Easy Installation of WordPress Blog Plugins

Plugins allow you to add functions and features to your blog. These can make your blog easier for you to use as the blogger or better for your readers. Fortunately WordPress has now made finding and loading plugins as easy as 1, 2, 3.

1 Finding WordPress Blog Plugins

Just log in to your WordPress dashboard. In the left hand menu is the word plugins. Click that box and a drop down menu will appear, and from there you will click add new.

Off to the right a new box will appear. The tag cloud contains the most popular searches. You have quite a choice there, which can be quite helpful if you are not certain what term you need. If you like one of those terms, click it, if not type your term in the search box above. You can also type in a tag or the name of the author of the plugin.

2 Choosing WordPress Blog Plugins

Now you should have a list of plugins from which you can choose. You can see the name of the plugin and how many stars it is rated. On the right is a short description and the author’s name. Read the description to make certain the plugin matches your needs. If it does, click install, a new window will appear.

This new window will tell you even more about the plugin. These statistics are very important. Shown as days ago, you can read when it was last updated. You can also read how many people have downloaded it. How many people gave it the current star rating and more description. You can check to see if it compatible with your version.

Some plugins will have additional pages you can check before installation. There may be screenshots, which are really helpful if you have seen your plugin but not certain of the name. You can also see a link outside to the plugin home page and the author’s home page.

3 Installation of WordPress Blog Plugins

Here comes the hard part. See that install button? Yes that one, click it, then activate. You just installed it. Easy right?

You may need to adjust the settings on some plugins. Plugins can appear in a variety of places, fortunately on the “Installed” page; which is under plugins, they often have a link to settings. If not they may be on the main dashboard, or underneath either settings or tools. You may also need to add them to widgets which is under Appearance.

With three easy steps you can install plugins on your WordPress Blog.