Finding plugins is so easy. You can just click ‘Add plugins’  under ‘Plugins’ in the sidebar and there are easy instructions from there. Be sure to read the installation notes for the plugins as some do not work straight out of the box. You can also search Google as I sometimes do. The control panel plugin search feature has improved recently but I still find Googling helps me find what I am looking for. Some plugins are not in the wordpress.org repository so you will have to google to find them.

Some people think they can add whatever plugin they like and as many as they like and that might be OK but I am here to tell you that it might not be OK. Keep reading to find out more.

Things to remember:

1. Plugins can slow your site down.
2. Plugins can be a resource hog.
3. Plugins can stop working.
4. Some plugins are not compatible with other plugins.
5. Some plugins are not compatible with some themes.
6. You don’t need every plugin.
7. There are usually several plugins with similar features.

1. Plugins can slow your site down.
As I might have mentioned before, WordPress would be pretty boring without plugins so go ahead and grab some but keep in mind that in general the more plugins you have installed the slower your site will become. Some plugins will cause more damage to your website’s speed than others.

2. Plugins can be a resource hog.
This can be an issue on your server side and is similar to the first point. Some plugins make calls to the server and the more calls you make to the server the more CPU power you will need there. If you are on shared hosting which I guess most of the people reading this blog are, myself included, this could mean that your plugins will cause everybody’s web site on that shared server to slow down and web hosts don’t like that and might take your site down. This is not so common though and  I wouldn’t worry about it too much but remember the more plugins you have the more likely it is to cause a problem.

3. Plugins can stop working.
Just because your plugin is working fine today doesn’t mean it will tomorrow. There are several possible reasons. Sometimes upgrading a plugin can cause the problem. For example, recently I upgraded a plugin for a friend and it stopped working and after some investigation I found that the new version wasn’t compatible with PHP4 which is what her web site was run on. Luckily I was able to upgrade it to PHP5 without causing any trouble with the other websites in her hosting plan. There are enough reasons for your plugin to stop working to warrant a post dedicated to this issue so stay tuned.

4. Some plugins are not compatible with other plugins.
Simple fact. Sometimes plugins don’t work because of compatibility issues. If nobody else is having problems with the plugin this is likely to be the issue but see next point for another possible cause. Anyway, before you go complaining to the hardworking plugin author you should check the plugin page at wordpress.org or information on the authors own site for compatibility issues. If that fails try google. If you still can’t find the information try disabling all the other plugins and checking to see if the problem plugin is working. If it is working, that means it is a compatibility issue.  Reactivate the plugins one by one to discover which plugin is causing the problem. When you find the problem plugin you have some options:

• You can choose which plugin you want to keep.
• You can contact the plugin author and see if he can fix it.
• You can find alternative plugins

5. Some plugins are not compatible with some themes.
The more complex a theme is the more likely it is to have compatibility issues with a plugin. It is not as common as plugin vs. plugin incompatibility but it does happen and you follow pretty much the same steps as outlined above to solve this issue.

6. You don’t need every plugin.
As you should realize by now just installing a ton of plugins can cause problems. I suggest you carefully select your plugins and choose only what you think will make your site better. For example, in nearly all of my web sites I use an SEO plugin, a Google sitemap plugin and Akismet but I have one private web site that only friends and family can view or comment on posts so I don’t use any of those plugins on that site. The lesson: choose appropriate plugins.

7. There are usually several plugins with similar features.
This is not always the case but in general you can find more than one plugin with the same basic features. How do you choose which one to use? Of course you can compare the features and decide which features you prefer. You could also select a plugin on its ease of installation and use. Compatibility issues (see above) could help make the choice for you. Another thing to look out for is how active is the plugin author. Some plugins are abandoned by the author and even if it is working now I think it is fair to assume that without continued development it is sure to break at some point due to changes in the WordPress software.

This will be a short post and it is just a recommendation. When you install WordPress using a one click installer your web host often adds some plugins and themes. I recommend deleting all of these plugins except Akismet (*read important information about Akismet below).

You need to be a wordpress.com member to get a key

Akismet is a great tool for preventing spam comments and trust me you will get spam. There are other tools but this one works fine. Regarding the other plugins I recommend only installing what you need. Plugins are great and without them WordPress would be boring but to keep your website performing well you ought to keep their use to a minimum. I don’t always practice what I preach but as I write this post the only plugin I am using is Akismet. In the future I will discuss the plugins that I am using on my other WordPress sites.

How do I delete the plugins. Follow these steps.

1. Click ‘Plugins’ on the sidebar of your WordPress control panel.
2. In the ‘Currently Active Plugins’ area select everything except Akismet and from the dropdown menu choose ‘Deactivate’ and click ‘Apply’.
3. In the ‘Inactive plugins’  select all and from the dropdown select ‘delete’.

How and why should I delete themes?
If you want you can preview the themes that your host has pre-installed for you by going to the ‘Appearance’ area in your control panel sidebar and selecting ‘themes’. When you are checking them out make a note of ones that you would never use and later delete them. I recommend keeping the WordPress default theme just for emergencies. Later when you are playing around with themes trying to get the perfect look for your WordPress website or perhaps creating your own themes it will just be a hassle looking through the pages and pages of other themes that web hosts often provide. Delete them now and you will save yourself a lot of time.

Deleting and installing themes is currently not as easy as deleting plugins but I think in the future it will be. Let’s deal with the present though. To add or delete themes you need FTP access. FTP is just a system for uploading and downloading files to your server. Web hosts often provide several ways to do this and they will have details on their site.

*I spoke to soon. As of WordPress 2.8 you can also install and delete themes from your WordPress control panel.

Activate Permalinks

If you want people to find your website you will need to do SEO and that is not something that I am going to get into in this post but the Permalinks setting contributes to your SEO. Compare these two urls:

http://www.cafetemplates.com/?p=21

http://www.cafetemplates.com/2009/06/10/tips-for-installing-wordpress/

The second is with Permalinks activated and will help search engines to find your WordPress posts. Whether you activate it or not is up to you but I recommend it. To activate it follow these steps:

1. Under ‘Settings’ in the WordPress control panel select ‘permalinks’.
2. There are several settings to choose from but you should select one that includes ‘name’.
3. Press ‘Save Changes’ and that’s it.

*To get Akismet to work you will need a WordPress API key and to get one of those you need to join wordpress.com and they should mail you a key or you can find it in your control panel. This API key can be used for other plugins as well which I will mention later but if you don’t wish to join wordpress.com (it’s free) there are other options to stop spam. I might make a post about them at a later date.