In our WordPress Plugins Training Course we delve into the WordPress plugin Universe, and what a huge Universe it is!
One of the aspects to WordPress that makes it so utterly brilliant are it's plugins. Plugins are blocks of code you can download and install that extend WordPress beyond it's native capabilities. Don't be put off by the phrase 'blocks of code' - they are very easy to install and activate. Among the many wonderful things that can be said about plugins, one of (if not THE) best things is that so many of them are completely FREE.
WordPress has become such a popular platform that software developers and coders have offered free plugins to build their production portfolios for many years now, and in many cases, fame has been the result for some of the most acclaimed and popular plugins. In any case, what this means for you and me is that there are a world of plugins available for almost any kind of functionality imaginable. Do you need a booking system? An events manager? Perhaps a membership system? What about a forum? Or a ticketing system? These, and hundreds more, are available as plugins via WordPress' inbuilt plugin library. Simply click, download and activate!
Yes, you can tell we like plugins. But as there are so many, it's difficult to know which are the best to use, and under what circumstances. And, unfortunately, another downside is that many plugins go out-of-date, whilst others may be incompatible with the template theme you've chosen to use for your website. So it's not all fun and games.
In this module, we cut right through the confusion, showing you the very best plugins to use for a variety of purposes. Of course, we can't show them all (that would take years) but from our decades of web building experience, we have put together a list of our very own personal favourites, and during this module we explain how to install and use them.
Some of the types of plugins we demonstrate and configure are:
A relatively new addition to WordPress, it's Gutenberg functionality allows you to add content blocks in a wide variety of layouts. Whilst WordPress comes ready to go with many of these blocks built-in, in this course we take a look at some of the additional third-party Gutenberg plugins available, which let you do so much more!
There's a whole world of plugins available to help you modify the way WordPress works, from page copying plugins, plugins that change the way things are displayed on your admin screens, to plugins that clean and optimise your WordPress database. In this online class we take a look at the best.
Whilst WordPress is truly wonderful, it is Open Source software, which means that it is relatively easy to hack. In this course we show you some of the best security plugins available that will help you 'lock down' your installation of WordPress so that no one can tamper with your website.
Not only is WordPress a wonderful web design tool, it has also over the years become an amazing eCommerce tool, and nothing demonstrates this better than the truly superb plugin WooCommerce. Yet WooCommerce is just one option for eCommerce - there are also a number of other innovative eCommerce plugins available, that allow you to sell your goods in alternative ways. We take a look at some of the best options available.
The most important type of plugin (and perhaps the easily overlooked) having a reliable and robust contact form plugin is essential. We take a look at the best plugins available, and how they can be adapted to work as surveys and questionnaires, as well as for GDPR compliant purposes.
We take a look at some of the most popular WordPress SEO plugins, and how they compare with each other for optimising your website.
