Advanced Settings of WordPress

A plugin is a piece of code that expands the functionality of software in one way or another. Because WordPress is open source software, there are numerous plugins to allow you to add capabilities to your site. There are many thousands of such pieces of code in the WordPress plugin repository.

WordPress plugin repository

We will show how to install a few popular and commons plugins for our faculty and students, including Analytics and Twitter Feeds.

If you want to be able to track how many people are visiting your site, from where, and other details, then you will need to install some sort of analytics tracking. You’ll need to sign up for an account with Google Analytics first and let them know which website you’re tracking. Then they give you a tracking ID, which you use when you set up your site to be measured.

Go to “Plugins” → “Add New” in the left sidebar. Search “Google Analytics for WP” in the search engine.

From a list of results, select “Google Analytics Dashboard for WP”, and click “Install Now”.

Click “Activate Plugin” on this page.

When you are back to the Dashboard, you will see “Google Analytics” appears on your left sidebar. Register an account in Google Analytics, and start tracking your the traffic of your website.

If you want to install a Twitter feed on your site, you can do so manually using the Twitter widget generator but that requires that you log in to your Twitter account, define the kind of feed you want. You can have a feed that shows all of your own or some other user’s tweets, or shows all the tweets from a list of users, or all tweets using a particular hashtag.

Log in to your Twitter and generate the widget from here. Twitter widget generator

To add a Twitter feeds widget, click “Create New.”

You will be asked what you would like to add in the Twitter Feeds. After customizing it, click “Create widget.”

After creating a widget, you will see lines of codes in the box shown under the Preview. Copy and Paste the code, then go back to your WordPress Dashboard.

Back in your WordPress Dashboard, go to “Appearance” → “Widgets.” At the bottom of the Widget page, find click “Text,” then “Add Widget.”

After adding a Widget, you will see an area on the right side of the screen asking you to fill in the Title and Content for this widget. Give your widget a title, paste the codes you just copied from the Twitter Widget in the “Content” area, then click “Save.” Now you will be able to see the Twitter feed on your website.

After adding a Widget, you will see an area on the right side of the screen asking If you would like to add other plugins. Please see WordPress plugin repository for more plugins.

If you need any help, please email commons.georgetown.edu.