPress.com, many of these features will be familiar. For a complete look at all

Jetpack offers, visit Jetpack Site. (https://jetpack.com/)

Installing Jetpack

Many hosting companies include Jetpack automatically with the WordPress installation. To see if

it’s installed on your site, go to the WordPress Dashboard and check the Menu (the black column

along the left margin). It should be near the top of the list. Probably right under Dashboard.

(If you don’t see Jetpack, click Plugins > Add New and install it just as you did the Updraft Plus

plugin in Chapter 3.)

Note that because Jetpack runs on the hosted WordPress platform, you must sign up with

WordPress.com to use it.

If you don’t already have a WordPress.com account, go to this link to enroll:

WordPress Sign Up Site

New WordPress.com subscribers should then go back to the main Jetpack screen in the admin area

and follow the instructions to connect to Jetpack.

Jetpack has a free version and two paid versions. Click Jetpack in the WordPress bar on the left.

Click Set Up Jetpack. This takes a little time for it to do its job. Then you see the Explore Our

Jetpack Plans screen.

To use the free version, click the Start with free button.

This opens a page titled Your Jetpack site is ready to go! (or another headline similar to that).

Important: Please click the Activate Recommended Features button. This will install most of the options

you'll want to use:

• Sharing: Adds Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ buttons below your posts.

• Carousel: Creates full-size galleries from your photos.

• Single Sign On: Using your WordPress.com account, log into all the sites where you've

installed Jetpack.

• Subscriptions: Allow your visitors to sign up for notifications.

• Contact Form: Adds a button that allows you to build simple forms on your pages and

posts.

• Related posts: Highlights similar articles at the bottom of each post.

• SEO Tools: Helps improve your site's search engine rankings.

You can deactivate any of these features individually if you wish.

Clicking the Activate Recommended Features button also adds some useful widgets for your

sidebar. You'll recognize them (they have Jetpack in parentheses) on the Appearance > Widgets

screen.

After enabling the features, you'll see a Site Stats screen (click OK Got It), with options to view

more detailed statistics.

Below that, in the Security section, click the Protect button to discourage hackers from trying to

sign in And if you wish, you can set up a monitor that will notify you any time your site goes down.

This screen also lets you know if any of your plugins require updates. And there are sections

confirming your connection to WordPress.com and your account name.

Troubleshooting the Jetpack Installation

In recent months, a few students in my classes have complained about problems installing Jetpack.

Like some other WordPress.com offerings, it can be erratic and sometimes confusing. Hopefully, the

following information will help you determine if you’ve installed Jetpack correctly.

Click Jetpack > Dashboard in the WordPress menu and scroll down the page, past the Site Stats.

You’re in good shape if you see this message in the Connections section:

If there’s a problem, click Manage site connection, and follow their instructions to fix things.

Jetpack has a list of all its features – with activate/deactivate buttons – hidden away. To see

whether a particular feature is running, scroll down to the bottom of the Dashboard page, and click

the Debug link (it’s tiny, but it’s there at the very bottom).

On the next page, click this link:

This will open a page displaying all the Jetpack modules. The active modules will have a vertical line on their left borders. To activate a plugin, put your cursor over it, and click Activate.

To turn off a feature, hover your cursor over it and click Deactivate.

Other Useful Plugins: Administration

Here are some other plugins to check out. These behind-the-scenes plugins are designed to help

protect and optimize your website:

• Maintenance Mode. This plugin lets your visitors know when your site is down for

maintenance. It keeps them out but allows access to logged-in administrators. It's

similar to the Under Construction plugin recommended in the Lesson 4 FAQs.

• WP-Optimize. Every time you revise a page or post, WordPress stores the older

versions. This can bloat your site's database and slow it down. WP-Optimize works like a

housekeeper for your data files, deleting stale articles, comments, and drafts on a

regular basis.

• Broken Link Checker. This scours your website looking for broken links, missing images,

and redirects. It checks pages, posts, comments and notifies you in the Dashboard or by

email.

• Shortcodes Ultimate. You can use this plugin to add more than 30 different features

with a short bracketed tag. The shortcodes will create buttons, boxes, sliders, tabs, and

much more, without the need to add any programming code. This is a popular feature

on premium themes, and this Shortcodes Ultimate plugin gives you the same options

for use on a free theme.

Forms

Your WordPress website becomes interactive when your visitors can communicate with you. These

form-builders make it easy to let users fill in information.

Jetpack’s Contact Form. (It’s activated automatically when Jetpack is installed. So you’ve got this one

already.)

Contact Form 7. This is the most popular of the contact form plugins. It lets you insert multiple

forms and employs the Captcha utility to help screen out spam mailings. (This isn’t part of Jetpack.

You have to go to Plugins > Add New, and type its name into the Search field, then Install it.)

Note: Plugins vs. Widgets: What's the Difference?

A plugin is a PHP-based application installed in WordPress. A widget is a plugin that's

designed to appear in your site's sidebar, the narrow column alongside the main

content or above the footer.

All widgets are plugins, but not all plugins are widgets. Many non-widget plugins are

designed to appear in pages or posts. Others work in the background, so visitors never

see them.

CMS

WordPress began as a blogging tool and remains committed to its millions of blogger users. But as

it's grown as a website content management platform, developers have created hundreds of

plugins to make WP look and act even more like CMS (content management system) software.

• CMS Tree Page View. This plugin gives you a bird's-eye view of your website's structure

and allows you to edit and move pages. It's helpful for sites with lots of content.

CMS Tree Page View Plugin

• White Label CMS. If you're a Web developer or designer, you can use this plugin to

control which WordPress features are available to clients. It also removes the

WordPress logos from the back end, so you can brand the administration area for

yourself or the client.

Users

This category is related to content management but focuses on defining the roles of the employees

or contributors who'll be working in the WordPress back end.

Role Scoper. This plugin allows the site administrator to specify the elements and

content each user can and can't access.

Appearance

• WP Google Fonts. Allows you to use on your site (and therefore your visitors to see) any

of more than 600 fonts. It eliminates the need to go to the style sheet to change font

styles (which we'll discuss in the next lesson). We'll take Google Fonts for a test run

later in the course. You’ll like it.

• TinyMCEAdvanced. TinyMCE is the name of the text editor built into WordPress. The

TinyMCEAdvanced plugin adds many extra features—font style and size selection, a

table creator, and a search and replace function, among many others. You might want

to add it to your set of WordPress tools.

TinyMCE Advanced Toolbar

Statistics and Analysis

These plugins are designed to tell you how many people are visiting your website and who they are.

We'll use some when I tell you more about stats later in the course.

• WP SlimStat. This is an easy-to-use analytics plugin that can give you loads of

information about the people who visit your website.

• StatCounter. This plugin links your WordPress site to the well-regarded StatCounter

online application. Like SlimStat, StatCounter provides a detailed analysis of your site's

most recent 500 page views.

• Google Analytics for WordPress. This brings one of the Web's best-regarded analysis

applications to your WordPress administrative area. You'll need to be registered with

Google Analytics to use this plugin. It installs the tracking code on your WP website and

summarizes how people are using it without the need to log in to your Google account!

(Please don’t install these analytics program on the class project website. Wait until you’ve created

your own site.)

Whew, that's a lot of plugins to consider, and we're not even done yet!

Okay, it's time to come up for air. Take a little break, and then I'll continue recommending more

plugins by category in the next chapter.

Chapter 4: Plugins Continued

Ready for a few more? Again, this is just a sampling of the thousands available to you! And you can

always find more by Googling: Best WordPress Plugins.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

WordPress was designed from the start to be search-engine-friendly. These plugins extend its

ability to improve your site's page rankings.

• WordPress SEO by Yoast, All In One SEO Pack, and Platinum SEO Pack. These are the

heavy hitters in this category. All three give you more control over the way search

engines treat your pages and posts. Check out each one, but please use only one of the

three! I'll demonstrate the Yoast SEO plugin later in the course.

• Google XML Sitemaps. This will make the search engines' preferred list for finding and

indexing Web pages. Not only does it send out your sitemaps to all the major search

engines, it notifies them of updates every time you change, add, or remove a page or

post. You can use Google XML Sitemaps with any of the SEO plugins above. (Yoast has

its own sitemap section, but it doesn't always work properly.)

Navigation

Making it easy to get around your website is one of the nicest gifts you can give your visitors. The

custom menu built into WordPress eliminates the need for most navigation plugins, but here's one

that offers an extra feature:

Breadcrumb NavXT. This generates breadcrumbs for each of your pages.

Breadcrumbs do the same thing for your site visitors as they did for Hansel and Gretel in

the forest—help them find the way back home. Breadcrumbs are the links you

sometimes see just above the content. They show you the hierarchical path you took to

get to your current location.

Navigation breadcrumbs

This includes plugins to help you display photos, artwork, videos, and audio.

Images

• NextGEN Gallery. This is my number-one choice for handling and displaying images.

With NextGEN, you can easily create slideshows and add all kinds of effects. And there

are at least 30 other plugins that work with NextGEN to produce just about any feature

you can imagine. NextGEN stores files in its own database, but its file management

system is far more flexible than WP's Media

Library. I've included a link to a video on how to install NextGEN in the Supplementary

Material section.

• Meteor Slides. Try this plugin if you want a simpler slideshow creator with 27 transition

styles (fade, wipe, curtains, zoom—how one graphic replaces another). You can also

specify the speed and other aspects.

Audio

• HTML5 jQuery Audio Player. Don't let its name scare you. This is a versatile music

player for a single track or an entire playlist. It works on mobile devices, and you can set

up buttons to buy or download tracks. It's also visually distinctive.

HTML5 Audio Player

• Blubrry PowerPress. This plugin is designed for podcasting, which is a way to let your

visitors automatically download audio files by subscription. Blubrry PowerPress is fully

featured and well supported.

Video

• HTML5 Video Player With Playlist. HTML5 is the Internet's first standard for displaying

videos. This player supports all browsers and the two major mobile operating systems.

But its playlist feature is only available in the premium version.

• YouTube Embed Plus. Most websites use YouTube as their video source. The YouTube

Embed plugin lets you find and directly embed videos by pasting the YouTube video

URL into the text box. Its settings allow you to hide the YouTube logo and the related

video information at the end.

Miscellaneous

Mobile

Virtually every new WordPress theme is described as responsive, automatically resizing itself to

look good on any size screen. But in reality, many so-called responsive themes don't behave well on

smaller screens, particularly the challenging little mobile phone screen. If that's the case with your

site, activate the Jetpack Mobile Theme. There are many free and premium mobile themes

available, but I've found the Jetpack version works best.

Creating Multiple Blog Pages

One of the top items on many WordPress users' wish lists is a method of including multiple blog

pages on one website. WordPress is set up to provide only a single blog per site. You can overcome

this limitation by categorizing your posts and adding the categories to the menu. But that's not a

flexible solution. A plugin called Blog-in-Blog allowed you to configure extra blog pages, but its

developer no longer supports it. Blog-in-Blog might work on your WordPress site, but if you run

into problems with it, you'll be on your own! To find the latest information about this kind of

plugin, Google: Best WordPress plugin multiple blogs.

Widget/Sidebar Control

• Jetpack's Widget Visibility. See the description in the Jetpack section in Chapter 2.

• Dynamic Widgets. This also gives you the choice of which pages your widgets will

appear on.

• Widgets Reloaded. And this plugin replaces several basic WordPress widgets with new

versions that give you more control over what they display.

Forum

bbPress. This plugin is actually the precursor to WordPress. It creates a simple forum

page without a lot of effort. Forums are similar to blogs.

bbPress forum plugin

Events Calendar

• Events Calendar. This plugin records and displays events in several attractive and useful

formats in the main content or a sidebar.

• Events Manager. If you're looking for a plugin that helps you with every aspect of a

public event, this should be your choice. It includes modules for registration, setting up

events by venue, and adding Google maps, calendars, and widgets.

Membership and Directories

Use a membership plugin when you sell content with multiple levels of access. You can charge

different fees based on the quality and amount of information the members use.

Most WordPress membership plugins offer a stripped-down version for free. But if you want a full-

featured plugin, you'll have to pay.

• s2 Member Framework. This plugin features one free and four paid membership levels.

It works with PayPal, allows file downloading, and can protect any combination of

WordPress pages from view by level. The optional paid upgrade costs $69 for use on

one website.

• Membership. The free version has two membership and two subscription levels.

Membership Pro (which costs $19) offers unlimited membership and subscription

levels.

• Directory. Directory plugins help you to set up listings for businesses and organizations.

If you want to build a site like Craig's List, a directory for a place of worship, or sell

listings, a directory plugin will help.

• Business Directory Plugin. You can accept payment or provide free listings, add review

areas (like Yelp!), set up sophisticated searches, and let users add listings outside the

WordPress back end.

• Connections Business Directory. This plugin is useful when you want to set up a

membership directory for a business, organization, or institution. It allows you to make

some listings public while hiding others, and it uses WordPress categories to organize

lists.

Search

Search Everything. Having trouble with your built-in WordPress search function? This

plugin can take care of that. It makes the search function work better by checking more

locations.

Writing

Search and Replace. As you might have guessed, this plugin goes through your entire

website to replace any words, phrases, or names that need changing. Makes updating easier.

I've omitted a couple of important categories—e-commerce and social media—because they're the

focus of entire upcoming lessons, which will include plugin suggestions.

How to Find More Plugins

So many plugins . . . so little time! As you can probably tell, I could go on and on describing more

incredibly useful WordPress plugins, but we have other things to do. If you need a feature that I

haven't noted here, it's easy to do your own searches:

1. Inside your WordPress installation, go to Plugins > Add New, and enter the subject in

the Search field.

2. Run a Google search for "best WordPress plugin (subject)" to find recommendations

outside WordPress.

We'll keep working with plugins as we develop the class website in upcoming lessons!

Go Easy!

So now you know how to turbocharge your WordPress website by adding those amazing functional

features known as plugins. But before you bow to temptation and start loading as many as you can

find, here's a word of caution:

Like so many other good things, it's best to use plugins in moderation. Install too many, and your

website might begin to load slowly. If you suspect your plugins are slowing down page loading

times, install the P3-Profiler plugin. It scans your site and lets you know which plugins are to blame.

Tip: Stress-test your site. When you’ve got your site put together, you need to do what music

producers do with a song. They listen to it in several contexts: ear buds, studio monitors, car stereo

(complete with speeding down the freeway background noise), high-quality headphones, and low-

quality, heavily-compressed audio files. They listen in mono rather than stereo. All this is to find a

final compromise mix--the best-sounding version across all popular platforms. So you’ll want to test

run your site on a big monitor, a tablet, and a tiny cell-phone screen. Is it navigable on a phone

screen? How good does it look on each? How fast (or slowly) does it load. Then make any necessary

adjustments to image quality, page organization, or other factors that aren’t working as they

should.

Each plugin you add increases the chance of a conflict with another plugin that could affect the way

one or both function. Because there are so many different ways to code plugins, there's no

guarantee they'll all play well together. And the more you're using, the better the chance for

trouble.

When you do have a conflict, deactivate all your plugins, and then reactivate them one-by-one to

pinpoint the problem. I've included a video in the Supplementary Material section to help you

handle plugin conflicts.

For the most part, however, your plugins will remain worry-free.

Chapter 5: Summary

In this lesson, you saw some of my favorites--a sampling of the thousands of add-on mini-apps

designed to extend WordPress functions. You learned that you can find many of them by going to

the Add Plugins page in the WP administrative area, and that you can install most of them with just

one or two mouse clicks.

Next time, we'll explore another way to customize WordPress by taking a trip into the world of

HTML, PHP, and CSS—the codes that structure and style your website!

Don't forget to visit the Supplementary Material section for this lesson, or to check out the FAQs

and assignment. And if you have questions, remember that you can always ask me in the Discussion

Area!