Yesterday’s post on plugins brought a great question to my attention. The question – How do I get plugins?
Let’s take a step back and see how we get plugins.
Your first step is to decide if you need a plugin. If you are trying to do something that WordPress or your theme won’t do, there might be a plugin to do it. So how do you find out?
In your WordPress dashboard look for Plugins in the left hand column. Click the nearly invisible down arrow to the right of the word Plugins and a drop down menu will appear. Click on… Add New and you will be taken to a screen where you can find plugins. If you know the name you can key it in the search form. If you are looking to do a specific task you can look at the ‘tag cloud’ and see if there is a category for the task you want the plugin to perform.
Once you find the plugin you want, or if you are searching for a plugin, a new screen will appear with the plugin name, version, star rating, description and a clickable link on the right side that says Install. Click on that and the plugin will install for you. You will have a few buttons to click – like the activate button after it installs but those will appear on your screen and you can follow the instructions.
Some cautions about plugins -
1. Don’t load up your site with unnecessary plugins – they will do nothing but increase load time.
2. Make sure WordPress or your theme will not do what the plugin does. Don’t replicate efforts. If it can be done without a plugin, let WordPress or your theme do it.
3. Do not download free plugins from a plugin or plugin author’s page. Always make sure the plugin is in the WordPress repository. WordPress checks submissions to the repository for safety. Because something is in the repository doesn’t mean it will work but it does mean it is safe for you to use.
4. When you find a plugin in the repository, read the comments with a grain of salt. Remember that people are quick to complain and slow to compliment. If there are some complaints, look at the star rating and also check how many times the plugin has been downloaded. If there are 8 complaints and 15,000 downloads, odds are that it’s a good plugin!
5. If you have plugins on your site that you no longer use, delete them. Don’t let them consume overhead while not doing anything.
6. Check your plugins page regularly to see if there is an update to a plugin. If there is, you can upgrade it automatically on the plugins page with one click. Keep your plugins up to date.
