In the age of virtual ‘everything’, a highly functional and engaging website for your business is a prerequisite.
Your website is the gateway to your customers as well as establishing a reputation as a brand.
Therefore, hiring the right WordPress developer is a critical decision. Let us walk you through the key points to consider while engaging a WordPress developer for your business.
Let’s dig through a few steps you need to follow and things you need to consider.
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Table of Contents
Determining what you need
If your requirements and timeline are either tight or your project is complicated, you should decide to hire a WordPress developer.
If you are asking a developer to develop your WordPress site, you need to first understand a few things.
You’ve got to first to decide what are you looking for in your website.
Which of the following categories does your site fall into:
- static website
- blogging site
- ecommerce site
- portfolio site
- directories and listings
- social media
- magazine style
There are so many different types of sites, and you need to find a developer who specializes in the type you need.
List down the job descriptions and then get quotes from developers.
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Decide between freelancers or a team
The decision will ultimately affect the final cost of your project.
Deciding whether you want to hire a freelancer developer or a team of developers is something you need to do at an early stage.
Developers
When you choose a team of developers, there is a project manager that acts as one point of contact.
One major negative is the cost. Working with an agency or company can add on a big markup.
The benefit, however, is that you often have access to a team with a wider range of capabilities and you get more attention paid to all the small details of your site with subject matter experts.
Freelancers
With freelancers working for your project, they are not dependent on anyone else to complete their work.
The benefit here can be that you have more direct access to decision making and a more dedicated person to work with.
The negative side is that the size of your team could be limited.
The cost could also be lower with a freelancer.
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Check your developer’s past work
Ask for samples of completed projects that your developer has worked on.
A portfolio of previous work would give you an idea if they can work according to your need.
If possible, ask for references as well, or you could check Google reviews or reviews on social media platforms.
A diverse portfolio would also mean that the developer can give ideas that you might not have thought – ideas which the developer has seen work for others.
A diverse portfolio would also mean that the developer can integrate more features into your work.
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Meeting timelines and responsiveness
Completing the project on time is a critical factor in your selection, and you need to ensure that the developer you hire has the potential to meet the deadlines you need to meet.
For a successful businessperson, you should hire a service-minded developer.
Also, you should keep a buffer time between the final draft of the project, since you might want to tweak particulars of the site before the final launch.
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Communication skills
Make sure to keep all communications limited to one platform of you can – emails or chat / project management tools.
It makes it easier to keep track of conversations.
A great WordPress developer must be responsive and efficient at anticipating your challenges. So, mutually agree on a clear set of guidelines about what time and schedule you want to adhere to for check-ins/updates?
Consider how to communicate if doubts or questions arise as well as determine your preferred method of communicating.
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Value vs cost
The cost of your project will depend on the scope of your project, the complexity of the project, and the expertise of the WordPress website developer that you have hired.
Expense is without a doubt a major issue with regards to hiring a WordPress development company. However, before you hire developers, you can still do an approximate calculation of the cost to get an idea of whether the company’s expertise outweighs the cost.
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Review the work
Reviewing code from previous projects is an important step in the process to hire a WordPress developer as you can get an idea about their work’s performance.
You can see the type of code they right to ensure you won’t end up with a mess if you try to go back and make updates later.
Reviewing code is a powerful method to check the work quality.
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Check client feedback / testimonials
You can read through reviews and case studies to develop a firm assessment of the company or freelancers you want to work with.
Case studies offer a glimpse of how an agency performed when developing a website.
The reviews written by real clients will help you to make a final, educated decision about hiring the right WordPress developer.
Wrapping it up
You can consider the above-mentioned tips for hiring a WordPress developer or agency to help you ensure that you’re taking care of all your company’s website requirements successfully.
Go for a company or freelancers that can work according to your goals and provides value-added service.
Before you spend money, do some research to know whether it is the right decision for you or not. Finding the right partner doesn’t always have to be difficult.
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- What to Know When Hiring a WordPress Development Company? - December 3, 2020
I must show my admiration for your kindness giving support to marketers who require guidance on how to develop a WordPress site (our favorite CRM, by the way). Your special dedication to passing the solution along was definitely beneficial and has truly enabled people like me to realize their desired goals. Your new interesting advice applies so much to me and additionally to my peers.
Thanks, Cassey. Not every business has the resources in house to build a WordPress site (or a site using any CRM or custom build for that matter). Hopefully this advice has been useful and you were able to make a decision about whether or not to hire someone!