How to install plugins in WordPress | WordPress for beginners

Key Takeaways

hi there and welcome back now did she know what plugins are let's see how you can use them in WordPress you can install plugins in three ways from the WordPress plug-in repository that you can access from the backend by uploading a previously downloaded plug-in or by using FTP in this video I will tell you how to install plugins via the plugins menu item in your back-end and I will also tell you how you can manage your plugins once they are installed in the next video we'll show you how to upload a plug-in we will not install plugins via FTP in this course since that's a bit more advanced now let's begin once you are in your back-end go to the plugins menu item in the admin menu if you want to immediately add a new plug-in select the add new tab if you want to go to the overview of the plugins you already have just click the plugins menu item right here as you can see the plugins screen is empty that's because I've cheated a bit I've installed the Yoast SEO premium and the local SEO plug-in to show you some widgets in the previous lesson but I've deleted them afterwards so that we can start from scratch in this screencast so let's do that you can add a new plug-in by clicking on the add new button what you see here is the WordPress plug-in repository with many plugins to choose from that's nice right but it's important to note that only free and approve plugins like Yoast SEO can be found in the repository that means that there are also plugins that you could use that are not included here like yours SEO Premium no worries if you want to use a plug-in that's not in the repository you can install them yourself you will show you how in the next video back to the repository in the top menu you can choose plugins from different categories the search bar allows you to quickly search for a plug-in you can search either for a particular plug-in or based on a keyword let's see what happens if we type in Yoast voila here's the free Yoast SEO plugin let's quickly scan the information here in the O's SEO plugin box you can see the name of the plug-in and you can also see a short description reviews and the latest update most importantly and this is something you should pay attention to you see whether the plug-in is compatible with the version of WordPress you are using in this case you can see that Yoast SEO is compatible with this version it's important to always check the compatibility to ensure that your plugins work optimally if you want to know more about the plug-in click on the more details link or on the name a new window will pop up and you will see a lot more information by the way different plugins organize that information differently so do not expect to see exactly the same form at all for all so once you have checked all the information and you are satisfied with what the plug-in has to offer you want to install it that's easy simply click on the Install Now button once the installation is done you will receive a message that the plug-in was successfully installed however simply installing the plug-in is not enough step two is to activate it so click on the activate button you will see the plug-in screen appear the Yoast SEO plugin is now installed and activated you can see that two new Yoast SEO menu items were created here in the admin menu and in the toolbar the location of the plug-in menu items will have caused differ the plug-in and some will also have no visible menu items at all now that we have installed our plug-in let's go back to the plug-in screen and see what other options there are once you have more plugins you will see more options here such as inactive recently active or updates available just below the links there's the bulk actions menu this menu gives you the option to activate deactivate update and delete multiple plugins at once to apply one of these actions you will need to take the box next to the plug-in name select an action for example deactivate and then click on the apply button the activating will turn the plug-in off and it will no longer function but it will still be installed and available once you need it again this allows you to switch a plug-in on and off as you see appropriate you can now see that the plug-in has been deactivated and that the options you have are to activate or delete note that you can only delete a plug-in once it is deactivated that's it you now know how to install and manage your plugins good luck