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Wordpress plugins add functions to your website. As with themes there are many thousands of plugins available for free, and many more available commercially. The best way to get started is to browse the Wordpress Plugin directory here or do a Google search. It is important to check that the plugin is compatible with your version of Wordpress which is listed in the bottom right every page on your Wordpress Admin Dashboard.
The absolute minimum plugins I recommend for personal sites are:
Akismet - (http://akismet.com/) – this plugin catches spam comments, it requires an API key, go to http://wordpress.com/signup/ to signup for an account, check your email for the verification link to get this, once you have verified by clicking on the link in the email, you will receive a second email with your API key, copy this key into the Akismet plugin
FeedBurner FeedSmith – (http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/help/wordpress_quickstart) – if you wish to use Feedburner to send out emails of updates to your site, then this plugin assists with the redirection of standard wordpress feeds to your custom feedburner address
A future post will cover search engine optimisation and marketing/traffic building plugins I use and recommend.
However, your imagination and needs are the only limit with plugins, you may want to include links to Social Media profiles such as Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, Livejournal etc or easily embed a Flickr gallery into a page or post. Or perhaps an Events Calendar. Search and try out different plugins until you are satisfied, and then you can change it all again later!
A word of warning: Plugins can break your whole website, make sure you have a valid backup before installing these. Check your website looks OK frequently. If things go wrong delete the most recently added plugin using FTP and re-check your site. If it can’t be fixed, restore from your backup.
Each plugin has it’s own instructions for installation, and I recommend reading them, but the general process is:
- Download the plugin as a zip file & unzip on your local computer
- Upload it to your wp-content/plugins/ directory on your web server
- Log in to your Wordpress Admin Dashboard & click on plugins.
- Click on activate to the right of the plugin name.
- Look at the public side of your website to make sure it looks good.
Once your plugin is installed, there may be options which allow you to customise how it works on your website. Each plugin will have its own documentation, so it’s best to refer to that to gain a full understanding of what is possible.
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