Its no secret that WordPress is one of the, if not THE best, blogging platforms around. And one of the best things about it is the large number of plugins that it provides from the large community which supports it. So how do you install a wordpress plugin? Well there are 3 ways of which I know.  As always, read on.

Well you must be knowing 2 if not 3 of the below methods already. The third option is a method commonly used by many bloggers, however there are still seasoned bloggers who don’t know about it.

Here are the three methods we will be taking a look at:

1. Upload Via FTP
2. Search and install via your blog’s plugins page
3. Install using One Click Plugin Updater plugin

Upload Via FTP

The most common and recommended method is to download your plugin and then upload it to your server via a FTP client like FileZilla.

In this process you find the plugin you want to install to your blog, download it to your computer and then upload it via the FTP software to your plugins directory/folder of your web-host (which is situated in the wp-content folder). Alternatively you could use an online File Manager provided from your web-hosting provider.

Plugins folder (as seen in FileZilla)

Search and install via your blog’s plugins page

This method works only for installation of plugins that are hosted on WordPress’s Plugin Directory. There are thousands of plugins hosted here so there may not be a need for you to go searching elsewhere.

So the first step here is to search for a suitable plugin in the directory. Alternatively you can search for the plugin via the Add New page in the Plugins section of your WordPress dashboard (yourdomain.com/wp-admin/plugin-install.php).

Search for the plugin

Once you press the Search Plugin button, the WordPress software searches for matches and presents a list to you.

Search results for the plugin

In this case the first result is the one we were targeting. So just click Install to the right of the result. Now a lightbox-type pop-up should open up. Click on install once again.

Now the plugin will be automatically downloaded and installed for you. When the page refreshes just search for the Activate Plugin link and click on it. Now your plugin is activated and you are ready to go!

Install using One Click Plugin Updater plugin

Well using the previous method, you could install plugins without using a FTP client. But the one condition was that you could only install plugins that were hosted on WordPress’s Plugin Directory.

To overcome this drawback, here is a plugin called One Click Plugin Updater. Firstly, use any of the above two methods to install this plugin. Now when you activate it you’ll get an option called Install a Plugin in your Plugins menu.

Search for the plugin you want to install. Now get the download link (by right-clicking and selecting ‘Copy Link Location’ or something similar), go to the Install a Plugin page and insert it into the top-most text-box, titled URL. Select the type as Plugin and click on Install.

Installing the plugin using One Click Plugin Updater

Thats it now, when the page refreshes just click on the Activate Plugin and I guess you can take over from there. You can also upload a plugin, which you might have earlier downloaded and stored away on your PC.

Interestingly the One Click Plugin Updater also allows you to install themes, without using a FTP software. Its similar to installing a Plugin, only change the type option to Theme.

So how did you find this article. Know about more ways to install a plugin? Please do share it with us.

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