How to Install any Plugin on WordPress Website ?

Last Updated : 30 Mar, 2022

In WordPress, we can create any website easily, and having more features as per the user's need for adding these features we required something more for our WordPress website, and this extra thing is called the plugins which add more features to our WordPress website. The plugin is like the app for the WordPress website which adds more features to our WordPress website and makes it more dynamic and will support more features for the visitors.

With the help of the plugin, we can create the contact form for the visitors, and also we can make an Online shop with help of plugins.

Plugins are a piece of software that increases the functionality of the WordPress dashboard. Over 50, 000+ plugins are available in WordPress. However, it is suggested to use 15-20 plugins on a single website. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. They make it easier for users to add features to their website without knowing a single line of code.

Let's see how we can install any WordPress plugin to our WordPress website step by step:

Installing the Plugin using the WordPress Plugin Directory: WordPress dashboard has a section from where we can install the plugin by searching the particular plugin in the search box. It is the simplest way to install the plugin on the WordPress website, In the WordPress plugin directory there are thousands of plugins available for free and we can use them for our website.

Let's see how we can install plugins from the WordPress plugin directory -

Step 1: First go to the dashboard of the WordPress website by login into your WordPress dashboard and then go to the Plugin section and then click on "Add New".

Step 2: Now search the plugin name which you want to install to your WordPress website in the search box and the plugin for which you are searching will appear. Here for the demo purpose, I'm going to install the "WP Form" plugin.

Step 3: Now the "WP form" plugin will appear on the screen, to install the plugin click on the "Install Now" button.

Step 4: After installing the plugin click on the "Activate" button to activate the plugin.

Step 5: After the successful activation of the plugin, the plugin name starts appearing on the WordPress dashboard.

Here our "WP form" plugin is successfully get installed on our WordPress website. This is how we can install any of the WordPress plugins from the WordPress plugin directory.

Installing the Plugin by uploading it to WordPress Dashboard:

Sometimes we want to upload the plugin with some of the customizations or the plugin did not available in the WordPress plugin directory that is why we need to upload the plugin using the plugin upload option.

Let's see how we can upload the plugin from our computer to WordPress step by step -

Step 1: First go to the Plugin section and then click on "Add New".

Step 2: After clicking on the "Add New" button you will be redirected to the Plugin area. Now click on the "Upload Plugin" button to upload the plugin which you want to upload to your WordPress website. For the Demo purpose here I'm going to upload the "Contact form" plugin.

After clicking on the "Upload Plugin" button, the upload dialogue box will appear for uploading the plugin.

Step 3: Now choose the plugin from your computer where you have downloaded the plugin, make sure that the plugin should be in the zip format.

Step 4: After choosing the plugin from your computer click on the "Install Now" button.

Step 5: After installing the plugin the activation dialogue box will appear on the screen, Now you have to click on the "Activate Plugin" button to activate the plugin.