3 Easy Ways to Install New Plugins on a WordPress Website

For those of you who are using WordPress for the first time self-hosted Of course, you must know how to install a WordPress plugin because you will often use it later.

This tutorial provides a complete guide on how to install a WordPress plugin, complete with screenshots for illustration. There are at least three methods you can take.

If one of them doesn’t work because of a technical problem, you can still use an alternative route.

Notes: The following tutorial uses screenshots in English, it may be slightly different from the Indonesian version, but in general the appearance is the same.

Method #1: Install the plugin from WordPress directly

This method is the most popular because it is more efficient and does not sacrifice a lot of internet quota. Plugins stored on database WordPress is directly delivered to your site without intermediary client computers.

1. Go to your WordPress dashboard, in the Plugins section, click Add New.

2. You can use the search field to search for a specific plugin.

3. Once found, click Install Now on the plugin and then wait for the installation process to run.

4. Then click Activate to activate the plugin.

Method #2: Install the WordPress plugin by uploading

This method is often used in the case of using premium plugins which are usually sold on third-party sites and are not available for free on WordPress. The mechanism is more or less the same as the previous method but bandwidth the quota used is larger.

1. Go to the WordPress dashboard, in the Plugins section, click Add New then click Plugin Upload.

2. Select the .ZIP-formatted plugin file then click Install Now.

3. After the plugin is uploaded and installed, click Activate Plugin.

Method #3: Install WordPress plugin via cPanel (File Manager)

This is the most complex but is very useful if the previous two methods don’t work, usually due to the hosting provider limiting the size of files uploaded directly via WordPress.

1. Go to your hosting account’s cPanel page and select File Manager.

2. Go to your WordPress site name folder directory, then go to wp-contentthen plugins. After that click the button Upload in the top bar.

3. A new browser tab will open, showing an area where you can upload plugins to WordPress via the “back door”. Just select the file and wait until the upload process is complete.

4. After the upload process is complete, return to the File Manager tab earlier then Reload to reload the file list.

5. You will see the raw file of the uploaded plugin. Right click then click Extract.

6. Directly click Extract File(s) to extract it in the folder where the plugin is located.

7. When finished, click Close.

8. The plugin’s raw file is no longer useful. You can delete it by right-clicking then Delete.

9. Tick Skip the trash and permanently delete the files then Confirm.

10. Finally, log in to the WordPress dashboard and then go to Installed Plugins. There is a plugin that you have uploaded, click Activate to activate it.

Those are 3 ways to install a WordPress plugin. The more often you do it, the more familiar you will become with the method above.

TIPS: If you experience problems with certain plugin versions, you can still rollback WordPress plugins instantly.

In addition, each plugin has its own configuration. One plugin to another can be very different and require special adaptation to use.

WordPress itself has provided a forum where users can ask technical problems. If you experience problems with certain plugins, the answers from the developer will certainly be very helpful.