WordPress has evolved so much from being just a blogging platform ten years ago to being among the best content management systems today. In fact, it is used by over 30% of all websites and some of the world’s biggest brands prefer and use WordPress to power their websites (e.g. Tech Crunch, MTV, Microsoft, Facebook News, and Vogue). Big and small businesses alike are hiring WordPress developers to help them build robust and user-friendly websites.

However, finding the right WordPress developer for your website needs can be tough if you don’t have a background in the content management system. Here are crucial pieces of information you should know before hiring WordPress developers:

Off-the-shelf vs. Custom Build

For starters, there are two ways to build a website with WordPress. You can either use off-the-shelf themes or hire a professional to custom-build your website.

Using off-the-shelf themes means building a website using pre-made themes. Pre-made themes do not cost too much while others are even free. Those with no technical background who want to build their own website can easily build their websites using off-the-shelf themes, but this option is not entirely advisable for businesses with specific requirements. It can be hard to customise the codebase of pre-made themes, so adding custom landing pages or applying a custom design can become laborious.  

Custom-building, as previously mentioned, requires the help of a skilled WordPress developer. The greatest advantage of hiring WordPress developers to custom-build your website is that you can make it look and work exactly as how you want and need it to. A skilled WordPress developer will be able to equip your site with different functions, features, page layouts, and widgets that your business may require.

This can be costly as you will need to hire a professional WordPress developer to build your website for you, but it is a cost-efficient investment as he/she is able to help you build an interactive website that incorporates the features tailored to your requirements.

For the rest of this blog, we’ll be talking about WordPress development on the custom build side.

Primary languages used

There are four main languages involved in WordPress development. When screening applicants and checking CVs, make sure to look for skills and experiences in these technologies:

HTML

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is a declarative language and is the fundamental language of the web. It’s responsible in creating and organising web content by defining the nature of various bits of text (whether a text is a heading or a content as well as what goes in the header and footer). It defines the structure and layout of the website.

CSS

CSS (Cascading StyleSheets), another declarative language, goes hand-in-hand with HTML. It is used to control the appearance of your content, such as the colour of text, space between paragraphs, image alignment, border colours and thickness, float properties, and so on.

PHP

PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is the core language of WordPress, so it is essential that WordPress developers have a thorough knowledge of this language. It is a server-side scripting language used to build the web page and its components. It also performs all sorts of dynamic operations such as loading files at the needed time, validating user permissions, fetching post metadata, calling plugins, processing form fields, and so much more.

JavaScript

While not necessarily needed to get started in WordPress, JavaScript is a powerful language that can enable developers to make websites more dynamic and interactive. It is usually used to create animations and effects in sliders, social media links, for a responsive navigation menu, and more.

Effective Ways of Hiring WordPress Developers

When you want to find the right people for your team, it’s wise and advantageous to not limit yourself to only one way of finding WordPress developers. When posting job ads online do not work anymore, there are other smart ways you can explore and employ to find the WordPress developer you need:

• Visiting coding bootcamps. Coding bootcamps are fast-track, high-impact courses producing developers whom 72% of US HR managers and technical recruiters consider to be just as prepared and just as skilled as computer science grads, according to Indeed.com.
• Connecting with local colleges and professors. Especially if you’re looking for fresh grads, connecting with local colleges can be an easy way to scout tech talents.  
• Encouraging referrals through incentives. Great developers are likely to know other great developers. Encourage your developers to refer other developers they know, and make sure to reward good referrals.   
• Partnering with outsourcing companies. Businesses and firms have been outsourcing various processes for several years now, including their website development. Outsourcing has helped these businesses deliver their products and services fast at competitive costs.

Fortunately, collaboration with tech talents from different parts of the country to the other side of the world has become possible and efficient through the technology we have today. Dispersed development teams are able to work together seamlessly. Businesses are able to connect to the world’s top WordPress developers and leverage the advantages of outsourcing such as cost savings, easy collaboration, and a hassle-free experience.      

We make hiring WordPress developers a pleasant experience for you! With Cloud Employee, you can hire dedicated offshore developers across many technologies. Talk to us, learn more about how Cloud Employee works, or see our Developer Pricing Guide.