According to W3Techs, known for popular and reliable IT surveys, approximately 38.8% of all websites use WordPress. It's a huge number that no other CMS (content management system) is even close to. In fact, the same survey tells us that WordPress owns around 63.6% of the whole CMS market share. To understand how overwhelming the dominance of WordPress is, it's worth looking at the numbers of its competitors. Joomla is said to power around 2.2% of all websites, Wix around 1.6%, and Drupal around 1.5%.
Why is WordPress so popular and how to leverage its potential to make your business more successful? In our guide below, we dive deep into the topic, focusing on the opportunities that WordPress development can give.
When should you invest in WordPress development?
WordPress has started as a platform for blogs and remains the top choice for bloggers until today. But throughout the years, the possibilities WordPress offers have grown, making it the leading CMS with millions of functionalities — some built-in, some available with the help of professional WordPress developers.
WordPress is especially useful for companies or projects with a limited budget. It’s also the best platform for relatively simple web products, including the main two types:
- Business websites focused on providing information to (potential) customers.
- E-commerce websites, including basic marketplaces (with the help of WooCommerce or another WordPress e-com plugin).
While this might sound limiting for some, it’s actually what most companies world-wide need — and that’s why WordPress owns nearly 64% of the CMS market. It’s simply the best, most comprehensive solution for small and medium businesses.
Are you planning to build a robust, scalable web app that will be a product by itself? If so, you should look beyond WordPress — consider hiring a team of front-end and back-end developers with experience in technologies like React, Angular, Vue, and Node.JS, or choose an alternative, such as Hubspot CMS.
Why should you hire WordPress developers?
Blogging with WordPress might be relatively easy even for non-tech-savvy people, but if you wish to utilize the platform for business purposes, you should hire WordPress developers to optimize the experience for your customers.
WordPress developers can assist you with…
- Setting up the CMS from scratch.
- Planning out the website’s front-end.
- Optimizing the website’s back-end, ensuring it performs well for every customer.
- Customizing the platform to your exact requirements.
- Developing custom WordPress themes.
- Developing custom WordPress plugins or installing and optimizing third-party ones (e.g. WooCommerce).
- Solving any unexpected issues.
- Monitoring and enhancing the performance of the website.
- Setting up data analytics for your website.
- Assuring responsiveness of the website (optimization for mobiles and tablets).
The most important hard skills of WordPress developers
To truly thrive in their role, WordPress developers must possess a set of specific hard, technical skills. We list all the most important ones below.
- Expert understanding of the WordPress environment
While it might sound obvious, it’s worthy to clear up the meaning of true WordPress efficiency. You should hire WordPress developers who know all the ins and outs of the platform, including front-end theme creation and back-end optimization. WordPress developers should always work as full-stack web developers and have the right experience and knowledge to tackle all related tasks.
- Knowledge of front-end languages
HTML, CSS, and JavaScript — these three languages are the base to creating a stunning front-end of a website. When working with WordPress, these are a must to developing unique, custom themes that will make your business stand out.
- Knowledge of PHP
While the above three languages power up mainly the front-end of a WordPress website, PHP is responsible for its server-side. Proficiency in PHP is crucial to taming WordPress and make the website run smoothly and fast.
- Experience with database management
WordPress uses MySQL for database management. Combined with PHP, it provides the best option for optimizing the website’s server-side.
- Experience with relevant frameworks and libraries
Choosing WordPress doesn’t limit your possibilities to native plugins and custom development. The CMS works also with popular frameworks and libraries, such as React, Bootstrap, and Laravel, allowing your WordPress developers to expand upon the platform more efficiently. There are, of course, also frameworks built specifically for the CMS, such as the front-end Genesis Framework and CherryFramework.
The power of soft skills for WordPress developers
Technical skills mentioned in the previous section are surely a must to consider when you want to hire WordPress developers. However, your hiring process should also include a review of the soft skill of your candidates — they can highly impact the effectiveness of your whole team.
The most useful soft skills for WordPress developers are:
- Active participation in the WordPress community
Being an active member of the WordPress community gives the developer access to many benefits, including faster troubleshooting (thanks to the help of others) and easy access to the most useful plugins your website may need.
- Creativity
Even if you are leaving the website design process to a specialized designer, your WordPress developer will still be responsible for implementing this design in the form of a WP theme. Knowledge of design best practices is, therefore, crucial.
- Expert time management
Although utilizing CMS for your website simplifies many things, there is still a lot on the plate of a WordPress developer. From developing themes and plugins to optimizing back-end to regular troubleshooting — expert time management is a must to handle all these well.
What interview questions to ask when you hire WordPress developers?
To make sure you hire WordPress developers who truly meet all the prerequisites, you should finish off the hiring process with a technical interview. Remember to always include a WordPress expert in the process for the best results — if you are not one yourself, ask for assistance from another WordPress developer, a software consultant, or an IT project manager.
What kind of questions can be asked during such an interview? We recommend some below.
- What is polymorphism in PHP?
- In what case would you consider writing custom code instead of using a third-party plugin?
- What are some steps you take to make sure a WP site is mobile-friendly?
- What is the difference between page.php and single.php?
- What are your must-have plugins for every new WP install? Why these?
- Actions vs. Filters — what is the difference?
- What is the use of xmlrpc.php in WordPress?
- How can you prevent brute force attacks aimed at a WordPress site?
- What is the difference between === and == in JavaScript?
- What is your preferred theming framework for WordPress? Why this one?
Finding a WordPress developer who truly fits your needs
It’s common to look for the best company fit when you end up with a few candidates who match your requirements. But we recommend you do not wait with this step until the last round. Review well how your potential WordPress developer fits your business every time — not to be disappointed when they finally join your team.
Consider especially the following three areas of company fit:
- Product fit
This one is pretty easy in the case of WordPress developers, as they all build websites with the same CMS. But you might want to pay closer attention if you are investing in an e-commerce solution. In such a case, always hire WordPress developers who have already delivered working online shops or marketplaces — preferably using multiple different solutions.
- Industry fit
It’s perfect if your WP developer already understands your target customer and their digital needs. Hire WordPress developers with previous experience in your industry and leverage their unique knowledge of your market.
- Company culture fit
This one highly impacts how well your new hire will cooperate with their team members. Consider the most important values your business is driven by and look for a match among your candidates. Areas to review include preferred management style, preferred work environment (startup vs corporate), experience with diverse teams, and more.
Who else you may need in your dream team?
Hiring WordPress developers is a great first step to power up your business’ online presence. How to leverage the power of the digital even further? Consider hiring talented web designers, UI/UX designers, data scientists, IT project managers, or other IT professionals.
And if you want to make sure that you hire WordPress developers and other experts who truly meet your requirements, reach out to Ideamotive. We run an industry-leading network of IT talents from all disciplines. Whether you plan to hire WordPress developers or devs knowledgable in WordPress alternatives suitable for more scalable solutions — we can deliver.
