Themes
Your website will have a custom theme set up during development. This theme helps keep your website in line with your brand and makes it easier to make changes to your website in the future.
How to view your custom theme
Be careful not to make changes in this area. All the settings are carefully adjusted during development. Any changes you will make will be either in Pages via Elementor or in the Posts area (for your blog, if you have one).
If you need to install third-party tracking scripts or have some advance CSS needs, it’s best to contact support to avoid making accidental changes to the foundation of your website.
To see your theme, select Appearance in the left-hand sidebar and then click on Themes. The custom theme set up for your site will show as Active, letting you know that it is the current theme in effect.
Plugins
Plugins are add-ons that offer a framework for the functionality of your site. Typically, site will have somewhere around 20 plugins added during development. If a site is more complex or has a lot of different functionalities, there may be more.
Elementor and Gravity Forms are both plugins that you’ll find on your site. It’s easy to see how plugins form the basic framework of your site
How to view your plugins
If you want to look at the list of plugins that are installed on your site, select Plugins in the left-hand sidebar to view the Plugins page.
Adding new plugins
You can add new plugins to your site if you desire. At the top of the Plugin page, you’ll see an Add New button. Click on this to go to the WordPress repository where you can browse all the of the free plugins available through WordPress.
There are also plugins available through third parties, as well as paid plugins
Add plugins sparingly. Every plugin you add to your site is a potential security risk and each plugin has the potential to slow down your site, sometimes dramatically. Site speed is important both for user experience and SEO.
Preferred plugins
Some plugins will interfere with each other, but the ones that are installed during development have been carefully selected and set up. If new plugins are added, it’s important to determine that they won’t interfere with other plugins.
Sometimes certain parts of a plugin will be disabled in development because they are not being used. For a new functionality, your site may already have a plugin that can accomplish what you’re looking for.
If you want to a new functionality or are interested in a particular plugin, reach out to support. There may be an optimal choice to keep your site running effectively.
Plugin maintenance
Plugins require regular maintenance and updates, just like the rest of your site. This upkeep is included in your hosting and maintenance care plan. 🥳
If you add a new plugin, you’ll need to pass along the license information so they can be maintained along with the rest of the plugins on your site.
For security reasons, unlicensed or illegally acquired plugins won’t be permitted with your care plan.