can't update plugins or wordpress or install new plugins

Try changing the permissions on the wp-content directory to 766. If you still have problems, try 767, 775 or 777. Once your upgrades are working, change the permissions on wp-content back to 755 again and check that everything still works OK.
https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Changing_File_Permissions

I have tried to change permissions but it won’t let me. I have tried using FTP as well as cPanel and nothing seems to work. I had a company build the site for me and supposedly I have complete control over everything, is there a way to verify that I don’t need them to do the updates for me (they will charge maintenance fees for any work performed on the site)?

The company who built the site are, presumably, separate from your web hosts, yes? It’s your hosts that you need to contact about this inability to change folder permissions and you’re already paying them for support as part of your hosting fees.

I believe the two are separate, hosting for the first year is included in the building of the site (I had to give them a GoDaddy account number for them to transfer the site into, but nothing on cPanel or anywhere else bears a GoDaddy resemblance). I can change permissions on some items, just not most items. Is manually installing a good idea? If I do a manual installation will that help to resolve the plugins updating issue?

Site url?

the site is https://www.ejflooring.com.

Your site is not hosted by GoDaddy. They’re just your domain registrars. The site itself appears to be hosted on a private server. Looks like you may have to go back to the company who set the site up for you.

That is what I thought. I have been beating my head against a wall for a couple of days trying to figure this out, and I finally decided that it may not be something I can do. Thanks for all your help, Eblumer.

I suggest that, after the first year is up, you look at moving the whole site to GoDaddy if they don’t sort this out for you asap and without any additional costs.

Their reasoning is that I accepted the site (signed off on it, therefore it was completed) and any changes from that day forward I have to pay for. I don’t mind paying for things I can’t do myself, but I think it’s pretty bad to force me to have to pay for items that I feel are not too difficult to do myself.

This all started because they put their own code for analytics into my site (even though I had given access to my Google account so they could use my analytics code), now I can’t link my adwords account to my analytics account until the code is changed. Do you know of a way for me to change their analytics code to mine?

I can understand the charge for changes but this isn’t a change. They should have either set up the folder permissions correctly from the get-go or ensured that you had the ability to change them as needed. My guess is that the server is incorrectly configured in such a way that you (ie the site) doesn’t own its own folders and, therefore, does not have the right to change their permissions. So it’s a clear oversight on their part that they should now rectify.

I think it’s pretty bad to force me to have to pay for items that I feel are not too difficult to do myself.

I agree. It’s important that site owners take responsibility for their own sites and learn how to do some of the general site ownership tasks – even if that does sometimes mean a stiff learning curve. It’s just possible that they’ve tied things down tightly to try and stop site owners from making major mistakes – thus bringing whole sites down – but that’s a very fine line to set up and removal of too much control is not a good thing long term.

See what they say about this issue. Point them at this thread if you think it will help. You never know – they may fix it quickly without any fuss.

Do you know of a way for me to change their analytics code to mine?

Looks like it’s just been added to your theme’s footer.php (which is the standard way to add it). I’ve placed a copy of the existing code at https://pastebin.com/wsmVimRe. Just edit footer.php in your current theme and replace that code with your own from Google.

Once the site is paid in full I may get full control (I guess they keep host of it so if I don’t pay on time they can take the site down). I will bring this up and point them in this direction. I was very pleased with the site itself when I signed off on it, there was no way of knowing at that time the other issues as the site was not “live” so tracking issues were not known then (I have been complaining about it since the day after launch). Thank you for the code snippet, I think that will resolve most issues.

As for conversion tracking, I have a second template set up (yet to be published) once I set this code in the .php of the current template I can place the conversion code in the other template and that will work correctly? Or does the code follow “theme” and not template so I have to start over again? Thank you again, you have been more than helpful.

If by “template”, you mean theme – then yes – add your analytics code to the footer.php file of the new theme. Ideally just before the closing </body></html?> tags.

So I need to set up a different theme, then use any template within that theme? What is the best way to set up a theme that looks like the rest of the site?

In most themes, all templates use the same footer.php file. If you are creating a custom page template, then you can call a specialised footer.php file using <?php get_footer('custom');?> where the new footer file is called footer-custom.php.

https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Function_Reference/get_footer