What is a WordPress Plugin?

WordPress is an amazing platform that allows users to create a blog or website at a reasonable cost. But what happens when the premium WordPress software doesn’t have all the features and functionality that you would like on your website or blog? You could program the functionality yourself, but that would require knowledge on how to do this. Fortunately, there is a much easier and quicker option available. There are developers who have already created many WordPress features and offer the code in a package that users can download. This package is called a plugin.

What exactly is a plugin?

A plugin is an extra set of software that adds functionality to the premium version of WordPress. Someone finds a need for a feature on a WordPress website. They program this feature into a small package and make it available to other WordPress users. Often, they offer the download for free. They always give the plugin a name, so that you can search for it.

There are thousands of plugins available. Each plugin is designed to add certain functionality to your WordPress website. For example, there are plugins you can download that will reject any comments someone posts on your blog that look like SPAM. A couple of plugins that add this functionality are called Akismet and WP-SpamFree. There are plugins that will turn portions of your blog into a membership site, such as MemberWing and Amember. Some plugins will even improve the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) of your blog, such as the “All in One SEO Pack” plugin.

If you are browsing the internet and come across a feature on someone’s blog that you like, the chances are there is a WordPress plugin that can provide you with that same functionality for your blog. Despite the small size of plugins, they can be very powerful. They can turn an average website into a great website.