How to Hire the Right WordPress Developer

A person with little technical background can set up and manage a WordPress website. But to unlock the full power of WordPress, you need a software developer with specific WordPress know-how.

Once you've had a WordPress site setup (and with the right process in place), you can update your content without calling on a developer.

Why you need a WordPress developer

A WordPress developer is typically responsible for the back-end or front-end development of WordPress sites.

Uploading and updating content can be done with little technical skills. But creating, maintaining, customizing, and updating a WordPress site will require more than the simple drag-and-drop.

To maximize the power of the platform, you'll need to hire a WordPress developer.

What skills does a WordPress Developer Need?

An ideal WordPress developer possesses front-end and back-end development skills. You'll be looking for someone proficient in HTML, CSS, Javascript, jQuery, and PHP.

The following are typical tasks for a WordPress developer:

Optimize your site's theme to perform well on mobile and desktop.

Cooperate with the marketing team to make a website enhancement that will increase sales, acquire more customers, and increase retention rates.

Troubleshoot issues, especially ones that are specific to WordPress.

Develop packages, components, and plugins that can be used in multiple projects.

Manage the hosting, security, and maintenance of a WordPress site.

Integrate a WordPress site with e-commerce platforms like Shopify, Woo-commerce, or Big Commerce.

Integrate a WordPress site with a content delivery network like Cloudflare to make the site faster across different geographical locations.

How do you hire a WordPress developer?

Through a software development company

Hiring a developer through a software development company might be pricier than hiring freelancers. But it might be a more reliable option.

This is because there are quality controls in place to ensure that a software developer's work complies with high standards.

Some of these quality controls are:

• Technical mentoring and coaching
• Management from senior developers
• Transparent time logs and billing
• Training to enhance relevant skills

Through freelancing platforms

Although they can be challenging to find, there are many world-class WordPress developers that you can hire through freelancing platforms.

Some of the most popular freelancing platforms are Codeable, Toptal, Upwork, Freelancer, and Fiverr.

The people behind WordPress.org also maintain WordPress.net, a job posting site specific to WordPress development.

At WordPress.net, you can post job openings to attract applications.

Hiring a WordPress developer is a commitment. Once you do so, it means that you have decided to choose WordPress as the platform that your website will run on.

If you're having second thoughts, it's worth looking at the benefits and disadvantages of using WordPress as your platform of choice.

Benefits of WordPress

It comes with a CMS

A content management system is a way to create and edit the content on a website. There are other ways to do so, but a CMS is the quickest way for non-technical people to edit web content.

Quick to build

It's impossible to put an exact figure into how many hours it will take to develop a custom WordPress site.

For a basic site with an existing theme, it can take only four to eight hours to get the site up and running.

But there's a catch: this estimate excludes the design phase since we're only customizing an existing theme. That's only minimal customization to the theme and a handful of plugins.

Revisions can eat up a few extra days -- possibly a week.

However, building a WordPress site does beat building a website from scratch.

Plenty of hosting options

Hosting is a crucial component of building a website. You need space to save all your files, photos, and data.

It's possible but highly impractical to host your website on your computer. So you need to buy a hosting service -- a remote location to store your website files.

The following are the requirements for a hosting service, from WordPress' requirements page says:

• PHP version 7.4 or greater.
• MySQL version 5.7 or greater OR MariaDB version 10.3 or greater.
• HTTPS support

It's easy to find a hosting service that meets all these requirements. However, you'll need the right host so that your website can outperform the competition.

WordPress has an official list of its recommended hosting services.

Bluehost, DreamHost, and SiteGround are hosting services that allow you to set up your WordPress site without coding.

Bluehost and Siteground are managed hosting services. They offer tools and support that are specific to WordPress. Managed hosting is best for people with limited technical know-how.

Please consider: If you purchase a hosting service through the WordPress.org site, a portion of your fee will go back to the community.

WordPress is a non-profit company. Donations and referrals help keep the site going.

There are also hosting services outside of those recommended by WordPress.

When choosing a hosting service for your WordPress site, there are some things you can consider:

How easy is it to install WordPress into the hosting site? Are there free backups? If so, how frequent? Is it easy to migrate your existing site? Do they offer a free SSL? Do they offer flexible billing? Some services may accept only annual payments. Do they offer unmetered bandwidth? What's the feedback on their customer service? Do they offer a free email account?

Downside of WordPress

Some plugins may cause errors on your site

A perfectly working plugin may one day cause trouble on your WordPress site. Plugin errors may happen when you update a plugin or when you install a new, incompatible plugin.

Incompatibility between plugins often happens because two plugins are trying to change the same feature in different ways.

A plugin error can also happen when you update your WordPress version. (Like every software, WordPress has different versions that are updated periodically to enhance performance and security.)

Some plugins may affect page load speed

Plugins are important to add features to WordPress. But some plugins may be slow and can affect the time it takes for a page to load.

Themes and plugins can be a potential source of vulnerability

Since themes and plugins are developed by other people, you need to be careful in choosing which ones to add to your site.

Conclusion

WordPress is an excellent platform for a website. While it requires technical skills to set up and maintain, its CMS allows non-technical people to create content.

The crucial step is finding the right developer.

Do you need a professional opinion in hiring a WordPress developer? We encourage you to schedule a meeting with our chief technology offer (CTO).