How to find the best WordPress developers for you: Part 1 – Experience

This is the first post in a series of posts about “How you can find the best WordPress developers for you“.

We have all been frustrated when outsourcing WordPress projects. From missed deadlines to bad coding, poor communication and lack of the required skills, it seldom works as smooth as doing the project in-house. Does it have to be that way? We know it doesn’t and this guide is there to help you through the rocky road of finding quality WordPress developers who produce work that you will love.

We are great believers in the better the question that gets asked, the better the answer you will get so we have provided these guides with a series of questions to ask any developers who you ask to quote on the work. You don’t have to ask them all, however, the more questions you ask the better you will be able to judge whether these WordPress developers can do what you need to be done within the required timescales. From our experience, if someone doesn’t know the answer to these questions then they are most probably not professional enough for you to work with.

We cannot guarantee someone who answers all of these questions in a professional manner will be the best fit for you, but it will help you to have a more informed opinion.

If you want to download the full PDF of this series then please click here to get your copy of our guide to getting the best WordPress developer.

So let’s get started:

1) Experience

How experienced the WordPress developers you choose can make a massive impact on the quality of the site that gets delivered to you.

How can you measure experience? Someone may have been developing sites for 10 years part-time, another person might have been developing for 5 years full time but uses out of date technology. Another developer might have been developing for 2 years full time and is bang up to date with the latest technology and has a fine eye for details. In our opinion, the last developer would be the first on our list. Someone who is passionate about the latest technology and spends enough time to work on their craft tends to care more about the final end product that gets delivered to you and your client.

How do you find out what experience someone has? The best way is to ask the following questions and get proof of their work.

Questions to ask:

• How long have you been developing WordPress sites full-time? – The words ‘full-time’ are critical here, you don’t want someone part-time who is doing this as a hobby unless you want amateur results.
• How many projects have you completed? – It’s really important to know the number of WordPress sites they have built or been involved with. A low number might not indicate a lack of experience, it’s just something that you will need to be aware of.
• How many clients have you worked with? – You want to get an idea of the type of people they are used to dealing with. Are they used to dealing with larget company CEO’s or mates from the pub? Think about what is important to you as sometimes they may need to represent your company by speaking to your client.
• How many sites have gone wrong? – This is an important part of learning and dealing with failure may tell you a lot about this person. If they say nothing has ever gone wrong then you will want to delve into why they think this. After all, an expert is someone who has made every mistake possible in their chosen field.

In the next post in this series, we will cover the topic of ‘Expertise‘