Ultimate guide to plugin setup and configuration for WordPress

WordPress plugin installation and configuration may sound overwhelming to you if you are new to this domain. But we can assure you that it takes a few simple steps and tweaks to install a plugin and make it work as you want. You can make the best use of a plugin only with proper setup and configuration. 

This article will guide you through the handy process of installing and configuring WordPress plugins. We will also discuss some plugin selection, maintenance, and management processes. So, let's dive in and learn some interesting facts about the WordPress plugin. 

What is a WordPress Plugin?

You must understand what a plugin is before learning about WordPress plugin installation and configuration. Developers work behind creating a plugin using programming languages such as PHP, HTML, CSS, Javascript, JQuery, and more. 

Plugins can enhance or improve the functionalities of your WordPress site by adding specific features. You can install and use a plugin without affecting the core functionalities of your WordPress site. However, there is no all-in-one plugin that provides all the features that you need. Each plugin serves specific features that it is meant to serve.

Learning WordPress plugin installation and configuration is important to get the best output. The performance of your website will depend on your plugin selection and usage. 

WordPress offers two categories of plugins, including free and premium and paid options. You will get access to the free plugins through the official WordPress plugin repository. Free WordPress plugins contain features that will give you the initial taste of a plugin. 

Free plugins are enough for your website if you are a beginner. So, free plugins are suitable for serving some purposes without affecting your budget.

However, you will eventually understand the need to upgrade to the premium version as your site grows. You can upgrade to the pro version of a plugin whenever you need more features in your WordPress site.

Though you are investing in premium options, you are getting advanced features with customization capabilities. Besides, you get reliable support and frequent updates while using a pro version.

Why WordPress Plugin Installation is Important?

The open-source nature of WordPress allows you to develop a site that already includes all the necessary features. WordPress website development services can help you build a website that does not require too many plugins in your site. 

However, you can instantly get a specific feature by installing a plugin on your website. More features mean more benefits that will help you ensure a better user experience. Ultimately, you will get an effective website that will lead you to success in your business objective.

Here are some significant reasons why you should use plugins: 

Improving Overall Performance

You must maintain a satisfying website speed to get more visitors to your WordPress site. Everyone loves to navigate a fast site that instantly loads up every page and option. There are plugins in WordPress that can minimize the loading time to a minimum. Plus, it ensures exceptional performance with flawless navigation throughout the site. 

Improve the performance of your WordPress site with the following plugins - 

Enhancing Security Measures

You cannot retain customers or visitors without ensuring security in your WordPress site. Users won't be on or trust your website if you can't ensure its security. They will look for other websites, and you will lose competition without enhancing your security. Besides, search engines like Google flag insecure websites. 

You can easily maintain security in your WordPress using plugins like: 

Optimizing Website SEO

SEO optimization is necessary since people find your website and its content through search engines. With SEO plugins, you can improve your website's content and promote it effectively through search engines. It also assists in creating proper URLs and meta tags, as well as implementing keywords. Ultimately, your website ranks higher in search engine result pages to get more clicks from visitors.

Here are some WordPress plugins that will improve your site’s SEO:

Including eCommerce Features 

You can create an online store with professional eCommerce website development services. However, you can easily create a fully functional eCommerce website using a WordPress plugin. Besides, you can include eCommerce features to sell products, whether it’s a blogging or gaming website.  

Here are some eCommerce plugins to turn your WordPress site into an online store:

Generating Leads Via Forms 

Collecting leads and visitor information is crucial for maintaining communication with them. It helps you promote products and content and notify customers. You can use form generator plugins in your WordPress site to collect customer information. Customers can also use these forms to communicate with you as well. 

These are some of the best plugins for generating leads: 

Creating & Restoring Backups

You must have a backup plan ready for your website to prevent data loss during emergency situations. This will help you save your website from hackers, disasters, and any unwanted situations. Backup plugins can also help you restore your site so that it remains up and running. 

You can swiftly create a backup of your website and restore it using these plugins: 

Monitoring Website Activities

You should regularly analyze the incoming traffic and their behavior on your website. This will help you make the best decision to convert that traffic into regular customers. With an analytics plugin, you can track and monitor every visitor and their activities on your website. 

Here are some Analytics plugin that gives you valuable analytics on your site: 

Creating Webpages

You can create eye-catching web pages in WordPress without having any coding skills. Page-building plugins can help you create pages that meet your objective and look professional. You can even design your entire website using these plugins. 

These are some page builder plugins to create any webpage for your WordPress site:

That's not all about WordPress plugins since there are a lot more categories to explore. You must learn the WordPress plugin installation process If you want to use these plugins accurately. 

However, the ones we’ve mentioned can help you create a dynamic, engaging, and secure website. Now, we’ll explain how you can set up and configure a plugin to make your WordPress site better than before.  

How to install WordPress plugins using different methods?

WordPress plugin installation process is an easy task that you can complete using several methods. It may seem daunting at first sight, but it becomes easier when you go through the process regularly. Let’s take a look at different plugin installation processes using a WordPress site: 

WordPress Plugin Installation From Website 

This is the most common method of the plugin setup process, which is possible directly from a WordPress site. Here are the steps to follow: 

Step: Log in to your WordPress site by navigating to your WordPress site (yourwebsite.com/wp-admin.)

Step 2: Click Plugins on your dashboard located in the left sidebar, and then click Add New.

Step 3: Use the search bar and find the plugin you want to install on your website. You can browse featured, popular, and recommended plugins to get the best options. 

Step 4: After finding out your plugin, click Install and wait until the installation process finishes. 

Step 5: The Install button will now turn into the Activate button. Click the Activate button to enable the plugin in your WordPress site and use it. 

Now, let’s move on to the next plugin installation process, which includes some manual steps. 

WordPress Plugin Installation Via Manual Approach

This process requires you to download the plugin either from the WordPress plugin repository or from third-party sources. It's also applicable if you’ve created a plugin using a custom plugin development service or a developer. Follow these steps to install a plugin manually by uploading it to your Wordpress site: 

Step 1: Go to the WordPress plugin repository or the third-party plugin’s website and download the plugin that you need. 

Step 2: Click the Download button and get the zip file on your device once you find it.

Step 3: Get into your website through the admin (yourwebsite.com/wp-admin) area of your website.  

Step 4: Click Plugins in the left-hand sidebar of your WordPress dashboard and then click the Add New button.

Step 5: Now, click the Upload Plugin button at the top of the page. Then, choose the ZIP file you downloaded earlier and click the Install Now button. 

Step 6: When the installation process is done, click the Activate button to enable the plugin on your website. 

Let’s move on to the next approach, which is setting up the plugin on your WordPress site. 

WordPress Plugin Installation Via FTP 

This approach is applicable if you prefer to start selling your plugin manually using the File Transfer Protocol. Let’s say you can’t install a plugin using the WordPress dashboard or the manual process. In that case, you can follow these steps to install the plugin via FTP: 

Step 1: Download the ZIP file of the plugin from the WordPress repository or the plugin's website.

Step 2: Unzip or extract the ZIP file of the plugin to reveal the plugin folder.

Step 3: Now, you need to connect to your server by using an FTP client like FileZilla, Cyberduck, or WinSCP. Then, connect to your web server utilizing your FTP credentials. 

Step 4: Go to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory on your server. Then, upload the plugin folder that you extracted earlier.

Step 5: Log in to your WordPress site via the admin panel and go to Plugins. You will now see the plugin you’ve recently uploaded. Click Activate to activate the plugin on your WordPress site.

Troubleshooting WordPress Plugin Installation Issues 

You may encounter different errors or issues while setting up and configuring your WordPress plugin. Some simple troubleshooting methods can overcome those issues, but they take minimal effort. Here are those troubleshooting methods: 

Plugin Installation Failed: You may get an error message such as plugin installation failed during the installation process. In this case, make sure the ZIP file of your plugin is not corrupted and that it's compatible with the latest version of WordPress. 

Memory Limit Exceeded: This is a common error that users encounter while installing a plugin. If you see this error, it means you need to increase the PHP memory limit. Get into your WordPress installation directory and access the wp-config.php file to add the following line:

define('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '256M');

Plugin Conflicts: Let’s say you’ve installed a new plugin on your website, which is causing an error in your site. In that case, simply deactivate other plugins on your website to identify the conflict. Then, each plugin should be activated one by one to find out which plugin is actually causing the conflict. 

File Permissions: Check whether the file permissions on your server are set properly. We recommend you set the file permissions for the /wp-content/plugins/ directory into 755 for folders and 644 for files.

PHP Version Checkup: Some plugins require a specific version of PHP to function properly. Thus, you need to ensure that your server is running a compatible version of PHP. The version of the PHP is usually specified by the developer of that plugin.

You should check out the WordPress forums and documentation If you are unable to fix the common plugin issues. You can also 

Configuring Plugins In WordPress 

You need to configure your plugins once you are done with WordPress plugin installation process. A proper plugin configuration will ensure that it's working optimally and enhance your site’s functionality. As a result, your website will serve the objective that you desire and improve user experience. Let’s go through the common plugin configuration process for your WordPress site: 

Accessing Plugin Settings 

After a successful WordPress plugin installation, you can access its settings through the dashboard. Here is how you can access the settings of a plugin: 

Step 1: Log in to your WordPress site and navigate to the admin area.     

Step 2: You can get the settings of a plugin under the plugin name from the left hand side of the dashboard. You can also get the plugin’s name under Settings, which is located in the left-hand sidebar.  

Step 3: You can click the plugin name to access its settings or click the Settings option to access its configuration.

The settings option of a plugin will be different from one plugin to another. Here are some common settings that you can configure for different plugin types: 

Essential Tips for WordPress Plugin Management

It's time to follow some best practices so that your site runs smoothly with the help of these plugins. These best practices will ensure that your site performs better than your competitors.  Here are some plugin maintenance tips to follow: 

Reputation: The plugin you prefer should have positive reviews and good ratings from its users. Always check for reviews of a plugin from the plugin repository or forums before the WordPress plugin is installed.  

Continuous Development: Make sure the plugin is going through an active development process. This means you will get frequent updates with more features, security patches, and version updates.

Lightweight: The plugin that you want to use should not overburden your website by affecting its performance. Make sure it's not using too much memory or slowing down your site.

Regular Updates: Update your plugins regularly so that they get the latest features and bug fixes and don’t conflict with Wordpress or other plugins.

Limit Usage: You shouldn’t use too many plugins on your WordPress site to maintain its peak performance. Rather, you can rely on custom website development to get your preferred features pre-built within the site.

Evaluate Functionality: Read all the features of a plugin to make sure that you need that plugin on your site. This will help you understand whether you need that plugin to fulfill your objective.

Staging environment: You can always create a staging environment to be sure that the features of your plugin are working properly or not.

Regular Backup: Create a backup of your site if you are not sure about the performance of a plugin. This will especially help you if the plugin is downloaded from a third-party source that you aren’t sure about.

Read Documentation: Read the documentation of a plugin since it provides the best way to set up and configure a plugin.

Final Words

WordPress plugin installation and configuration guide are essential to maintain your site’s performance and security. This guide is for everyone who wants to install, configure, and manage it effectively.

Selecting and installing a popular plugin is not enough to enhance your website’s functionality. You must configure the plugin and follow best practices to provide the best user experience.