WordPress blog pages provide each user with notable flexibility as far as the design layout they have access to as well as additional functionality to their blog in the form of plugins. All plugins are built, managed, and distributed by the WordPress community and could add varied layers of functionality and style to a blog.
Why Plugins?
Anyone with WordPress blogs for their accountant websites can add plugins, and there are a multitude of uses and benefits to installing them; both for yourself and for your readers. Some plugins are simple and can add things like social media buttons to your blog. Others are more complicated, such as a plugin that integrates a full image gallery with dozens of viewing options. People use them often because they add a lot of fun, interesting and useful features that would otherwise require a lot of code writing.
Where can you find Plugins for your WordPress blog?
There are several places you can go to find plugins. One of them is within the admin panel of your blog. Your admin panel has a menu item called Plugins. To install one, simply click install! There is also a WordPress page that is devoted to listing plugin options. You can search for all different types to narrow down what you're looking for, and you can also view the most popular plugins. (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/) Downloading plugins from here requires an extra step. You'll need to locate the downloaded file, then unzip it before you can upload it to your WordPress blog. Both options are fairly easy and the only potential difference would lie with the security settings of the server that is hosting your blog.
Now how do I get my plugin to work?
You've already chosen a plugin and installed it, now you just have to activate it. You can do this in the main plugin menu.
If you downloaded the plugin to your computer, you will have to unzip it and then upload it to the wp-content/plugins folder. Then just go to the plugin menu and click activate. WordPress has made the user interface very user friendly.
Some plugins will work immediately, others require that you add code to your template. Additionally, some others require different adjustments aside from coding that need to be completed before the plugin will work. You'll know which method you'll need to follow after you activate the plugin, and if you have any questions about what needs to be done, you can always check the plugin authors' site which will be available from a link within the Plugins menu.
What's next?
Don't forget to confirm that your plugin is working properly. This could mean visiting your blog and testing it out, or you may be able to run the plugin from the settings menu if you installed a plugin that provides an automated service, like a backup, temporary file remover, or a site map creation plugin.
Once you have verified the plugin is working, you're all set and you can continue to install and activate any other plugins you would like!
If the plugin isn't working, there's a good chance that you may have missed a step or the plugin may not be compatible with your version of WordPress. The best answer to this question is to go back to the plugin authors' site and read through any installation steps again as it will contain all the information you need to get your plugin to work.
What are the most popular plugins?
There are a lot of people that will tout the utility of certain plugins and of course if you have a specific goal in mind for your blog, there are plugins you will want to run, but everything is subjective. Not all suggested plugins will be relevant to your blog and what you want to achieve with it, so feel free to search for plugins that work for you. In general I will always install Google XML Sitemaps, All in One SEO Pack, myEASYbackup, WP-reCAPTCHA, and Akismet. These serve a specific purpose for all of my blogs that I hope to make highly relevant, easily searchable and search engine friendly, and I've had the best luck with this "basic" package. I think it's also very important to back up my blog, just in case. For that, I use WP-DBManager, which can even email my WordPress database to me on a daily basis. I also tend to keep the comments section of my blogs open because I'm always looking for feedback and opinions so I need a few plugins to help with comment spam.
Do I have to use plugins?
Simply because WordPress and numerous authors leave us with tons of plugin options does not mean you need to make use of any of them. Plugins are given to you to enhance your blog's current tools, but if you're content with your blog the way it currently is, then you should certainly avoid the plugins. For writers who require additional functionality from a blog or for writers who don't have the time to design, the plugins granted to the WordPress community are a fantastic energy saving substitute.
Brian O'Connell is the CEO and founder of CPA Site Solutions, one of the country's leading edge web design firms dedicated entirely to top-notch accountant websites. His firm at present provides websites for more than 5000 CPA, accounting, and tax preparation firms.
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