How to Install a WordPress Plugin (A Definitive Guide)
Many people prefer WordPress for their websites because of its flexibility and widespread presence. However, when you’re new to WordPress, installing plugins can be a challenge.
Today’s post is going to be the ultimate guide on how to install a WordPress plugin. It will teach you everything that you need to know in order to properly install a WordPress plugin.
Plugins are a great way to add new features to your website, improve privacy settings and allow you to do cool stuff like create your own photo gallery, install a new contact form, or add a forum.
And at the end of this guide, you will also learn how to update, deactivate and uninstall any WordPress plugin that you have installed.
But first, you need to know how to install a WordPress plugin properly. Installing WordPress plugins is a simple process that doesn’t require any coding knowledge.
Sometimes, you would be overwhelmed by those thousands of paid and free WordPress plugins available in the market because you may not know exactly which plugins to choose.
That’s why we wrote an article about the best WordPress plugins & tools to choose for your WordPress blog. But today, we’ll focus only on how to install those plugins.
Just before that, let’s first clarify some confusion many newbie bloggers have in regards to WordPress.
Things to Understand Before You Start
As a blogger on WordPress.com (and not self-hosted), you cannot simply install plugins.
We often heard newbie bloggers on WordPress.com who are complaining about the non-availability of the plugin menu in their dashboard.
You’ll not be able to install any plugins as long as you use the basic plan. This is one of the limitations of a free platform. You need to upgrade to their business plan if you want to install plugins.
The good thing about it is that you switch from WordPress.com to WordPress.org if you want to be serious about your blog.
Back to our topic on how to install a WordPress plugin, let’s find out below how to do it on your website
How to Install WordPress Plugins Manually
By the way, there are a lot of video tutorials on how to install a WordPress plugin. Below is a tutorial from Website Learner.
But, for people who want to follow text instructions, you can follow our step-by-step tutorial on how to install a WordPress plugin.
You can install a WordPress plugin in three ways. We’ll cover the two easy methods so that you can follow whichever you find easy to understand.
- Installing a WordPress plugin using the search bar;
- Uploading a WordPress plugin; and
- Manually install a WordPress plugin using FTP.
Since the FTP manager method is the least friendly for beginners, we choose not to cover this method ( the third one).
1. How to install a Plugin using the Search bar
Using the WordPress search bar which is inside your WordPress admin area is considered the easiest way of installing a WordPress plugin.
However, there is a downside to this option – the plugin must be listed in the WordPress plugin directory. You can’t install it if the owner of the plugin didn’t place the plugin in the directory.
Now, to proceed further, let’s assumed that the plugin is available in the directory. Of course, there are thousands of very useful plugins available for free in the directory.
First of all, you have to log in to your WordPress website using your account and get access to your dashboard.
You’ll find “Plugins” in the left-hand column of the admin area dashboard.
Then, click on the “Plugins” menu item from the left sidebar. You should see a list of installed plugins here. If you don’t see any plugins here, that means you haven’t installed any yet.
If you want to install a new plugin, click on the “Add New” button which will open up a page where you can search for the plugin and install it by clicking on the install button next to its name.
If you already know what plugin you want to install, then just type its name into the search bar and click the “Install Now” button when it shows up in search results.
For example, if you’re looking for the best WordPress contact form plugin and type the word WPForms, then, the same will appear as shown in the screenshot below.
So far so good, right?
Now, click the “Install now” button – WordPress will install the plugin for you. It’s not done yet.
Activate the Plugin
You’ll notice that there’s a change in the same button – the “install now” button will change into the “Activate” button, right?
Click again the button – the plugin is now activated and ready to serve you.
Many bloggers tend to forget the “Activate” button. They often assumed the step is over once they click the “Install Button”. But, today, you’re not one of them any longer.
If you don’t do it yet, immediately activate the plugin now.
That’s it!
You’ve successfully completed the first stage of plugin installation. Configuring the plugin settings is the next thing to do.
However, since the default setting of most plugins do the job well, we’ll not cover that part in this post.
How to install a Plugin using the Admin Plugin Upload
If you’ve ever tried to install a paid WordPress plugin, you might have seen that it doesn’t appear in the official WordPress plugin directory.
That means you can’t just search for it and click Install—you have to download it and upload it manually.
Luckily, this is pretty easy to do! In this post, we’ll show you how to install a new plugin with the upload method in the WordPress admin area.
Installing WordPress plugins using the upload option in the admin area is simple.
To do so, follow these steps:
1. Log in to your WordPress admin area.
2. Go to Plugins > Add New.
3. Now, click on the “Upload Plugin” which is at the top of the page
- Click on the “Choose File” button as shown below in the screenshot.
- Select the file ( zip file) you want to upload from your computer.
- Now, click the “Install Now” button – you’ll see a success message.
- Finally, you can activate your new plugin by simply clicking the “Activate Plugin” button.
That’s it! Enjoy your new plugin. You can configure the plugin settings to fit your specific needs.
However, as we already said, the default setting of most plugins is sufficient enough to fit your needs. So, we’ll not cover that part in this post.
Can’t install any plugin?
There are instances where bloggers faced problems while trying to install plugins. Remember, as a blogger, this can occur to you as well.
You may get a note that says, download failed, installation failed, or destination directory for file streaming doesn’t exist or is not writable.
This occurs due to incorrect file and folder permissions that cause errors on your WordPress site during upload.
But, don’t worry! You don’t need to call for developers to get help nor does it need to acquire any coding knowledge/skills.
Simply go through the recommendations in our article on “How to Fix File and Folder Permissions Error in WordPress.”
Some FAQs on Installing WordPress Plugins
As a beginner, you might be eager to learn more about installing WordPress plugins. That’s normal.
Let’s see some of the most frequently asked questions pertaining to installing WordPress plugins.
When you’re thinking about installing a WordPress plugin, there are a few things to keep in mind.
First, you’ll want to make sure that it’s compatible with your version of WordPress.
The best way to do this is to check the website for each plugin—they will usually tell you what versions they support.
Second, look at how many people have downloaded the plugin recently and whether it’s been updated recently.
You can see this information on the list of plugins on the free WordPress plugin directory.
If a plugin has been updated within the last month or so, it means that it’s likely being supported by its developers.
Finally, evaluate whether or not you think this plugin will actually be useful for your site based on what you’ve read about it in the reviews and other sources before you actually install/use it.
First, let’s understand what a plugin is. A plugin is a piece of software that adds extra features to WordPress.
You can think of it as a toolbox where you can add new features or tools to your website.
WordPress will allow you to install plugins and not use them at all.
Installed and active plugins are two different things.
Installed plugins are those that you have installed on your WordPress site, but not activated. In order to use a plugin, you need to ‘Activate’ it.
You’ll find active plugins by visiting the ‘Plugins’ page in the admin area of WordPress which are highlighted with a light blue background.
The plugin with the white background shows that your plugin is not activated yet.
If you’re a WordPress user, then you know that plugins are an essential part of the platform.
But, it’s always a good idea to delete any plugins that you’re not actively using. If you don’t need them, why keep them?
WordPress itself has also recommended deleting all inactive plugins from your website. What is the use of keeping inactive plugins anyway?
Keeping unused plugins can be a security risk because they are still running on your site and could be exploited by hackers or malware.
Uninstalling a WordPress plugin is fairly easy.
If you want to remove a plugin from your website, then you will first need to deactivate it.
You can do this by visiting the Plugins page in the WordPress admin area and then clicking on the Deactivate link next to the appropriate plugin.
Now, your plugin is deactivated. Simply click on the delete link to completely terminate it from your WordPress website.
In the below screenshot image below, the white background of Akismet Anti-Spam showed that it is deactivated.
So, you can remove the plugin completely from your website by clicking the delete button.
Well, this is an interesting question! The general rule of notion is that the more plugins you’ve installed, the slower your WordPress site will be.
This isn’t wrong to argue because the more plugins you have installed, the more time your server has to spend processing all those extra requests.
But it’s not as simple as that. The truth is that it depends on the quality of the plugins.
If the plugin is lightweight and well-written, then you can install as many as your Website needs without worrying about slowing down your site.
The best way to get around this is not to install unnecessary plugins. Be sure to test them out before you actually use them.
There’s no specific number in this regard. But, it’s quite common to see business websites installing 20-30 plugins on an average or some even more than that.
For instance, WPBeginner has installed 62 plugins.
Final Thoughts!
It is important to know how to install WordPress plugins on your website. As a blogger, these are all essential things to learn beforehand.
You don’t want to waste money hiring developers in these silly matters. Oh! I mean, simple and easy to do things.
This ensures that you are able to achieve anything that you need on your website, as well as make sure that it looks good in the process.
If you want to learn more about plugins, check out our plugin category where we write about the best WordPress plugins & Tools which every blogger shouldn’t ignore for better performance and functioning of their websites.
We hope you enjoyed our article on how to install a WordPress plugin. If you have any questions, comments or feedback feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below.
Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter for more helpful tips on WordPress and other stuff related to blogging and social media marketing.
Last, but not least, join us on our Facebook group and Instagram to exchange and share ideas with like-minded bloggers.
