A WordPress plugin is a small piece of code, or several pieces of code, that is added into your WordPress set up and increases the functionality of your website in some way. (Translation: Plug-ins allow your blog to have more features which allows it to do more than it could when you first installed it.) Most plug-ins are coded in the PHP scripting language and add another feature or function to your website.

Plug-ins integrate seamlessly with WordPress so there is no messing with your WordPress code. That’s another great advantage of using plug-ins. They won’t actually affect your original WordPress installation. They reside separately and just interact with WordPress.

How did plug-ins get “invented”? The development of plug-ins came about by programmers needed to increase the function of WordPress without needing to alter the code within WordPress itself. Generally, coders said “I wish WordPress could do this or that” – and then created plug-ins that would make it happen. Of course, other web developers got excited by this and it spread. More and more developers jumped on board and created these small add-ons to the WordPress code and now WordPress can do more than the original creators ever imagined it could simply as a result of these little plug-ins. Now there are over 9000 plugins available that add a variety of features to WordPress.

A good many plug-ins are free and therefore it is important to understand that they don’t include technical support services. When choosing a plug-in, it is a good idea to look for the following:

• How long has it been since the plug-in was updated. Is it compatible with the current version of WordPress, or the version that you are using?
• Does the plug-in’s homepage still exist?
• Have the people looking for support on the plug-in gotten answers to their questions?
• What is the overall tone of the discussions on the plug-in download page?

There is a plug-in for pretty much anything you want to do in WordPress. If you want to monitor your website visitor statistics, increase interaction with your visitors, add a shopping cart to WordPress, add a photo gallery, earn money with WordPress plugins, automatically back up your database or anything else you want to do with your website, you can most likely find a plug-in to use, and like we said, many of them cost nothing.

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