Find, Install, and Activate Plugins

In this lesson, you are going to learn how to find, install, and activate plug-ins.

Plug-ins are important to customise your website. They have a lot of features you need such as security, backing up, email opt ins, and many more.

How to install a new plug-in?

Go to Plug-ins and click Add New. You will be directed to a search page where you can search for plug-ins. There are premium plug-ins that you can find on different websites from the developers who created custom plug-ins.

In the Add Plug-ins page, you can see the Featured plug-ins here, which are very popular plug-ins that are recommended by WordPress itself.

We have a Jet Pack pre-installed when we install the WordPress with BlueHost. To search for a plug-in, simply use the search box.

For example, if you want a gallery on your website, search for the word “gallery”.

Several kinds of gallery plug-ins will appear here. You need to check if it has a high rating, high installation numbers, and the recent update.

It is wise to not install an old plug-in or plug-in which version is not compatible with your WordPress version.

Next, you need to check the Last Updated. If it’s a year and more, skip it. It is outdated and hackers may hack your website via an old plug-in.

Then, make sure the plug-ins you are downloading have more than four stars rating. For the install numbers, choose the most installed ones as they have proven to be effective.

To check for the plug-in’s further information, just click the title and it will show you the detailed info of the plug-in. You can see the descriptions, reviews, and even the screenshots of what it looks like. If you are good with the plug-in, click Install Now.

After you have installed it, you can immediately Activate it on the page, but that doesn’t mean you can use it yet.

Go to Installed Plug-ins and see the plug-ins you have installed here. Blue highlight means it is active right now, and vice versa. You can click Activate here.

Sometimes when you install a new plug-in, a small window or a banner will pop up at the top of the screen. It will guide you on how to use the plug-in.

Also, you will see two side menus added on the left side menu bar. They are Photo Gallery and Photo Gallery Add-ons.

Now let’s go back to the Installed Plug-ins page and learn how to delete a plug-in. To delete a plug-in, you need to Deactivate it first. After that, click Delete and OK.

Next, you need to know how to update a plug-in. There are several ways to do so, but one of them is from the Installed Plug-ins page. When a plug-in has an update, a small banner will appear below the plug-in. Click Update Now to update. Or, you can go to the Dashboard on the left side menu bar and click the Updates.

This is basically the home page of updates. This page will show the WordPress Updates for your plug-ins and themes. But sometimes, this page doesn’t show any updates at all, so be sure to check both of the pages.