Well, all the above and more will be covered in this article on how to install WordPress plugins for beginners.
And as always, for any one-on-one consulting and assistance, you may mail me at tariq@bloggersbloom.com
What is a WordPress Plugin?
Before we start installing plugins for our WordPress website, let us understand what is a Plugin and its functionalities.
"A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can enhance the functionalities or add new features to your WordPress websites."
WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress.
In simple terminology, a plugin is similar to an app that you would download in your mobile phone to add new features.
Visit the WordPress Plugins page and you will notice they have, at this point of time, more than 55,000 plugins to choose from.
Let’s say, for instance, if I wanted to add security for my website, I could just visit the WordPress Plugins page, type out ‘security’ in the search field, and I will have a plethora of options to choose from.
So, how do I decide which plugin to install?
Where to Find Your WordPress Plugins?
Well, the WordPress Plugins page is surely the repository to finding all your WordPress plugins.
You can also purchase WordPress Plugins from websites such as Themeforest.
But to opt for the free WordPress plugins, you can find the plugins in your WordPress website.
In your WordPress dashboard, you will notice ‘Plugins‘ under the left hand side menu links. Click on ‘Installed Plugins‘ to get a list of the already installed plugins.
To install a new plugin, click on ‘Add New‘. And you can search for a plugin, in the similar manner we searched in the WordPress.org website.
Now, how do you decide on which plugin to install. And how many plugins can you install? Is there a limit on the number of plugins you can install in a WordPress website?
How do I Choose a WordPress Plugin?
A thumb rule while selecting plugins is to identify plugins that have a good rating and a higher number of active installations.
To understand this, let’s take a simple example.
What happens when you download a number of apps into your mobile? Does your mobile performance slow down? Does it hang? Is it really the number of downloads or is it the quality of the app that you’ve downloaded?
In the similar manner, plugins can be used for various functionalities. Some for the aesthetics, some to enhance the frontend functionalities, e.g., SEO, Security, Compress image size, etc. And there are some plugins that sends constant requests to the web server.
While installing a number of plugins that sends constant backend requests to your web server (e.g., for an ecommerce website which is sending queries to the database) can slow down your website, it eventually boils down to the quality of plugins you have installed.
A thumb rule while selecting plugins is to identify plugins that have a good rating and a higher number of active installations.
Notice some of the most popular plugins on WordPress above. Check out the number of ratings and the active installations they have.
A good number of plugins to have in your WordPress website would be anywhere between 20 and 30. Again, I give more emphasis to the quality of plugins. You would not want a faulty plugin to crash your website!
How to Install WordPress Plugins?
A Tip Before We Start Installing Our Plugins
When creating a website, how I look at it is, the site has to load fast. If the site loads fast, it helps reduce the bounce rate. Which eventually helps in getting my site up in the Google SERP (Search Engine Results Page).
So, if you are starting off with a new WordPress installation, I like to start with a clean slate. For which, I will delete all the existing plugins which came as default in my WordPress installation.
So, let’s start with the Plugins. Go to Plugins > Installed Plugins
Clicking on the box adjacent to the Plugin header will select all the plugins currently installed in your WordPress website.
Once all the plugins are selected, select the ‘Delete‘ option under the ‘Bulk Actions‘ dropdown box. And click Apply.
Click OK in the prompt that appears at the top of the page.
Reload the page. This is done by clicking on the refresh icon 
on the top left hand side icon on your browser.
Your Plugins slate is clean.
And now, how to install WordPress Plugins
Step 1: Plugins > Add New
Standard instruction. For any plugins that you will install, the process is the same.
Click on ‘Add New’ under ‘Plugins’
Step 2: Search
Enter the name of the Plugin or the keyword in the ‘Search plugins…‘ field.
And ‘Enter’
For example, let us search for Sucuri Security.
The Sucuri Security WordPress plugin is free to all WordPress users. It is a security suite meant to complement your existing security posture. It offers its users a set of security features for their website, each designed to have a positive effect on their security posture.
So, we follow the above steps and key in ‘Sucuri Security’ in the ‘Search plugins…’ area.
Step 3: Install and Activate
Once you find ‘Sucuri Security‘ in the search results, click on ‘Install Now‘.
Once it is installed, you will notice the button changes to ‘Activate‘. Click on ‘Activate‘.
Once the plugin is installed, click on Plugins > Installed Plugins.
You will notice the plugin installed. In this example of ours, the plugin under consideration was ‘Sucuri Security‘. And the same is seen under ‘Installed Plugins‘
And that’s it as far as how to install WordPress plugins.
I will have an article on Top 20 WordPress Plugins to install in your WordPress website published soon. Oh yes, have you checked out my article on How to create a WordPress website for beginners? Do check it out too!
Please do let me know your views and feedback in the comment section below. It will help me improve and bring out quality content.
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