How To Install Plugins In WordPress?

Plugins are the WordPress addons that can extend it to do almost anything you can imagine. WordPress Plugins Repository is loaded with thousands of free plugin which you can find and install right from your WordPress site’s admin area dashboard. This tutorial provides you a step by step guide on installing new plugins in WordPress.

How To Install A Plugin From The WordPress Dashboard?

To install a new WordPress plugin, log in to your WordPress admin area (yourdomain.com/wp-admin), and then navigate to Dashboard -> Plugins -> Add New page. Here you can search for the plugins by:

Typing a keyword and hitting ENTER
OR Clicking a word in the given tag cloud
OR Upload a plugin ZIP file from your computer
OR Using the given filters: Featured, Popular, Newest, & Favorites

For example: Suppose you want to install a social sharing plugin then search the keyword ‘Sharing’, click search and you will be seeing a list of sharing plugins. Click the ‘Install‘ button followed by the ‘Activate‘ link to install and activate a plugin.

After Activating A WordPress Plugin

There are thousands of free plugin and they all work differently. Some plugins provide you simple hacks and has no configuration settings to set whereas some provide you with tons of options and features.

For example: Installing No Comments plugin will automatically deactivate comments from your website, it has no options or settings but if you install a CAPTCHA plugin for comments then you will be needing to go its admin page from the settings menu to set it up.

Troubleshooting Common Issues With Plugins

Your website becomes inaccessible after the plugin is activated: This generally happens when the plugin is coded with wrong functions, in this case, you should access your website via cPanel, FTP or File Manager, visit your website’s root directory -> wp-content directory -> plugins directory and then delete the errored plugin.

Plugin installation fails on your website: Plugin installation fails when the plugin is broken or lacks some required files, in-such case you should go for another plugin.

Plugin installation fails showing timeout or not enough memory error: Read our tutorials about increasing PHP memory:

Or you can simply download the plugin from WordPress.org plugin repository to your computer’s hard drive then access your website via cPanel, FTP, or File Manager and upload it to plugin’s directory present in wp-contents folder of your site’s root. After the plugin is uploaded, you can activate it from Dashboard -> Plugins -> Installed Plugins page.

Also, read our tutorial about installing many WordPress plugins in bulk.

If you are facing any problems or have any questions then feel free to discuss it here using the following comment form.