With various CMS options available today, such as Wix, WordPress, Drupal, and others, choosing the right platform can significantly impact your website’s performance, and hence, your online success. However, WordPress stands out as a preferred choice due to its ability to create stable, scalable, fast-loading, and user-friendly websites with various plugins and themes. As of June 2024, it is known to power over 43.4% of all websites on the internet, making it one of the most popular CMS in the world.
However, to truly benefit from it, hiring skilled WordPress developers is the right way to go. Wondering why? This blog will explore why hiring experienced WordPress developers is essential to maximizing the platform’s benefits.
Why WordPress?
WordPress offers several features for robust web development. Let’s explore some of them.
Customizations
WordPress has long been known for its extensive customization scope. With more than 12,000 free themes and countless plugins, it allows you to tailor websites as per specific branding requirements. This ensures your websites deliver a user-friendly and engaging experience.
Additionally, you can expand the functionality by adding any of the freely available 59,000 plugins. With these add-ons, you can add new features, enhance existing ones, and also integrate third-party services like payment gateways. Another advantage of leveraging WordPress for website development is that you can integrate plugins like Yoast for SEO, WP Rocket for site speed, MonesterInsights for in-depth analytics, and many more for specific functionalities.
However, you may have to hire WordPress developers to fully leverage these options. Moreover, as your business grows, handling the entire WordPress backend along with security becomes a challenging task. You’ll need some additional support, either from your in-house team or from a professional WordPress service provider.
SEO-Friendly
Due to its inherent design and structure, WordPress is extremely SEO-friendly. Many of its features focus on helping websites rank higher in the SERPs, hence improving conversion scope and rates. Here are some of the aspects that make it SEO-friendly:
- Structured and clean code that search engines like Google, Bing, Yandex, Yahoo, Baidu, etc. can easily read and index. This makes it easier to rank based on the relevance of your content.
- WordPress allows URL customizations to make them more readable and keyword-rich. For instance, instead of a generic permalink such as XYZ.com/12?=p, you can alter it to have XYZ.com/your-keyword, making it more SEO-centric.
- You can easily integrate meta tags and descriptions through plugins like Yoast SEO and All in One SEO Pack. This helps search engines understand your pages.
- With WordPress web development, you can easily optimize images with alt text, captions, and short descriptions.
- WordPress plugins can generate XML sitemaps, which help search engines index your site more effectively.
However, if you’re not too familiar with SEO tactics or find it challenging to handle this aspect alongside other crucial business activities, hiring a WordPress programmer will be a better choice. They can oversee the above configurations while you focus on growing your business.
Website Security
A secure website builds user trust, ensuring visitors feel safe when browsing, providing personal information, or making a purchase. WordPress, with its strong emphasis on security, is a preferred platform for website development. It offers multiple features to keep your pages secure, such as a stringent user role management system that allows administrators to assign specific roles and permissions to users.
Here are some other security features that make WordPress a preferred website development platform:
- With regular core software updates, WordPress addresses security vulnerabilities to improve overall system robustness. This includes protection against evolving cyber threats and malware.
- Various security plugins like Wordfence, Sucuri, and iThemes Security.
- Two-factor authentication (2FA) to add a layer of security for all user logins.
- Configurable plugins and themes to reduce the risk of vulnerabilities that outdated software can introduce.
- WordPress security plugins offer file integrity monitoring. This feature alerts administrators to any unauthorized changes in the core files, themes, or plugins, helping to detect potential security threats early on.
Handling these operations requires a certain level of technical expertise, particularly because of the complex nature of security configurations and the constantly evolving cyber threats. Additionally, since each plugin has its own security vulnerabilities, ensuring that all are accurately configured can become quite challenging. In these situations, hiring WordPress developers is the most advantageous approach.
What to Look for in a WordPress Developer?
Vetting and hiring a suitable WordPress developer can be a challenging task, especially if you’re someone with a non-technical background and limited knowledge of CMS. However, by focusing on certain key aspects, you can make the right decision. Here are a few areas to pay attention to:
1. Technical Skills
The WordPress programmer you hire should have extensive knowledge of advanced programming languages like JavaScript, PHP, SQL, CSS, etc. Proficiency in these languages is crucial for building and customizing plugins and themes for specific functionalities.
2. Experience with WordPress Design and Development
Before hiring a WordPress developer, consider their experience with the CMS. Your developer should be capable of installing and configuring WordPress, including all necessary settings in the backend. Moreover, familiarity with WordPress page builders like Elementor or Divi can also be beneficial for designing interactive and intuitive websites.
3. SEO Proficiency
SEO skills are non-negotiable when it comes to website development, regardless of the channel/platform. Your WordPress developers must be familiar with basic SEO tactics and should know how to use SEO plugins like Yoast, All in One SEO, and Rank Math to optimize your website through WordPress in real time.
4. Business Acumen
Hire WordPress programmers who have business acumen. They must understand your business as well as your target audience’s pain areas to design and build a website that aligns with your goals and meets consumer demands.
Hiring WordPress Developers: Options and Considerations
Before hiring a WordPress programmer, consider a suitable hiring model. Decide whether you want to augment your in-house team, engage with a freelancer, or outsource to a WordPress development service provider.
- In-House Hiring: Permanently hiring WordPress experts provides better control over the project and ensures seamless collaboration. They can quickly integrate with your existing team and align with the company’s goals and culture. However, this can be a costly commitment, especially if your requirements aren’t consistent.
- Freelance Engagement: Engaging with a freelancer is ideal when you need flexibility and cost savings for specific projects or short-term needs. Freelancers work on a contract or project basis, giving you the flexibility to scale your resources as needed. This model is cost-effective and allows you to bring in specialized skills for targeted tasks.
Outsourcing WordPress Development: Outsourcing development to a reliable WordPress development service provider gives you access to a team of experts who can handle the entire process. From website design to deployment, they ensure high-quality results while keeping you updated. Over time, this model proves to be the most efficient and cost-effective, as it provides comprehensive services without the need for extensive in-house management.
Key Takeaways
WordPress’s growing demand and corresponding user base underscores its position as a top choice for businesses aiming to venture into and succeed in the competitive online world. With robust security features, a user-friendly interface, and a scalable design, it has cemented its status as a leading CMS. However, to truly benefit from its versatility, you must have the necessary know-how. If you lack the time or knowledge, collaborating and hiring expert WordPress developers is a great way. With their help, you can create a tailored, scalable web solution that meets your business needs, is highly functional, and drives more conversions & profits.
