I learned that plugins are like little tools you add to WordPress to make your site do more things. I found out it’s important to only use plugins from the official WordPress.org site because they are safer. I also look for plugins that have a lot of users, good reviews, and that have been updated recently. If a plugin hasn’t been updated in a long time, I skip it because it might not work well.
Besides WordPress.org, sometimes plugins can be found on a trusted developer’s website or plugin marketplaces like CodeCanyon. I always make sure the source is safe before I install anything.
I chose the Smush plugin for my site because it helps make my picture smaller and faster to load. Before choosing Smush, I also looked at EWWW Image optimizer and ShortPixel Image Optimizer. I chose Smush, because it was easy to use and worked automatically. My site has a lot of fruit drink photos, so this is helpful. I like that Smush works by itself; I don’t have to do anything special, and people visiting my site don’t have to do anything either. It just helps my site work better in the background.