How to Hire a Developer to Create a Custom WordPress Theme
Make The Right Developer Hiring Decisions
WordPress has acquired a top position as a platform for creating websites. Multitudes of sites running successfully today owes its existence to WordPress. But what has made WordPress so immensely popular? If you are into developing and maintaining WordPress websites or planning to develop your corporate WordPress website, this article will serve like a guiding tool. Find out how to hire WordPress experts for customization of themes and pages and improve customer experience.
Introduction
Among the most popular open-source, SEO-friendly CMS used for building dynamic websites and blogs, WordPress is preferred by businesses worldwide for not only developing their business websites but also for content marketing. ranks among the most-used technology for web development.
WordPress is among the top web development CMS for static websites worldwide. Whether it is a real estate and property listing firm, a restaurant, a manufacturing company, or a corporate website spanning hundreds of pages, WordPress is preferred over other web development frameworks for numerous reasons – easy and low-cost development and maintenance, payment support, SEO support, etc.
Moreover, through WordPress, developers build individual landing pages that resemble a lot of sites, create web directories and set up article repositories. Acting also as an information base to offer customer support and decrease support inquiries, WordPress also helps set up portfolios and incorporates resumes hooked on a website or through a landing page which makes it among the top business tools.
WordPress also stands as a social hub, with a range of social media plugins that enable Feeds from Twitter, Facebook, and other platforms to be embedded into the page and get routinely updated for the users.
What Is WordPress Customization
HomePage Settings
HomePage settings come under theme customization and are one of the crucial parts of your website. Taken as generally the first impression of the site, it is significant for the home page to stand out in order to create a unique brand impression. WordPress offers a series of options that let you customize your home page in every aspect, making it a top priority for young entrepreneurs.
Widgets
Widgets are one of the most popular ways to customize the sidebars and other special widget areas related to your site as per your own requirement. Much easier to edit due to CSS and JavaScript, WordPress also offers block widgets with the same functionality for those widget areas.
Besides, it enables us to create menus and customize the fonts and different segments such as the header, footer as well as background, according to our own needs.
Menus
This customizer option lets you create custom site navigation, drop-down menus, and much more to direct visitors to the important parts of your site and manage their navigation for most of your published content by adding items such as pages, posts, categories, tags, formats, or custom links. Menus can be displayed in widget areas by adding a “Navigation Menu” widget or by the locations outlined by your chosen theme.
Icons and Buttons
This simplest WordPress customization enables you to reach the audience better and enhance followers by incorporating built-in social icons which take the visitor straight to your social profile.
You can very easily add social icons into the header and or footer of your site for massive reach. Moreover, you can also consider adding social sharing buttons into your posts on WordPress such that when someone clicks one of these buttons, it opens up a new tab with the post filled in and ready to be shared.
Backgrounds And Fonts
Classified as theme customization of WordPress, this allows your site to make a statement by either uploading an image or selecting a color for your background.
Font option, present in the Customizer, is another great option to create a big impact on the audience. You can use this to change the Headings and Base Font by either selecting from the basic features or from a premium range of options.
Headers and Footers
For a much more personalized look, WordPress offers an option to upload your own custom image header and that too without any extra charge or upgrade.
As a footer text, most WordPress themes include a short design credit at the bottom of the site, which is often not possible to change or remove without writing code, but some themes like Ignite do allow the Customizer to change the footer text.
Post Settings
By default, WordPress displays only ten posts on your main blog page and archives, which include categories, tags, author, and date archives. However, for a multi-column layout, it offers the Reading Settings menu (Settings > Reading), which quickly changes the number of posts per page so that when someone reaches the end of your posts, they can simply find more by clicking on the pagination.
Device Previews
WordPress allows its users to develop content for all possible virtual spaces. Its device previews customizer lets the audience view your content on desktop, tablet and other such modes according to their choices. This adds value to a good customer experience and a user-friendly environment.
Code-Based Customization
Code-based customization on WordPress involves creating (coding) or customizing (re-coding an existing plugin) plugin for you. However, customizing existing plugins is not recommended generally since the plugin will go back to the original code when updated and can break the website features when in the process.
Why Hire WordPress Experts For Customizations
1) Change WordPress Website Architecture
A website needs constant updates, which may include the addition of landing pages and the need to adapt to changing customer base and market trends.
In this case, pre-designed websites may need complete redesigning by expert coding skills and custom work. It would also involve the decisions of using different available or premium templates and self-codes. If you look to hire a wordpress developer to change your WordPress website architecture, then you are probably on the right track.
Alternatively, web developer outsourced services are also available. You could have an outsourced team managing all requirements in a timely manner.
2) Customize Website Design
It’s not an easy task to build a dream website on your own. An experienced WordPress professional might possess the exact skills for the fulfilment of your needs. From creating custom themes and plugins to improving the website with better functionality, features, and experience, when you hire wordpress experts, a lot of customization for website design becomes easy.
Many companies are also seeking web developer outsourced services, that is getting all WordPress development and customization done by an external company that takes accountability for many outcomes.
3) Enhance UI and Customer Experience on Your Websites
Even a totally functional website with good content can fail to garner customer attention if it doesn’t offer a good user experience.
A WordPress developer with efficient custom theme creation skills will help you develop a suitable page flow and build a relevant theme and UX design to engage the readers for a long duration and ensure seamless interaction.
All this will ensure fewer bounce rates and increase conversions, enhancing UI and customer experience for your website.
4) Optimize Customer Interaction Features
Developing a website that is capable of attracting customers requires technical knowledge and enough expertise. Hiring WordPress developers will increase the value of your website since they already possess immense market analytics and great insights into the latest trends, which can keep your website ahead in the race. They can provide the best feature package for optimizing customer interaction and earning great returns.
5) Use The Best Plugins
One of the main reasons for hiring a WordPress developer is his custom Plugin development. Changing the plugin from time to time may be a real problem, but hiring a WordPress expert who understands which area to focus upon and has related skills to build a Plugin development environment may help in developing superior functionalities and avoid installing unwanted plugins that can make your site slow.
How To Hire A WordPress Developer For Custom Theme Creation
1. Prepare a Requirements Documentation
It’s crucial for you to have a clear idea of your needs before you hire a WordPress developer. Begin by indicating the type of website you want to build, focusing particularly on its content.
Specify the goals of your site – whether it is to share information, build a community, make sales, educate masses etc., and the volume as well as types of pages you’d like it to contain.
Mention specific features and functionalities you want the site to possess, for example, chat widget, order or booking forms, calendars, media integration, e-commerce capabilities, and more.
Also, communicate your idea of UI features and UX design so that when you hire a wordpress developer, no mismatched communication takes place.
2. Estimate Costs and Time
Building a custom website needs perfect budget allocation and planning. It’s always better to map out the expenses involved beforehand.
Suppose the scope of the project is considered, decide how many pages you require since many WordPress developers charge by the hour, so that the bigger your project is, the greater will be the potential cost.
Next is judging the complexity of your needs which means custom-built features are highly-priced while basic ones such as a WordPress blog, company brochure site, or small storefront are less expensive.
The next focus should be on the expertise and skills required for your website development, for which charges will vary. Usually, the charge for competent and reliable services ranges from $5 to $100 per hour.
Estimation should be done according to the timeline of your custom WordPress site, which can cost between a few hundred dollars and $5,000 (or more). Deciding on all of this is one more level sorted!
3. Consult With A Developer Recruitment Agency
There can be a lot of options available for hiring WordPress developers. But the best approach is to consult with a developer recruitment agency for finding freelance or dedicated developers, or you can choose a web developer outsource option, according to your need.
The agencies employ diverse talents from strategic locations by assessing their skills, competencies, innovation and problem-solving abilities. After selecting your Top 10 or Top 5 candidates, get their thorough background verification done to avoid any mishap.
Moreover, check their promised skills by assigning a sample WordPress customization task and only after a complete assessment of results, move forward and select your best team.
4. Frame Contracts and Legal Agreements
The last step after selecting the potential candidate is to frame the right contract and other legal agreements, keeping in mind both the interest of your project and your team of WordPress developers.
Make sure everything is worked out in accordance with the guidelines, and legal framework decided upon and that any breach should be dealt with proper intimation.
Hire WordPress Developers Through Alliance Recruitment Agency
Alliance Recruitment Agency is a one-stop solution provider for all IT and developer recruitment needs. We have talent pools beyond different geographic boundaries, from India to South Asia, to Europe to the USA and Canada.
Our agency has a top-class team of consultants to help identify, select, and hire the right freelancer or dedicated web developers within the budget and suitable time frame. Alliance Recruitment Agency is a highly-competent global company that has been providing only the best results for more than eleven years.
Through its wide network and rich market insights, our company enables companies to hire WordPress experts with skills and experience that best fit your requirements and enhance your company standards.
