Hello everyone, this series is intended for everyone who doesn’t know how to use WordPress, like me! Today we will talk about adding WordPress Plugins.
Let’s start off with what plugins are. Plugins are additional pieces of software that you can add to a bigger piece of software, take WordPress as an example, which can add additional features that, before, weren’t there. An example of a feature that is added in WordPress is automatically posting articles to Facebook and other social networking sites.
Add New Plugin
To add plugins to WordPress, simply go into the dashboard, then select “Plugins”, then once in the plugins page, you can remove, activate and deactivate plugins. To add plugins, simply click on “Add New”, which is below “Installed Plugins”, then there should be a search box. In the search box simply put in the plugin name of keyword, as an example, let’s try to install a plugin that adds links to Facebook automatically. Search for “Facebook”, and then there are lots of plugins to choose, but you need to pick the right one, so read the description, and check the rating. So the plugin that seems like a good choice here is “Add Link to Facebook”, do click “Install Now”, which is below the plugin in the list, then a pop-up box asks you if you’re sure, click “ok”. After that, it installs the plugin and redirects you a page that tells you that it’s installed and gives you the option of activating it or returning to plugin installer, simply click “Activate Plugin”, and now you have a new plugin, and a way to automatically link your articles to Facebook.
Also remember that not all plugins can do more good than bad, for example, my Dad had a plugin before that took some stress of the server by making a cache in the site (I think), but after some time, all the articles published showed nothing but some kind of code, so be wary, and if there are problems, try deactivating plugins first, and if that fixes the problem, look for the specific plugin that causes the problem. Another thing is to check the version, that can sometimes cause problems if you chose the wrong version (if you did some research and found a plugin).
Also I would suggest installing a “Maintenance Mode” plugin in case of a problem, or if your changing something. Simply search for “maintenance” and I chose “WP Maintenance Mode” from the list and don’t activate it unless needed.
I hope this helped you with your own site, if not, then feel free to ask questions in the comments. Even if you understood it, ask questions, and I’ll try to answer them. 
And if you have any suggestions about future N00b’s guides, post them in the comments, and I’ll try to learn them, and do a guide.