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You might be considering using WordPress for your web development project. You have good reasons for this line of thinking. WordPress enjoys great popularity among content management systems, and experts estimate that it powered 35% of Internet sites in 2020.
You can take advantage of the rich ecosystem of WordPress themes and plugins. For popular categories of websites like eCommerce, WordPress has special-purpose themes and plugins.
Small business owners can easily launch WordPress sites. They can make them look appealing with tools like Beaver Builder and Elementor. These tools help them to create professional-looking landing pages and other webpages.
Many web developers have learned website design and development using WordPress. Developers can learn WordPress easily since they can easily access comprehensive WordPress training. That’s another advantage for a business owner.
You might think that hiring WordPress consultants would be easy. However, finding a competent WordPress developer requires a good deal of work.
You need to take the following steps:
- Analyze your project requirement;
- Familiarize yourself with the skill requirements;
- Choose a hiring platform;
- Interview candidates;
- Onboard WordPress consultants effectively.
We now elaborate on these steps:
1. Analyze your project requirements and business needs
Take a close look at your project requirements. That will help you to determine the kind of WordPress consultants you need and their level of experience.
Are you building an e-Commerce website? Alternatively, are you building a website for bloggers? You need consultants that know the relevant WordPress theme you chose. They should know the plug-ins you need and how to use various widgets. You need a mid-level WordPress consultant for such website projects.
On the other hand, are you offering complex functionalities? Perhaps you have a consulting business that needs trendy website designs. You might need considerable “Search Engine Optimization” (SEO) skills too. Such websites need deep social media integration, which requires expertise.
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Consulting businesses also need several interactive functionalities on their website. Such a website project needs to utilize the full power of a content management system (CMS).
Furthermore, you might have stringent non-functional requirements (NFRs) like availability, performance, reliability, etc. You need WordPress experts in such a WordPress project.
2. Identify which skills you need
What technical skills and competencies do you need when hiring WordPress consultants? Focus on the following:
WordPress development skills
Look for the following:
- The knowledge of the WordPress theme of your choice;
- Familiarity with the relevant WordPress plug-ins;
- The knowledge of WooCommerce, the popular WordPress eCommerce plugin;
- The experience of using popular page-builders like Beaver Builder and Elementor;
- “Search Engine Optimization” (SEO) skills;
- JavaScript skills;
- PHP skills;
- HTML and CSS skills.
You might need a WordPress website with a customized WordPress theme or plug-in. This makes JavaScript, PHP, HTML, and CSS skills important. WordPress consultants should also be expert web designers.
You need a WordPress developer with the knowledge of delivering an application that offers a high-quality user experience. The expertise of a web designer is important here. Such a web developer should know how to improve the ranking of WordPress sites on Google. Look for WordPress maintenance skills too when you hire a WordPress expert.
Back-end development skills
Complex WordPress projects require WordPress consultants that are experienced web developers too. Such projects involve back-end development, therefore, look for the following:
- API development skills;
- Web application security skills;
- The knowledge to create scalable web applications;
- Database skills.
The other skills and competencies that successful WordPress consultants need
Look for the following additional skills when hiring WordPress consultants:
- Software quality management and defect prevention skills;
- The knowledge of version-control tools like Git;
- The experience of working with debugging tools like Chrome Inspector and Firebug.
You need to hire a WordPress consultant that demonstrated the following competencies:
- Passion: The passion for delivering a superior user experience is critical.
- Teamwork: The WordPress consultant should be able to work collaboratively with your larger team.
- Respecting deadlines: Roadblocks come in all projects, and your project won’t be an exception. You need WordPress developers that know how to meet deadlines despite roadblocks.
- Communication skills: Robust communication skills help to execute a project smoothly.
- The ability to see the big picture: What constitutes “value” for the website users? You need WordPress consultants that understand this.
3. Decide which hiring platform you will use
Despite the best planning on your part, you need the right people to achieve success with your WordPress development project. You don’t want it turning into a troubled project. It is very costly to turn troubled projects around.
Hiring the right people gives you the best chance to succeed. You need to choose the right hiring platform for this. You have the following choices:
A) Freelance platforms
You can opt for freelancer platforms. There are freelancer platforms focusing exclusively on software development. You can post a job there, and freelancers will likely respond.
You can interview them and hire a WordPress developer. It’s possible to hire freelancers for a low hourly rate.
These platforms don’t provide any management support though, and you need to manage the work of freelancers. Freelancers might leave your project mid-way for more lucrative opportunities.
They might take up multiple projects simultaneously. You might not get enough effort from part-time freelancers, which is another risk.
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B) Software development companies
Software development companies can provide you with WordPress consultants. These companies encourage their developers to enhance their skills. They provide full-time developers, which is a key advantage.
These companies can provide WordPress consulting services too. If their developers leave the project mid-way, they provide replacements.
A software development and consulting company can provide management support. Such development and consulting companies typically assign an account manager. This account manager provides management oversight to their developers, therefore, developers can meet your requirements better.
You might deal with sensitive data in your project. Software development companies have appropriate policies and processes to secure this data.
4. Conduct interviews
Having chosen a hiring platform, you need to now interview the shortlisted candidates. You can do this yourself if you have the necessary expertise. Alternatively, you can request an associate to conduct the interview.
Cover all relevant skill areas. Focus on practical project experience and not only on theoretical skills. Find out whether the candidates have developed complex WordPress websites, and check whether they know the strengths and limitations of WordPress.
Explain your project requirements to candidates. Ask them about how they would approach such a project. You should expect specific recommendations.
5. Onboard WordPress consultants effectively
You have hired a WordPress consultant, and now you need to onboard them effectively. Provide the relevant project documentation including requirements, technical solutions, etc. Explain the project requirements in detail.
Introduce the new WordPress developers to your existing team. Explain their roles and responsibilities. Provide the required access to the project technical environment, project management systems, code repositories, etc.
Set up communication channels. Explain your project plan and iterations. Provide a detailed overview of the milestone approval process and acceptance criteria, which helps to establish accountability.
6. Interviewing tips for hiring WordPress developers with consulting skills
Keep the following interview tips in mind when hiring senior WordPress programmers with consulting skills:
A. Look for WordPress theme development and theme customization skills
The average WordPress developer salary can be high since WordPress jobs often involve theme development and customization. Professional WordPress developers should have expert-level PHP knowledge for this.
You could find it hard to assess whether candidates have this skill. Take help from companies like DevTeam.Space that provide WordPress development services. DevTeam.Space follows a comprehensive vetting process for developers.
B. Prioritize consultants with WordPress plugin development experience
Complex WordPress projects often involve plugin development. Hire a WordPress developer with plugin development experience if you have a complex project at hand.
Look for dedicated WordPress developers from a hybrid software development company like DevTeam.Space in that case. Such companies screen their developers thoroughly.
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C. Evaluate the knowledge of WordPress development processes
Following WordPress development processes consistently can help you considerably in complex projects. Look for WordPress consultants with deep knowledge of these processes.
Dedicated WordPress developers from companies like DevTeam.Space have this knowledge. Hire from such trustworthy companies.
D. Assess API development and API integration skills in complex projects
You might need API integration and even API development experience in complex WordPress projects. Assess whether the candidates have the requisite experience.
E. Look for experience in securing WordPress sites
WordPress is popular, however, it’s also a common target of hackers. Specify the importance of web application security skills in WordPress job listings. Proactively assess this skill when interviewing candidates.
Sample interview questions to hire the best WordPress developers
You will likely ask open-ended questions to assess the skills when you hire WordPress developers. A few examples are as follows:
A. Describe your custom plugin development experience.
The suitable WordPress developer should touch upon the following areas:
- Gathering and analyzing the requirements for the plugin;
- PHP and MySQL development;
- Testing including security and compliance testing;
- Creating updates and security patches.
B. Elaborate on your experience in WordPress theme development.
Quality WordPress developers should talk about the following aspects:
- Understanding the functional and SEO requirements for the proposed theme;
- Coding using PHP and MySQL;
- Testing;
- Managing updates, which include security patches.
C. Explain how you secured a WordPress site that had security issues.
Qualified WordPress developers should describe one or more of the following aspects:
- Analyzing the security breach or vulnerability;
- Root cause analysis;
- Pinpointing loopholes in the theme or plugins;
- Identifying loopholes in customization-related coding;
- Fixing bugs, testing, and deployment.
D. Describe how you improved the performance of a WordPress website.
Expert WordPress developers should touch upon one or more of the following areas:
- Using an appropriate hosting plan;
- Enabling Gzip compression;
- Managing caching;
- Utilizing a CDN (Content Delivery Network);
- Optimizing images.
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We are confident that you can hire competent WordPress consultants using the above guide and achieve success in your project. Do you need more help? Fill out a DevTeam.Space product specification form.
A dedicated account manager will contact you. They will explain how you can benefit by working with our competent WordPress consultants.
