📖 WordPress Plugins

Plugins

Plug and play modules that you can download and add to your WordPress site. Plugins are available from site Dashboard. Just search or browse to find appropriate plugins for your site. Be sure to evaluate version compatibility, number of downloads, star ratings and user comments to determine if it is a good fit for your site. Also, you will need to review documentation for installation and configuration instructions. Many plugins are free, but some may be commercial and require payment.

Don't use too many plug-ins

  • overuse can degrade performance
  • plug-ins have to be updated and maintained
  • plug-ins may have security holes
  • some plug-ins may not be compatible with others
  • plug-ins may become obsolete if the original author decides not to maintain it
Plugin Installation
Always backup your site before updating.

Search for plugin through Dashboard

  • Click Install link for the selected Plugin
  • This will download and unzip the plugin

Download plugins from https://wordpress.org/plugins/

  • In Dashboard, click upload and find the downloaded folder on your computer.
  • Click on Install Now and it will install just as for one downloaded from the Dashboard
  • In order to use the installed plugin, you will need to activate it by clicking on the activate button
  • If you decide you do not want to use the plugin, you can deactivate it at any time.

Install, activate and configure each plugin separately. You should thoroughly test your site with each plugin. Check for site functionality and make sure the admin login/logout works.

Recommended Plugins
Maintenance

There are plugins to help manage the site while it's being updated. Take a look at https://wordpress.org/plugins/maintenance/ for information on a plugin that helps with managing maintenance.

UpdraftPlus

The next plugin I would recommend you install is UpdraftPlus. It is an administrative plugin designed to help manage backups. This is crucial in maintaining a WordPress site as installing and updating WP core files, plugins and themes can sometimes cause the site to crash. Having a backup can be essential to recovering a lot of hours of work. You can find UpdaraftPlus on WordPress dot org or through the WP admin dashboard of your site.

Install, enable and run this plugin before moving on to the next. Remember, always backup your site before updating. This means you should backup, update and thoroughly test your site before making the next update.

Legal

WordPress is a global project with users in almost every country in the world. As such, it is committed to legal compliance with all countries. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the toughest privacy and security law in the world. As such, meeting their requirements will put you in universal compliance regarding privacy and data use policies. Even if you say, "I don't care about Europe!" Their are similar laws in California. This is not something to fight.

In order to make compliance a much easier task, WordPress has plugins to help manage these requirements and stay in compliance. Since we are trying to stick with the free versions of these plugins, we will need 2 to cover the compliance requirements.

WP Auto Terms
WP Auto Terms is an easy way to add legal notices for Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
CookieYes
CookieYes is an easy way to add cookie compliance notices for your visitors.