The Benefits of Hiring a Dedicated WordPress Developer

A dedicated WordPress developer is a freelancer or development agency that specializes exclusively in WordPress, providing expert services for site, theme, and plugin development.

Let’s find out what these developers do, the benefits of hiring them, and how you can choose one for your project.

Key Takeaways

A dedicated WordPress developer is a freelancer or development agency that specializes exclusively in developing WordPress sites.
A dedicated WordPress developer may provide services like custom theme development, migrations, ongoing support, custom plugin development, quality assurance, multisite development, and more.
To choose a dedicated WordPress developer for your project, consider its experience and expertise in your industry, the performance of the sites its team has created before, availability, timeline for the project, and pricing.

What Is a Dedicated WordPress Developer?

A dedicated WordPress developer is a professional who specializes exclusively in the development and customization of websites using WordPress, the world’s most popular content management system (CMS). The professional in question can be a freelancer or a development agency.

Dedicated WordPress developers deeply understand the WordPress ecosystem, including its themes, plugins, and core infrastructure. This understanding and experience allow them to create optimized, secure, high-performing, scalable websites for their clients.

Hiring a dedicated WordPress developer helps businesses and entrepreneurs get expert WordPress development services and guidance.

What Services Does a Dedicated WordPress Developer Provide?

Custom Theme Development

WordPress has over 12,000 free themes for users to download and apply to their sites. While these themes are very useful for beginners, they fall short for businesses with very specific branding.

To meet the branding and user experience requirements, dedicated WordPress developers can create unique themes for WordPress sites from scratch. Unlike pre-existing themes, this personalized approach allows developers to create a website tailored to a brand’s identity, needs, and preferences.

This process involves designing the visual layout, color schemes, typography, and other aesthetic elements to align with the client’s branding. It focuses on user-friendliness, responsiveness, and SEO optimization.

As a result, a custom theme enhances the user experience and the site’s performance when done well.

Custom Plugin Development

Experienced WordPress development companies can create custom-made plugins to address specific needs or functionalities that neither the WordPress core nor existing plugins can fulfill.

A custom WordPress development company has developers with experience in PHP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, database management, security, and API integrations. This knowledge allows development companies to understand your needs and create a solution.

An example of a custom plugin use case could be an import tool from a different CMS. Depending on the type of data your site has, existing solutions may not have the tools to import all data fields. A custom plugin could associate these pieces of data and make imports possible when they otherwise wouldn’t have been.

WordPress Migrations

A site migration is moving a site from one hosting provider to another, one domain to another, or one content management system (CMS) to WordPress.

Migration involves transferring all website data, including posts, pages, images, databases, plugins, and themes, to the new environment. It’s a time-consuming process that requires careful planning and execution to ensure no data loss and minimal downtime.

The service also often includes setting up redirects from the old domain to the new one to maintain SEO rankings and ensure a seamless transition for users.

There are many ways to migrate a site, and the necessary tools change depending on whether the site was originally built on WordPress or a different CMS. Sites built on different CMSs require more work and may even need custom solutions created by the agency’s developers, increasing the time commitment.

On the other hand, WordPress-to-WordPress migrations require less work, and developers can largely automate them with migration plugins.

Quality Assurance Testing

Quality Assurance (QA) testing ensures the website and its components function correctly, are bug-free, and provide a good user experience. QA testing for WordPress development projects involves:

Functionality testing. Ensures every function of the website works as intended.
Usability testing. Ensures the website is user-friendly, intuitive, and easy to navigate.
Compatibility testing. Determines how the website performs across different browsers and devices (desktops, tablets, smartphones) to ensure consistent user experience.
Performance testing. Involves assessing the website’s loading speed, responsiveness, and ability to handle traffic.
Security testing. Identifies vulnerabilities in the website to prevent hacking and data breaches. It includes testing for SQL injections, XSS attacks, and other common vulnerabilities.
SEO testing. Ensures the website is optimized for search engines, including checking meta tags, alt tags, headings, and other essential SEO elements.
Accessibility testing. Ensures the website is accessible to all users, including those with disabilities.
Regression testing. Regression testing ensures that updates don’t introduce bugs or break existing functionalities.
Plugin and theme testing. Testing for custom plugins or themes.

QA testing ensures your WordPress website is reliable, user-friendly, and high-performing.

Performance Optimization

Ensuring your WordPress site loads quickly and efficiently is crucial for user experience and SEO. Developers optimize website speed by

Deleting unused plugins and themes.
Cleaning up the database and media library.
Removing render-blocking JavaScript and CSS.
Minifying CSS, HTML, and JavaScript.
Compressing images.
Using caching solutions and content delivery networks (CDNs).
Lazy-loading pages.
Managing redirects efficiently.
Reducing post revisions.
Updating the PHP version.

SEO Optimization

A dedicated WordPress developer understands the importance of SEO and integrates best practices into the website’s design and content. Some of the strategies an experienced WordPress developer can use to improve site SEO include:

Managing visibility settings.
Updating permalinks.
Creating and using tags and categories.
Installing an SEO plugin.
Creating and optimizing XML sitemaps.
Encouraging internal linking.
Implementing an SSL certificate.
Optimizing comments to prevent spam.

WooCommerce Integration

For businesses looking to establish an online store, WordPress developers can integrate and customize WooCommerce, a powerful eCommerce plugin, providing a seamless shopping experience for users and easy management tools for site owners.

Multisite WordPress Development

WordPress multisite is a built-in feature that allows developers to create a network of multiple sites from a single WordPress installation and dashboard. It’s particularly useful for businesses or organizations that need to run several sites with similar functionalities, such as franchises, universities, or a network of blogs, but want to manage them centrally.

A dedicated WordPress developer will have experience creating multisite networks and provide the skills to enable the multisite feature, set up and manage the network, perform custom domain mapping if necessary, and develop all individual sites.

Individual site development may involve installing themes and plugins on the central dashboard before activating them on specific sites, managing access and roles, providing ongoing support and training, and more.

WordPress Security

A dedicated WordPress developer can significantly enhance the security of a WordPress site through several strategic and technical measures. These are some of the key security improvements they can implement:

Regularly updating and maintaining plugins, themes, and the WordPress core.
Installing security plugins.
Enforcing strong passwords and two-factor authentication (2FA).
Installing an SSL certificate.
Performing security audits and scans.
Protecting the database against SQL injection attacks and other vulnerabilities.
Implementing backup solutions.
Installing web application firewalls (WAFs).

By implementing these practices, a dedicated WordPress developer can greatly enhance the security posture of a WordPress site.

Ongoing WordPress Support

Ongoing WordPress support helps maintain and enhance the site’s performance, security, and functionality over time. This service typically includes regular updates to WordPress core, themes, and plugins, ensuring that the website remains compatible with the latest technology and secure from vulnerabilities.

These are some of the ways a dedicated WordPress developer may provide regular support for their clients once their sites are up and running:

Technical support for any issues that arise, such as bugs, errors, or functionality problems.
Maintenance and updates for all the software elements of the site.
Performance monitoring and optimization, such as enhancing load times, user interfaces, or database performance.
Security services to keep the site protected from breaches. Strategies may include regular security audits, updates, and backups to safeguard data.
Training and education to help clients understand and effectively use their digital products.
Emergency support and disaster recovery in case of major issues like server downtime or data loss.
SEO and marketing support through social media integrations, email marketing strategies, and more.

Not all clients require ongoing support after their site is ready and live, but the ones that do benefit greatly from having an experienced partner guiding them through all the technical details.

What Are the Benefits of Hiring a Dedicated WordPress Developer?

Hiring a dedicated WordPress developer offers numerous benefits, particularly for businesses looking to leverage a robust and flexible website that can grow with their needs.

Here are some key advantages:

Expertise and experience. A dedicated WordPress developer brings specialized knowledge and skills in everything related to WordPress, from theme development to plugin integration and custom solutions.
Customization. WordPress is known for its customizability, allowing a dedicated developer to tailor your website to meet the specific needs of your business, ensuring that it not only looks unique but also includes functionality that supports your business objectives.
Scalability. Expert developers understand the WordPress Core and APIs, allowing them to balance a large website structure with performance and security as your business.
Improved security. A dedicated WordPress developer can enhance your site’s security protocols, implement regular updates, and monitor for vulnerabilities.
Better SEO. Dedicated developers help your site gain more visibility and attract more traffic.
Enhanced user experience. They can create a smooth, intuitive user experience by designing a site that is easy to navigate and pleasing to interact with.
Cost-efficiency. Expert developers help you avoid the pitfalls of less experienced developers, delivering projects faster.

Hiring a dedicated WordPress developer significantly benefits businesses looking to grow their online presence, enhancing every aspect of a website from technical performance to user interface design.

What to Look for in a Dedicated WordPress Developer?

Development projects are complex and require a combination of developers’ skills to achieve the goals. These are the seven most important things to consider when determining whether a dedicated WordPress developer (freelancer or agency) can achieve your website creation, redesign, or maintenance goals.

Technical Knowledge and Experience

WordPress websites run on HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP. Having knowledgeable and experienced developers in these languages is the minimum requirement any WordPress agency should fulfill.

Other essential skills include the following:

Responsive design.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Hosting.
API Integrations.
Google Analytics and Search Console.
Website performance optimizations.
Security best practices.
Software version control.
WordPress command line interface (WP-CLI).

For specific solutions like WooComnmerce, you should look for WordPress agencies that specialize in those.

Range of Services

This point is tied to technical skills (after all, a developer can’t provide a service they do not master) but requires its own section. Most reputable WordPress developers offer the following services:

Web development. Building a WordPress website from scratch.
Web design. Includes user interfaces, user experience design, landing pages, and more.
Custom plugin development. Tailor-made plugins to extend site functionality.
Custom themes. WordPress development agencies can create custom themes to fit clients’ needs and give their websites a unique look.
API integrations. API integrations connect WordPress sites with external tools to improve workflow.
Website redesigns.
Search engine and performance optimization.
WordPress support and maintenance.

Some developers offer additional services, such as:

White Label WordPress development. Outsourced development of WordPress websites.
Digital marketing.
Mobile app development.
E-commerce development. Using platforms like WooCommerce, development agencies can create custom-made B2C and B2B marketplaces for their clients.

When exploring multiple dedicated WordPress developers, the most important factor is that they provide the services you need for your site and business.

Client Reviews and Portfolio

A developer’s reputation tells you a lot about the effect they have on their clients. Platforms like Clutch, Trustpilot, and DesignRush provide reviews from past clients. Extensively read reviews for every developer you’re currently considering and look for specific details about how they communicate and treat clients throughout development.

Another factor is their portfolio. All reputable developers will provide an online portfolio or a list of case studies from past clients. These resources will help you understand how they operate and determine whether they have the experience you need.

Avoid hiring the first WordPress developer that comes up in search results. The fact that they are at the top of the results doesn’t necessarily mean they’re a good fit for your needs. Explore their past project thoroughly to get an idea of who you may be partnering with.

Size and Availability

An individual developer can effectively build relatively small sites that provide information about a business or act as a blog.

However, once your site becomes complex enough that it needs multiple developers to deliver on a reasonable timeline, you need to start looking for agencies, their size, and their availability.

Depending on the agency’s size, the structure for communicating with potential clients differs. On smaller agencies, you’ll likely communicate directly with the founders for preliminary meetings and project updates. On larger agencies, especially those that employ ten or more developers, you’re more likely to communicate with project managers or a similar representative.

Larger agencies will provide more project availability, but their communications representative will likely be farther from the higher-ups. In contrast, in smaller agencies, the founders will likely be more involved in every project. Still, given their size, they may only be available for new projects if they expand.

Regardless of the size, you should explore the team members who will work on your project. Many WordPress agencies have a page dedicated to their team members, experience, and skills. Explore these pages and click on every team member to understand the agency’s overall skill set and determine whether they’ll be able to fulfill your needs.

Process and Strategic Vision

Reputable developers have a mature and efficient operational process and a clear strategic vision that helps structure their projects.

To understand how they work, look at their case studies. They’ll have a detailed description of the client’s challenges and the methods they used to overcome them.

Once you establish contact with a developer, these are some of the subjects you can bring up to understand their processes and strategic vision:

Ask them specific questions about the case studies relevant to your needs.
Ask about how you’ll participate in the process. What part do clients play during development?
Ask them about the various stages of the process, what each involves, and their duration.

Exploring these questions lets you understand how they work and what you can expect from them during the project.

Cost-Effectiveness and Value

When you find a handful of developers that meet your needs, ask for a quote. Based on the responses, you need to determine how each of their costs compare to the other agencies from which you’ve received quotes.

If you have multiple quotes at various price ranges, choosing the one that costs the least may be tempting. But you also need to consider the value each proposition brings. For example, a more expensive project from a very experienced agency may provide more value for your website or a more scalable foundation for future growth. You need to balance cost-effectiveness with the value they provide for your website.

Ultimately, you know your budget better than anyone else and are in the best position to determine whether an investment will be worth it.

How Much Does It Cost to Hire a Dedicated WordPress Developer?

WordPress development companies charge based on hourly rates. These rates vary significantly based on various factors and are usually in the range of $20 to $200 per hour, with the most likely range being between $40 and $80 per hour.

The factors that influence the cost of hiring a dedicated WordPress developer are:

The experience of the developers involved. The more experience, the more the developer may charge.
The developer’s location. Developers in countries with a higher cost of living charge more.
Specific skills. Certain WordPress-related skills, like ecommerce development and custom theme and plugin development, command higher hourly rates due to their complexity.
The complexity of the project. More complex projects require more time, resources, and specific skills. Hourly rates for these projects may be higher.

A Dedicated WordPress Developer Helps You Create Better Sites

A dedicated WordPress developer is a freelancer or development agency specialized in WordPress development. They provide custom theme and plugin development, migrations, quality assurance, SEO optimization, and other expert services.

With the help of a dedicated WordPress developer, you can build highly optimized and customized sites faster, resulting in a more professional online presence for your personal or business site.

Our Dedicated WordPress Development Services

White Canvas is an Argentinian WordPress development agency specialized in web design, WooCommerce development, and White Label WordPress development. We’ve created hundreds of custom WordPress sites that meet the unique needs of our global clients.

Our developers can create custom themes and plugins that will provide the customized layouts and functionality your website needs to be user-friendly, scalable, and perform at a high level.

If you’re interested in creating a custom WordPress site or just want to explore our services to keep us in mind for later, contact us or schedule a call.