Guide to Hiring a WordPress Developer

Published on: 23 February 2019 Last Updated on: 10 September 2024
WordPress Developer

Website development and management are but two of the many aspects related to digital marketing which every business today invests time and resources in. For convenient and efficient content building, WordPress provides an open and free platform for companies to take advantage of. Due to the popularity of WordPress, many website developers specialize in creating content for WordPress. On that note, how do you select a WordPress developer to work with?

Freelance vs web development agency:

The first factor you need to consider before hiring a web developer is whether to hire an agency or look for a freelancer. These options represent two ends of a spectrum with distinct advantages and drawbacks. A freelancer is typically cheaper and more flexible with time, while a web development agency is perhaps best for large-scale projects. In any case, consider the scope of your project as well as the long-term value of each option.

Look for someone local:

Freelance web developers work from home and location is not always a significant consideration. Nevertheless, there is an advantage to hiring a WordPress developer who is within your area. For example, Tim’s Solutions developed by Tim Oxendale, who is based in Wolverhampton, not only works remotely but also works extensively with local businesses.

The advantage of working with someone local is the greater understanding of the business landscape, which translates to an easier collaboration and better outcome.

Reputation and track record:

Experience and skills in creating high-quality content are next in your line of priorities when searching for a WordPress developer. Apart from knowledge of the latest techniques, a good WordPress developer is equally knowledgeable about strategies you need to employ to ensure that you are meeting the goals you have set.

A website is not a mere tool to expand your company’s online presence. It needs to increase brand recognition and generate leads that will translate to revenue. A WordPress developer can work beyond creation and management, and could also help provide you with vital insights on website performance and analytics.

Responsive to updates and communicates promptly:

One of the marks of an excellent web developer is responsiveness. This is especially true if you are working with a freelance developer. Apart from being able to adjust to schedule requirements, a reputable freelance WordPress developer responds to your queries promptly. The right developer does not shy away from feedback and criticism but instead welcomes your input on how to improve the results.

Expert knowledge and use of open-source software:

The quality of your website depends on how well the developer harnesses WordPress features and uses them to your advantage. An excellent WordPress website uses tools such as SEO and programming language like Python to increase its effectiveness. The site does not only need to look good, but it also has to be fast, user-friendly, and content-rich.

By choosing a developer who understands your needs, you can fully take advantage of the free features of WordPress in realizing a website that reflects your brand’s values and objectives.

Content Rally wrapped around an online publication where you can publish your own intellectuals. It is a publishing platform designed to make great stories by content creators. This is your era, your place to be online. So come forward share your views, thoughts and ideas via Content Rally.

View all posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related

Website Design

SEO Website Design Tips for Small Businesses

As a small business owner, you may feel like you need to do everything at once. Build your site, generate great content, advertise, keep up with search engine algorithms, learn who your audience is, learn who your competition is – and on and on that list goes. At these stressful moments, it is important to step back and remember the adage “slow and steady wins the race”. Your business wasn’t built overnight, and neither will your digital marketing be. The key to effectively marketing your small business is knowing where to put your efforts first. Website design is one of the most important elements of that and is a great place to start. Once you have the basics of your web design ironed out, you can do more work here and there to complete your digital marketing strategies over time. Not sure where to start? Our Nashville web designers offer six tips for getting started. SEO Website Design Tips for Small Businesses 1. Learn how Google Crawls Your Site As you are building your website and planning for your future in digital marketing, it is important to understand how Google crawls your site. That means understanding what it is that Google looks for on websites when they rank them in search engine results. Google’s algorithms change routinely, but there are a few concepts that are always the same – such as SEO and website design. When ranking websites, Google looks at factors like: Utility and usability (user-friendliness, page load speed, graphics loading, etc.) Content (quality long-form content) Long-tail keywords Related key terms Backlinks Internal linking strategy Optimized media 2. Choose a Clean and Simple Layout As you get started with website design, one of the best ways to start is by choosing a clean and simple website layout. You want users to be attracted to your site and engaged with it, but you don’t want it cluttered or distracting. Choose a design that speaks to your brand and mission. Choose a color scheme that matches your logo and branding. Make sure your font is easy to read.  Use the same template style for all pages. 3. Make Sure Your Site Performs Yes, Google crawls and ranks based on SEO, but they also crawl and rank based on performance. That means you should make sure your site is optimized for fast page load speed, mobile use, and image speed. If your site only works on a computer, you will lose an endless number of possible mobile users. 4. Use a Consistent Layout and Formatting Web design is just one aspect of building your brand. You should make sure that your website layout and formatting is consistent with other marketing materials, such as social media. Being consistent helps you establish your brand and makes you easily recognizable to customers from various platforms. 5. Use Every SEO Opportunity Search engines match up results with websites based on their optimization and relevance to the search term. That means you should use every SEO opportunity you have. That means including your keyword in the page title, meta description, and URL. If your page is titled “Best Dog Toys”, your meta description should include that phrase, and your URL should be something akin to www.yoursite.com/best-dog-toys. 6. Add Alternative Text on Your Images Alternative text, or ALT text, is an SEO tactic that seems small but can have big results. When you add an image to your webpage, you will have an option to add ALT text or an ALT tag. You want to put your keyword in that box so that search engines know that your image also links to your keyword for the page. Your images are indexed just like content. Put It All Together As you can see, there are many aspects to web design. For a small business, one of the best things you can do is to make a plan for where you will start and what goals you want to accomplish here and there. By using these six tips as you build your website, you will have a solid foundation for your digital marketing that will last a long time. For the latest trends and challenges in SEO click: https://whitepeak.io/blog/seo-trends-challenges-2022/ Read Also: Tips on Building Your Resume for a Website Design Company How to Design an Effective Company Website 7 Rules of Effective Ecommerce Web Design

READ MOREDetails
SEO-friendly theme

How do you choose an SEO-friendly theme for your website?

When it comes to giving your website a very attractive look and functions, themes play a unique role. Website templates let you design your site one way, which can help you to gain all the important elements in one place. The theme you are picking has a large impact on how your customers will interact with you over your website. Well, beauty and functions are not everything that you should consider about a site's theme. You must have a look at its SEO aspects which will help your website to gain a better performance potential. Hence it is advisable to pick a theme that is SEO friendly from the very beginning. So what are the factors that you must consider while picking an SEO-friendly theme? Have a look. Speed potential: Speed is the first thing that you must have a look at while picking a theme. Google mostly prioritizes those themes which have better loading speed. In case your website loading speed is slow, then it can impact your website traffic. A theme that is heavier with plenty of elements can slow down your website. In turn, it will affect your overall site's performance and ranking. Thus, while choosing an SEO-friendly theme, you must check out its size. Go for an optimized theme with better load speed to improve your ranking performance. Get your services from SEO New York who is an expert in getting you the best kind of themes. Plugin Compatibility Plugin compatibility is one of the essential parts of any website. They add better functionality to your site and, at the same time, reduce your coding effort. Even though installing too many plugins can slow down your site, using a good theme can reduce that pain point. Before you select a theme, make sure it supports all the popular plugins. It is better to check all the documentation and features of the theme before you purchase. Compatibility over browsers The more your website becomes browser-friendly, the more it will get accepted by a large audience base. Hence you must consider whether the theme you have picked is browser friendly or not. Your website must be visible and attractive from every browser. In case a particular browser does not support the theme code of your website, then it might not load properly, which will make the design appear in a skewed form. Hence, it had to be cross-browser compatible. Mobile friendly It is needed not to say how compatible mobile devices are when it comes to offering a searching benefit on the move. Since billions of people rely upon mobile devices to browse important things, you must design your website to become suitable for it. It is better to go for a theme that is highly mobile responsive that will benefit your SEO. Responsiveness  Responsiveness is something that every user demands from a site that they are browsing. The responsiveness of a website is highly dependent on a theme. Apart from the desktops, the website must be able to get accessed from a varied range of devices. To offer a seamless experience to your customer, you must look at the responsiveness of a theme that will not at all hamper the performance of your website. Consider Reading: Small Business SEO Website Design Tips Clean code A website is made of plenty of codes. In case your codes are quite poorly written, then it can highly affect the security and speed. Also, it will affect your resources. Hence the same is also applicable for your WordPress themes. A good theme that you can choose must include a clean code that can make your website SEO highly secure and reliable. Also, it will offer less downtime. A theme with clean code will boost your page loading speed, and at the same time, it will boost up your SEO ranking. Customer-friendly navigation A theme must have a unique kind of navigation ease that can guide your visitors quite easily on your site. View all of your details on your template navigation so that you can give your users a unique experience. The proper amount of CTA buttons, quick hamburger menus, site map, etc., can give your site a unique look and great kind of performance. At the same time, it will help the site crawlers to understand your page better and index it faster. Conclusion It is always better to go with the themes which have a higher potential to offer you the ultimate of performance accuracy. Thus you should go for a theme that uniquely delivers all the above-mentioned features to leverage the SEO of your site. Read Also: Best SEO Practices Melbourne Businesses Should Follow SEO Agencies Are the Experts at Improving Your Website Content The Top SEO Tools for 2021

READ MOREDetails
web design

Functionality – an important aspect of good web design: Sydney digital marketing services for your growth

The success or failure of any website is determined by its usability, functionality, and visual design. Keeping webpage visitors engaged and stimulating them to interact is a leading task for designers and web developers. If the visual components are balanced and exist in harmony, it inspires confidence. Also, with great and user-friendly web design, Sydney business owners can easily gain the following goals: win loyalty and establish clear communication with the target audience; become the leader in the industry; inform and inspire potential buyers; increase profitability; work with negative reviews, improving your promotion and advertising strategy; enter new markets. But the task of developing a highly-effective web resource doesn’t seem to be a straightforward one. Here are some valuable tips on building not just a web page that represents your business, but an indispensable tool to increase sales, overcome Australian competition, and grow your brand. Top web design features Internet users value: 1. The first impression matters Everything begins when a user enters your website. Thus, determining how users will interact with site content is just as important as taking care of the visual appeal of your pages. It’s all about a competent arrangement of colors, fonts, and elements on a page without unnecessary and distracting attention details. The key principle is to deliver only the needed information to the viewer. With the right visuals, you promote interactivity. With professionally written content, you will be able to highlight the features of your product or service. And by placing high-quality images, animations, infographics, and photos, you will fuel your overall marketing efforts. But remember, excessive visuals can harm your strategy, so apply graphics wisely. 2. Simple navigation enhances SEO From a user point of view, the navigation of the site should be intuitive. Then visitors can easily find exactly what they need, and search engines can index your pages without obstacles. After all, a disoriented visitor will simply go to your business opponents. Usability significantly affects a site's ability to rank higher in search results. If functionality and convenience won't be ignored, visitors will have a good impression of the brand. Also, the ranking algorithms will definitely take into account these two crucial for SEO aspects. 3. Build trust through the color scheme Pick colors that evoke the desired emotions in your visitors. For example, blue is associated with trustworthiness and professionalism, while red causes enthusiasm and joy. Beautiful and aesthetic pleasing web design with bold colors catch the minds and motivate for making instant purchases while weaker colors create contrast and strengthen the perception of the material. 4. Web design approach with mobile-first in mind.  If you want your site to be a stable source of organic traffic, invest in content optimization. Unresponsive websites won’t be able to hold mobile users until they will be ready to buy. Losing traffic due to poor mobile-friendliness leads to a decrease in sales. Prioritize the mobile-first factor and you will reach the top. 5. Slow loading speed alienates While slow sites kill conversions and your online reputation, faster sites obtain more clients, handling harsh competition environment.   Seeking solutions to boost site functionality and retain more customers, you should rely only on proficient web design Australian services offered by web agencies like Shtudio. Delivering powerful web creations through digital innovative tools, you will get impressive online marketing solutions, and more than just a website. Read Also: Questions To Ask When Working With A Web Developer 6 Things To Know Before Choosing Web Hosting For Your Website

READ MOREDetails