Step 7: Adding WordPress Plugins

13. Apr, 2010 0 Comments

This lesson will show you how to add some essential plugins to WordPress to make it sing. Plugins are small add on programs that expand the functionality of WordPress and there’s a couple that I always use to add some handy functionality. It’s really very simple so don’t be scared – dive in!

The Manage Plugins Page

From the WordPress Dashboard, find the Plugins navigation button (1) on the left and click on it. You’ll be taken to the Manage Plugins screen. Now click on the Add New button (2) to access the Install Plugins page.

Essential WordPress Plugins

From the install Plugins page, I’m going search for an install the following plugins:

- Easy Privacy Policy. This will add a Google compliant Privacy Policy page to your website
- Google XML Sitemaps. This gives search engines a maps of your website making it easier for them to crawl through your website.
- Easy Contact. A simple contact form for your contact us page.
- Exclude Pages. We don’t always want pages to appear in our main navigation.
- All in One SEO. This makes your WordPress site a little more Search Engine friendly.
- Akismet. Helps protect your website from spam comments.

Installing a plugin

Once you’ve searched for and found the plugin, click the install link.

Confirm plugin installation

You’ll be given a plugin description page – just click the Install Now button to confirm you want to install the plugin.

Activate the plugin

Click the Activate Plugin link.

Configure plugins

Some plugins require customization. Usually the description will tell you if customization is required and where it can be accessed. In this case, the Easy Privacy Policy can be customized in the Settings screen.

Admire your work

When you’re done installing and configuring all these plugins, your Manage Plugins list should look something like this. I’ve deleted the Hello Dolly plugin in this example as it’s not required.