How to Install Plugins in WordPress

Posted on October 23rd, 2015

Plugins allow you to add additional functionality to your WordPress blog such as advertising, on-site polls and numerous other features. There are also plugins to help you with things like search engine optimization, security and backup. There are literally thousands of plugins available for the world’s most popular blogging platform, and you can browse through them and add as many as you like without even leaving your administrator dashboard.

Installing WordPress Plugins

 

A brand new default WordPress blog will already have one or more plugins installed, including the Akismet comment spam filter. However, as you build your blog, you will likely want to add new plugins for a variety of reasons.

  1. Log in to your WordPress administrator dashboard and open the “Plugins” section from the sidebar.  A list of installed plugins will be displayed. You can also filter this list by active and inactive plugins as well as those which have updates available for them.
  2. To add a new plugin, click “Add New”.

 

 3. On the next page, you can browse through the newest or featured plugins by clicking the corresponding links. Alternatively, if you already know what sort of plugin you want, you can enter a keyword into the search box and click “Search Plugins”.

 

 3. Scroll down the search results to locate the plugin you want to install. Click “Install Now” and click “OK” to confirm.

4. Click “Activate Plugin” so that you can access, configure and customize the plugin from your administrator dashboard. Depending on the plugin you installed, a new option may appear in the sidebar, either in the top level or in the Settings section. Simply click on this new button to configure the plugin. In the case of the WP-Polls plugin installed in the example screenshot below, a new section entitled “Polls” will appear in the sidebar once you have activated the plugin.

 

4. If you wish to uninstall a plugin, simply return to the Plugins page, mouse over the plugin you want to get rid of and click “Delete”. You will need to deactivate the plugin first. Alternatively, you can just deactivate it to remove it from your site temporarily.

 

 

Updating WordPress Plugins

 

Plugin authors often release new versions of their WordPress plugins to address things like compatibility issues with newer versions of the platform, iron out any bugs found after release or to add new features. When new versions are available for any plugins, you will be alerted on the administrator dashboard homepage.

1. Click “Updates” near the top of the sidebar. The number of available updates will be shown here as well.

2. Check the box beside “Select All” in the Plugins section and click “Update Plugins.

 

3. Wait for the process to complete. WordPress will tell you once all of your plugins have been updated.

4. You can also update any installed WordPress themes by using the same method.

 

 

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