What should you look for in WordPress experts?
There are a large number of companies that are dedicated to web development and more specifically to the design and development of web pages made using WordPress. Finding so many people who offer this type of service is great, since it offers the client the possibility of comparing and evaluating different proposals.
To help you choose who you are going to entrust the development of your WordPress website to, I have compiled some key points that true WordPress experts have in common.
Contents
Key elements to recognize a WordPress expert
Next we will see 3 important points that you should keep in mind when looking for a WordPress expert.
1 – Having work done previously
One of the most important things, if not the most, is that you must have a portfolio. part of websites developed by him. Let's not fool ourselves, it is not necessary to have among his works the most complex pages and with the most amazing effects that you have seen in your life. What you do have to have are websites that work well and are developed by the WordPress expert in question.
Quantity doesn't matter but quality. Take a good look at how the work is done, if it is a theme developed from scratch, open the inspect element and if you know something about html, take a look at the structure and check that the basic html markup is correct. If you find that a lot of your projects are a commercial theme that you've adapted by changing the colors and that's it, then you're not a WordPress expert.
If after reviewing your projects you do not see anything strange then we can move on to the next point.
2 – He knows how to develop themes and plugins for WordPress from scratch. But, really.
This is where most of the so-called "WordPress experts" kill it, because if you are offering your clients a custom development or a development from scratch, the minimum you should offer is a development made by you and for your client. This seems very obvious but the truth is that it is not. Currently, broadly speaking, there are 3 ways to make a website in WordPress.
2.1 – The NON-EXPERT way: Buy a WordPress theme on any of the different platforms such as Themeforest.
Unfortunately, this is the option that many people choose to offer their clients and I am not going to criticize them for using a Themeforest Theme to offer a service to their clients, they are their clients and everyone knows what they are doing with them. The problem is when you deceive your client, telling him that you will develop for him from scratch when he is not.
An implementation of a Theme is not a custom development, nor a development from scratch, therefore it has a series of limitations, especially when we talk about the scalability of the project. If tomorrow you need new features for your site and the theme that was initially implemented is not ready for it, adding these features will be a bit more complex and here begins what we call the “Fight against the theme”.
The "Fight against the theme" often happens with multipurpose themes, when we want to implement new features to a website running with a "nonsense" theme and problems begin to arise that complicate the development or implementation of it.
On the other hand you could think I install this plugin so nice that it does what I want and that's it. Great! but try not to fall into pluginitis and have 50 plugins that you will never use or update. To control the urge to install plugins you can read this therapeutic article I wrote recently.
Ultimately a WordPress expert will never fool you offering you a development and giving you an implementation of a multipurpose theme.
Before the implementers who are reading this go to the comments to turn me green, I want to make it clear that I am not discrediting anyone's work, but that it seems very bad to me to deceive clients. If you are going to implement a "nonsense" theme, tell them and do not hide it since you are selling a service that you do not do and you could run into problems in the future.
I am totally in favor of democratizing the web, but I also think that shoe racking your shoe and if you don't know how to develop WordPress themes, don't implement a multipurpose theme, install a demo, make a couple of adjustments and charge your client a disproportionate price that not even a custom development costs.
2.2 – Use a theme-framework and different plugins that help you develop.
There are different development framework themes that help you when you are making a theme and one of them, the most popular currently is genesis.
Before developing in php for WordPress, I have developed in Java, JavaScript and different programming languages, some for the web and others not. But in all of them there is one thing in common among others and that is that to start using a framework you first have to understand the language, how it works and above all what the framework does for you to make it easier for you to develop and use it.
I think the same about ACF for example, it seems to me a super powerful and very useful plugin, but as long as you know what you are doing.
I'm not against development frameworks, just the opposite, I think it's a great advantage to use them, as long as you know what you're doing. To get started with Genesis you should first understand how WordPress works, probably in the learning process you will move on to the third way of developing.
2.3 Develop from scratch
After trying the other two ways I can tell you for sure that developing from scratch is the best. There are few circumstances in which I could tell you to build a WordPress website any other way.
If one of your excuses for not choosing a development from scratch is the high cost, you can ask us for a budget to bring you the big surprise that not expensive. A fair price for a product made for you, that exactly meets your needs.
It's the same thing that happens when we buy a suit in any clothing store or if we make one custom that highlights our qualities 😀 Custom-made will always look better on us.
If after asking for a quote you are still not convinced, my colleague Mercedes gives you some incredible advice in her post, about what choose theme for your WordPress.
3 – Stay in touch with the WordPress community
I previously said that having previously done work was the most important thing, because I think I was wrong, because a WordPress expert must be connected in some way to the community of WordPress yes or yes.
For those of you who don't know what I mean, WordPress is what it is today and is used by so many people because of its community, because of all the people who have selflessly dedicated their time to build an ecosystem where they live together. Topics, plugins, events, videos y support, in addition to the CMS itself.
If you doubt whether the person you are going to hire is a true WordPress expert, simply look for him in WordPress.tv in case you have previously participated in a WordCamp or meetup. You can also search for their username at WordPress.org and see what plugins you have previously developed or what you have helped other users in the forum for example.
You should also reach out to your local community and ask. Honestly, I know many of the meetup organizers in Spain and each and every one of those I know will be happy to advise you on what to do to start your website.
In principle, these 3 points would be the main keys that a person / company called a WordPress expert / WordPress experts should have.
As I always say in my posts, this is my opinion and it is based on my experience, I understand that you may not agree and that is why I invite you to go down to the comments and share with me your way of seeing this matter.
I hope I have helped you if you had questions about a WordPress expert, greetings and see you next week! 😀
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