WordPress is everywhere. It rules the Internet. We have at least 300+ different content management systems (CMS) like WordPress. Joomla, Blogger, Drupal, Magento and the list goes big. WordPress enjoys a massive 58.7% of the CMS market share. Not to mention, a Lion’s share indeed. WordPress is also powering a whopping 27% of the total world wide web! (That’s millions of sites folks!) The ease of WordPress website design and development might have been instrumental in achieving such a milestone.

With such a mammoth market presence, the need for WordPress developers are always on the rise. You now spot why there are so many WordPress Web Development companies, Custom WordPress Development services everywhere.

It is true that WordPress website design and development with its friendly interface helps make the basic setup and customizations easy. You need not be a techie to setup those. But what if you need to customize a feature say, a theme to align more to your requirements? Or what if you need to develop a WordPress theme from scratch or a Plugin to sell in the marketplace? Here comes the need for a WordPress Developer.

But don’t just go and hire anybody. That will only be a mundane decision. Read this article deep and you will agree why it is absolutely essential to consider all these factors. You might be a blogger, a freelancer looking to setup a personal / business blog for you. You might even be a WordPress web development company with a list of endless clients to support. Whatever the case is, you need in-depth WordPress website design and development knowledge (beyond, just the basic customizations) to tackle the challenges awaiting.

Not only that ‘technical’ edge, but we have other ‘non-techie’ skills expected out of a WordPress Developer. Only such a combination makes an excellent WordPress Developer. (You will know why a little later)

1. Sound Technical Experience
   Just because WordPress is built on PHP, that doesn’t mean you can hire a PHP coder for your WordPress website design and development needs. Much of a time, it will be a wrong decision to do so. WordPress is not just PHP though it is the scripting language of WordPress. Your Developer should be equally equipped with MySQL, HTML/XHTML, CSS etc. So, look for a profile with a real ‘relevant’ WordPress experience that includes all these. (and not just PHP)
2. Quest for Learning
   Hire a developer who always has that quest for learning and thirst for knowledge. Only such a person could fit in to the fast-changing tech world. One should stay updated with the current trends and be fit enough to run in pace with the always evolving software, language upgrades. Check if your shortlisted candidate has that ‘quest’ in his/her DNA. Else things might seem all to go well initially, but certainly not on a long run.
3. Maintenance, post-development
   Websites are not just developed and let there in cyberspace for ever. It requires regular updates to the design, content. What we mean is the maintenance required post development and deployment of the website. Check if your WordPress developer will be able to keep track and follow-up on the post development maintenance activities. There are literally thousands of themes, plugins and they get updated quite often than expected. Some updates may go cool. And yet some of them are prone to disintegrate a portion of your website or a cease a functionality. How do you handle that? Only if you have a developer smart enough to keep a track of such changes.
4. Knowledge of Website Security
   Threats come in all means. It may be via an SQL injection, Cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks, password thefts, not updating the recent software or so. Do you think a person with no knowledge about the website security features do fairness to the job? Obviously not. That is even more expected out of a WordPress Developer as more and more websites are getting hacked, get attacked with phishing and so on. Those can incur a huge loss of data and revenue. So, this is not to be overlooked.
5. SEO Knowledge
   Recall what we discussed at the start of this article. Over 27% of the entire world wide web sits on WordPress. You know why? Probably because WordPress website design and development comes with SEO friendly features. Who doesn’t want to get their website listed in Google for competitive search terms? Everybody is looking for that and as WordPress being the most SEO friendly CMS out there your WordPress Developer can’t go blank with SEO. Hire a person with at least some basic knowledge of Search Engine Optimization. If SEO means ‘Senior Executive Officer’ to your applicant, then probably that is a good sign that you should look for the next candidate. LOL!
6. Effective Communication
   Communication is required everywhere, but why so specific for a WordPress Developer? Is that what you whisper? Plethora of new websites are seeding up every now and then, from across the globe. What does that mean for you as a business? It means you have clients from different cultures, varying geographies. If you are not an able communicator, you can’t do better justice to your job. So, when looking for a WordPress Developer, don’t underestimate the need for one with good communication skills.
7. Ability to work within Budgets
   This may not be mandatory. Also, true it is the duty of the Project Manager to consider budgeting aspects of a project. But will it not be great if you get a resource with an understanding of how to work within budgets? If your WordPress developer understands the budget limits, that will impact (positively) on the delivery and deadlines.

These are what you should essentially look for while hiring a WordPress developer. It might be hard to get somebody who has the perfect blend of all these factors. You can compromise to some extent to cut short your talent hunt and get kick started with your WordPress website design and development projects. The more you compromise, the more your project may get affected.

Get creative, check your project requirements and take your own call on deciding the factors to compromise. It is immaterial if you are hiring a full-time employee or some freelancer for an hourly rate. But do these checks before handing over your projects. Whether your projects ‘hits’ or ‘sucks’ depends on how you choose your WordPress developer.

These are seven important things that you should consider when hiring any WordPress development company or any developers for your project. If you are looking for experienced WordPress developers then contact Coreway Solution, a leading open source development service provider.