As I’ve talked about before, one thing that makes WordPress such a powerful tool and content management system (CMS), is that it is very extensible. Through plugins and themes, you can change a lot about how WordPress works by default.

A big reason why we use plugins is that we can do it without touching any of the core files in WordPress. That way our changes won’t affect anyone else’s website who doesn’t also use that plugin.

I’ve built several plugins to help make a website do what I need for a customer. Some plugins may be small, while others can be quite elaborate. Additionally, I’ve used a lot of plugins to completely change how sites function, both for my own sites and client sites.

My most commonly used plugins, besides JetPack, are things to optimize performance, such as W3 Total Cache, and Smush. Plugins to increase security, like Wordfence, and integrations for SSO (Single Sign On) and CDN (Content Delivery Networks.) Depending upon the sites, I might incorporate other plugins as well.

Here are some examples of how and where plugins can extend WordPress’s functionality:

Site Performance & Optimization

  • Caching plugins (e.g., WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache) improve load speeds.
  • Image optimization (e.g., Smush, ShortPixel) compresses images without quality loss.
  • Lazy loading helps defer non-critical assets for faster initial page loads.

SEO & Marketing

  • SEO plugins (e.g., Yoast SEO, Rank Math) optimize content for search engines.
  • Schema markup adds structured data to improve search result visibility.
  • Analytics integration (e.g., Google Site Kit) tracks visitor behavior.

Security & Maintenance

  • Security plugins (e.g., Wordfence, Sucuri) protect against malware and attacks.
  • Backup plugins (e.g., UpdraftPlus, BackupBuddy) create automatic backups.
  • Spam protection (e.g., Akismet) filters out spam comments and form submissions.

E-commerce & Payment Processing

  • WooCommerce enables online stores with product pages, carts, and checkout.
  • Payment gateway integrations (e.g., Stripe, PayPal) process transactions securely.
  • Subscription and membership plugins allow paid content access (e.g., MemberPress).

Design & UI Enhancements

  • Page builders (e.g., Elementor, Beaver Builder) provide drag-and-drop design tools.
  • Custom widgets and shortcodes add flexible design elements.
  • Theme customization plugins (e.g., YellowPencil) allow visual edits without coding.

Forms & User Interaction

  • Contact forms (e.g., WPForms, Gravity Forms) allow user submissions.
  • Live chat (e.g., Tawk.to, LiveChat) enables real-time customer support.
  • Polls and quizzes (e.g., Quiz and Survey Master) boost engagement.

Content Management & Enhancement

  • Custom post types help create specialized content beyond blogs and pages.
  • Table of contents plugins improve navigation within long articles.
  • Related posts and internal linking plugins boost on-site engagement.

Membership, LMS & Community Features

  • Learning management systems (LMS) (e.g., LearnDash) create online courses.
  • Membership sites allow premium content access (e.g., Restrict Content Pro).
  • Forum and social network plugins (e.g., BuddyPress, bbPress) build communities.

Automation & Integrations

  • CRM plugins (e.g., HubSpot, WP ERP) manage customer relationships.
  • Email marketing (e.g., Mailchimp, ConvertKit) automates campaigns.
  • Webhooks and API plugins integrate with external apps and services.

WordPress plugins can transform a basic site into anything from a blog to an e-commerce powerhouse, an online course platform, or a membership community. What kind of functionality are you looking to add?

What Can a WordPress Plugin Do? was originally found on Access 2 Learn

Assistant Professor

Walter Wimberly is an Assistant Professor at a regional college in Tennessee, teaching Computer Science in the Software Engineering track. He works as a student advisor, oversees curriculum changes, develops new courses, and manages the advisory panel.
Walter taught full time for about 7 years, before going back into “industry” as a full stack Software Developer for a dozen years. There he focused on web based projects coding in JavaScript/jQuery and utilizing the Bootstrap CSS Framework on the front-end, and coding in PHP, ASP/ASP.Net, SQL on the back-end.

Since he loves teaching, he taught as an adjunct web and digital media classes for eight (8) years, while working in industry, and has since returned to teaching full time.

He has been married for over 25 years, and is father to several special needs boys. As such, he is working on some projects to help others who have special needs to be self-sufficient, and support the care givers of those with special needs. Check out his Autism blog for more info.

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