Who hasn’t heard of WordPress here? The answer will be practically nobody. Start a blog or sell something online and you can do it through WordPress. As per W3Techs, WordPress enjoys a massive 65.2% share of the CMS (Content Management System) market and 42.5% share of all the websites.
These numbers speak for themselves. It shows the popularity WordPress enjoys on the internet. Another report from W3Techs shows the consistent growth of WordPress since 2011 when it was a mere 13.1% of the total website market to currently in 2021 when it stands at 42.5 %.
If you look at the graph below, you can see that the demand for WordPress developers in India has increased from 2019.
Now, if you’re also looking to hire WordPress developers in India, you need to know the factors you should consider when hiring them.
12 Factors considered while choosing WordPress developers in India
One reason for its popularity is the ease with which even a non-technical person can set up a website online. But what if you need to customize a feature or build a theme from scratch or develop a plugin to sell online? At times like these, a company requires a dedicated WordPress developer.
As aptly quoted by Dr. Christopher Dayagdag “Getting a quality website is not an expense but rather an investment.”
Let’s have a look at the factors considered:
1. Initial requirements – You need to specify requirements for the project. The WordPress developers based on their experience and expertise will provide you with a roadmap towards the result.
You can provide all the minute details related to the project to the developers. These developers will understand the requirements and try to extract as much essential information as they need from you to provide you with a desired and quality output.
2. Technical specifications pre and post-development – WordPress is built on PHP but along with that, you will also need knowledge of MySQL, HTML/XHTML, CSS, etc. to develop the website. On top of this basic knowledge, the WordPress developers should also know about plugins, theme customizations, loading speed, and the security of the website.
Once the website has been developed, you require the developers to maintain the website and update the design and content regularly. They need to be up to date with the current technical innovations and upgrades in the market.
3. Types of developers (freelancer or company) – One of the first factors to decide is whether to hire freelance WordPress developers or dedicated developers from a WordPress development company.
Cost is a factor since it typically costs less to hire freelancers rather than company services. The risks involved need to be considered, as companies mitigate risks better than freelancers. In case you are a large company and have requirements for an interactive website then a company will be a better option. In the end, it is important to consider which approach brings more value to your website.
4. Budget – The budget for developers needs to be worked out in the beginning. But it is an added advantage to have developers understand the budget and complete the work within it. Various factors such as integrations, features, plugins, number of pages, etc. decide the cost of the project.
It would have a positive impact on the project if developers can define the budget with timelines for the completion. Having clarity on the project cost will allow you to strike a balance between quality and price. It will help you not to compromise on the quality of the project.
5. Effective Communication – Communication is important in every aspect of a business nowadays. Having technical knowledge alone is not enough for a developer in today’s world. They have to be excellent communicators too.
Websites are cropping up in every corner of the world today. Clients will be from different geographies and cultures. To do justice for the job, developers have to communicate effectively.
6. Client references and portfolio – A good way to review the competence of a company or developers is to go through their portfolio along with their recent work. You can look for their portfolio on their private website or online repositories like GitHub. This gives you valuable insights into their knowledge and quality and if they fit your requirements.
Another way is to check the reference they have from their past customers. You can find these on the company websites. With freelancers, social media is a great platform to find information on their quality and proficiency in past work.
7. WordPress themes or custom web design knowledge – If your requirement is for a simple website with predefined themes and plugins, then you would probably not need dedicated WordPress developers to develop your website. You can do it on your own with no technical knowledge.
But if you are looking at a long-term website with customization to your web design, themes and plugins then you will require dedicated WordPress developers with sound technical knowledge. Thus, it is important to look for skilled and talented developers who can customize your website as per your requirements in the long run.
8. Expertise in WordPress plugins customizations – The WordPress repository has thousands of plugins that you can use to extend the functionality of your website. Despite such a wide choice of plugins, they sometimes do not match your exact requirements.
In such cases, you will need to hire a WordPress developer to either customize a specific plugin or develop a custom plugin. It is thus important to check expertise in WordPress plugin customizations before hiring a WordPress developer in India.
9. WordPress websites speed optimization – The loading speed of a website is directly related to the search engine ranking of the website. The slower the loading speed of the website, the lower is the search engine ranking of the website. A fast-loading website delivers a significant experience to its intended users and wins the trust of the search engines.
As per reports, 53% of the users leave a web page if it takes over 3 seconds to load. Several plugins incorporated into a website can slow it down. Thus, the WordPress developers need to optimize the loading speed of the websites by following the necessary standards.
10. SEO optimization for search results or SEO – As per statistics, more than 35% of the web uses WordPress for small personal blogs, small to medium scale businesses, and also Fortune 500s. One of the prime reasons for this WordPress design and development comes with SEO-friendly features.
WordPress is the most SEO-friendly CMS in the market. But it still requires developers to implement SEO best practices for the website so that it can rank higher in the search engine results. Thus, basic knowledge of SEO is required for optimum and quality results.
11. Website Security – WordPress, being the most popular open-source CMS in the market, is an attractive target for hackers. Security of the website is even more important for an E-commerce website that deals with users’ personal and payment information. Protecting such sensitive information is of the highest priority for any website.
WordPress developers can develop plugins or implement security practices to protect the website from phishing attacks or malicious code injection or getting hacked. These attacks can lead to enormous loss of revenue and data.
12. After-support, updates, and maintenance – It is important to keep provisions at the beginning for any kind of support, update, or maintenance work required after the completion of the development work. Once the website has been developed, it is not left in cyberspace; it requires regular maintenance and updates to design and content.
The WordPress developers or company should be able to keep track of the post-development follow-up and maintenance activities. Developers should proactively handle any kind of breakdown or disintegration of a part of your website.
4 Tips to choose the right Indian WordPress Developer for you
Here are four effective tips for you to hire WordPress developers for your perfect website in India.
1. Have a clear picture of your needs – Before beginning to look for a WordPress developer, it is important to figure out your exact requirements. You must come up with a general outline in terms of goals, type of website, features, and themes for the website.
Specifying the requirements clearly will help communicate the ideas to the developers so that they also know what exactly you are looking for.
2. Search in the right places – The market is crowded with WordPress developers, so you need to know where to look for them. If your requirement is of a company then checking out their private website and testimonials is a good way to start.
But if you are looking for freelancers, then you can search on niche job boards for skilled developers and also check for their online presence. Another effective way is to post the job requirement online to allow talented developers to come to you.
3. Consider only WordPress-specific experience – It is important to consider the developer’s experience when hiring for the position. You must pay close attention to their WordPress-specific experience. It is beneficial to hire a developer who has WordPress-specific skills and has knowledge of WordPress inside and out.
Reviews, testimonials, and references from past clients are a good way of judging their capabilities. It gives you an idea about their competence and attitude towards work.
4. Ask the right questions – Along with the developer’s portfolio, it is important to determine the knowledge level of the WordPress developers through an interview. It is important to ask the right set of questions for this.
If you do not have the technical knowledge for such an interview, it would be a good option to find someone with good WordPress knowledge to undertake the interview. In case you can’t find someone, you can do some thorough research to ask the right questions and know what their answers should be.
FAQs about hiring top WordPress developers in India:
1. What technical skills do the developers have?
The developers need to know the programming language PHP primarily along with MySQL, HTML/XHTML, CSS, etc. to build a WordPress website. They must also have other WordPress-specific skills like customization of plugins, themes, webpage and providing good operating speed and security for the website.
2. How much does an Indian WordPress developer cost?
We’ve listed down a lot of factors that affect the cost of hiring WordPress developers in India. Well, our cost of hiring Indian WordPress developers starts from USD 10 per hour.
But, it is important to work out your budget and their experience of development first and then select WordPress developers accordingly to match the budget. You must find out the rates of the developers for the various services that they provide depending on your requirements.
3. What is their experience and portfolio with WordPress?
It is important to consider the past experiences of the company or developers by going through their customer feedback and testimonials. It gives you an idea about their competence and skills with WordPress development. A word with their past client can give you information about their work ethics and capabilities.
4. What extent of scalability can be provided by them?
A project can start with some simple customizations but with time as the company expands the complexities of the requirements and customizations on the website can increase manifolds. Thus, it is important to check what scale of projects the developers have handled in the past. If the company or developers have the infrastructure and skillsets to be able to scale up the project as required over the long run.
5. What post-development support and maintenance will be provided by them?
The job is not over for the developers once they have developed the website. It is an ongoing process as long as the website is live. This makes it important for the developers or company to provide support and maintenance of the design, content, plugins, security, and the other aspects of the website after the completion of its development.
6. How do I hire a WordPress developer?
You need to look at the right places for talented and skilled developers like Hire Indian Programmers (HIP). You also need to know exactly the skill sets and knowledge you are looking for in your WordPress developers by listing down your requirements accurately. This will give you clarity on where and what to look for.
Start hiring your Indian WordPress developers now
The market for WordPress developers in India is extremely crowded. There is a vast pool of WordPress developers and it can get overwhelming to look for the perfect developers from this pool.
We have tried to make hiring WordPress developers in India easier to a great extent by providing the above guidelines. We hope this helps you to find your perfect team of WordPress developers for your perfect website.
We’ve got different engagement models to hire developers— hourly, dedicated, and fixed cost. Let’s discuss your requirements in detail to help you match the right model for your project.
