When do you need a WordPress Developer?

If you have decided to create a WordPress page, whether it be as a site hosted by WordPress or hosted independently, a blog or even just a single page – there is much you can do yourself but also a time when you need to consider hiring a WordPress Developer. Hand down, you don’t need a developer if the page or blog you are creating is a hobby page. A hobby page is one that is designed just for you and your friends but not aimed at promoting a product, service or process to strangers.

WordPress is set up to be completely supportive of the hobby developer. They provide a rich library of scripts and other resources to let you create a dynamic page that accesses the talents of dedicated developers without having to hire one. If, however, the purpose of your coming to WordPress is to manage data to engage and convert visitors then you have a definite need of professional expertise.

The Free Stuff will get you

While having a library of free resources is a perk in some ways, it can be the very thing that undoes you. The more you want your page to do, the more WordPress plugins you are going to use in your page. These plugins are blocks of scripts that call out to the core of WordPress to perform certain actions. While WordPress emphasizes the use of an Agile Code Standard to try and keep many developers all using the same methods so their finished products are compatible, it is not a perfect process by any means.

You may wind up inserting a plugin that is in compatible with another element of your page and bring your whole site down. Trying to find what went wrong takes patience and skill. It can be as simple as the wrong punctuation duplicated in the wrong area of the code as the result of pasting in a script. If you don’t know who the code for WordPress functions exactly and understand the confines of the language, you are not going to be able to recognize what the problem is.

When Free isn’t good enough

As you begin to understand your analytics more and what draws and converts your traffic, you are going to want to fine tune your pages and their elements. All of the WordPress plugins, because of the Agile Coding Standard, can be customizable. Again, this is now something that you need a solid programming knowledge of the environment to do successfully.

The other issue that will begin to arise is that many of the elements and plugins will use data that is collected and stored using the PHP or MySQL language. Both of these languages can be easy to begin using, but as their database grows you need someone who is well versed in maintaining, organizing and accessing this particular manner of data.

Security

Lastly, even if you are a hobbyist, the popularity of WordPress makes it a target for malware distribution. Lines of code can be inserted into your blog page that will carry malware “piggybacked” on your automatic updates to your friend. A professional developer will have the skills and tools to conduct a periodic line by line review of the code to check for any disallowed insertions.

Looking for a WordPress Developer ? Feel free to contact us, we'd love to hear from you!