1. Introduction
WordPress has a web template system using a template processor. Its architecture is a front controller, routing all requests for non-static URIs to a single PHP file which parses the URI and identifies the target page. This allows support for more human-readable permalinks. A web template system and a plugin architecture are at the core of WordPress. WordPress gained a user as well as a developer documentation with the function. End users need comfort to use software solutions and a clearly documented instruction manual has gained the user space. Developers with the function need the API and the documentation that tells them how to develop custom functionality that can be integrated into the WordPress platform. That said, the WordPress documentation is comprehensive and follows the development pattern for the platform. The core support is a set of PHP, JavaScript, and CSS files that form the platform. An easy-to-use web-based installer is now common in all hosting services with a control panel, and WordPress has had one right from the start. The state-of-the-art programming practice is done by using the latest PHP and MySQL versions, and those users who follow WordPress’s best security practices usually have a secure WordPress installation. With all that in place, WordPress is an ideal platform to publish, share, and promote and sum of it to make the internet a better place. Now we will answer the question: what is it that an end user expects from the platform, whether it be a personal blogger, hobbyist, a corporate website, an institutional website, an online newspaper/magazine, or an online store. Depending on the type of user, the expectations may vary, and WordPress handles all of them with perfection.
1.1 What is WordPress?
WordPress is an open source content management system (CMS), which allows users to build dynamic websites and blogs. WordPress is the most popular blogging system on the web and allows updating, customizing, and managing the website from its back-end CMS and components. It is a powerful platform that is used by more than 60 million websites worldwide. It is easy to install and upgrade and is very useful for business owners because it has a lot of plugins, widgets, and themes. WordPress was first created to be a blogging platform, but the content management system has evolved through the years and is more commonly used as a website or for website development. The system is used by individuals, small businesses, and large corporations. This is because it makes it easy to create a professional website at a low cost.
1.2 Importance of WordPress Professionals
WordPress is being used across the globe for all kinds of different websites, big and small. The reasons for using WordPress are numerous, but the primary ones are that WordPress is easy to use, cost effective, and has a large supporting community. Because of this, a developer can use WordPress to create just about any type of website, but it is especially well-liked for small business owners because it provides them the ability to update their own website. Unfortunately, because of this same aspect, many small business owners try to create their own website and then run into problems or decide they don’t have enough time after all. This has led to a large number of half-finished WordPress sites. This is a problem because a poorly built website can actually hurt a company’s image. In order to combat this, many professionals are needed to help guide WordPress users, set up WordPress properly, and create high-quality bespoke themes.
2. Skills and Qualifications
Individuals aspiring to work as WordPress professionals should be required to have the technical knowledge and skills necessary for working on WordPress sites. They are required to be able to know HTML, CSS, and PHP as well as having familiarity with SEO, JavaScript, and WordPress itself. The WordPress Codex is the ultimate resource for anything concerning WordPress, it is wise to familiarize yourself with it. Along with this, they are required to grasp how WordPress themes work as well as how they can be modified and customized to fit the needs of the user. Also, this person should have a good understanding of the WordPress loop and the steps used to migrate HTML sites to WordPress. A good portion of this provided knowledge will be determined in the interview process when the candidate is asked to complete specific tasks to gauge their WordPress-related skills. The need for this technical knowledge stems from the various tasks and obstacles one may encounter when working on WordPress sites. Knowledge of PHP and the ability to “speak the language” is quite beneficial.
2.1 Technical Knowledge
With a basic understanding of the underlying processes, these tasks become much simpler as you know what you are aiming for and will recognize it when you see it. The sidebar menu on the WordPress admin pages is a good starting point for this. This is a simple list of hyperlinks which lead to various admin areas, each with the inclusion of admin-header.php and admin-footer.php. This is a good example of a modular template, a concept that is explained in the WordPress codex. By examining the default template files and admin files and the relationship between them, you can begin to understand how the two interrelate and eventually develop more advanced admin features for your own templates.
Understand the basic structure of WordPress. This is a publishing system and although it has many features, there is a simple step-by-step progression that is followed each time you make a post. Each time you undertake an action, you will be able to recognize the various steps and what is happening behind the scenes. This will help you to diagnose problems or tailor WordPress to your individual requirements further down the track. For example, you may want to change the way comments are handled, create a new style for displaying certain posts, or add a script that automatically updates external services every time you make a new post.
2.2 Web Design and Development Skills
This goes without saying. Anyone working with WordPress should have a good knowledge of how websites work, although some may argue that an understanding of WordPress and only WordPress can suffice, the more knowledgeable you are of web development, the more easily you will be able to identify problems and adapt designs to your needs. There are numerous paid and free resources and websites out there to help you better understand web development. W3schools is a commonly used resource for individuals looking to learn or reference HTML, CSS, or PHP. WordPress itself has an org dedicated to providing information for developers. It commonly provides useful snippets of code and examples that can be used to better understand the inner workings of WordPress and to take you out of using the default/template tags provided.
A good WordPress professional understands marketing and graphics, some CSS and HTML, basic PHP, and is creative and innovative, with a good understanding of the target market. The coder/designer very often is the one and the same person/entrepreneur, so these skills can often be found in one individual. Say, for example, a basic knowledge of PHP will help when working with WordPress CMS, or an individual may use social bookmarking to raise awareness for their blog or product that they are marketing.
2.3 Troubleshooting and Problem-solving Abilities
It’s a growing expectation in the IT industry that professionals should be able to explain and justify their actions in a clear and coherent manner. Thus, it’s often useful to keep a form of ‘problem-solving diary’ which details the events of the problem and the thought processes involved in its diagnosis and resolution. This can be referred back to when compiling incident reports or when offering explanations of actions during post-problem discussions.
There are some general tips which can prove useful in problem solving and should eventually become second nature to you, especially those who are new to the IT profession.
Giving advice on problem solving would be something of a minefield. Problems can be wide and varied, as can the setting in which they occur. It is important to realize that for complex problems, there is no easy fix and no set-in-stone solution. It’s a case of following a process of investigation, identifying possible causes and solutions, and then analyzing the effectiveness of these when implemented.
3. Roles and Responsibilities
This will be the most time-consuming and frustrating role. Before we continue, we should note that all of the roles marked by an [youtube_view_count ion=youtube-view-count-icon] are things that could be reallocated to someone else. As an employer looking to hire a web designer, it is important to understand what your money is going towards, and given that each of these tasks will require an extensive amount of communication between designer and outsource-ee, it would be best to hire someone who is capable of doing everything you need on their own. With a newly created site, the very first priority is getting the content that the client wants. The designer will likely also be the content management officer, and as most users are aware, the internet is ridden with spelling and grammar errors. Step 1 should be to use the spell checker and find and correct any and all spelling mistakes. Now the real task begins, the content must be optimized and this is not as easily done as said. For small changes, it may be possible to edit a post page, remove the sidebar, and simply resize the content to fit the entire page. For more extensive changes on what is essentially the entire page, it will be up to the designer to create a new layout. A good designer will be able to visualize what elements from the current layout would be best utilized and moved around, and what new elements can be added. This requires a good understanding of the theme and may also require some PHP file edits. All changes should be recorded and shown to the client before being implemented. The designer will be doing this for post pages as well as static pages, and with large sites, this can be a very extensive task. As a website is generally a work in progress, this content management will be ongoing.
This first role is quite general and describes the bare necessities of what any website owner will want. They want someone to create a website for them. This will often involve the designer starting from scratch, creating the basic layout and structure of the website. There will be some cases where the client wants a redesign or to simply modify what is already available. In both cases, the website designer will need to know their way around HTML, CSS, and PHP. Knowledge of PHP cannot be understated, with PHP being the scripting language that WordPress uses, it will be essential for editing any of the default choices in WordPress, any plugin, or any theme. The designer should also know how to make a simple static site as a bare minimum. WordPress is dynamic, and there will still be some clients that want to stick with a WordPress site but do not need the added complexity of constantly updating content. Creating static pages is essential for anyone who is not using WordPress.com hosting. The website also absolutely must be easily modifiable. The client will undoubtedly want to make changes to the content, and because of this, the designer must learn to make a custom theme. If the theme is only partially custom, it can be more trouble than it is worth, so the designer should have extensive knowledge of both CSS and PHP.
This topic is more for those who are looking to become a professional WordPress web designer, or are hiring a web designer for their business. It’s important to understand what you are getting into with WordPress. Uninformed web designers may find themselves overwhelmed with the workload or unable to deliver what the client expects. By understanding the role of a professional WordPress web designer, a person looking to hire a web designer can effectively judge how qualified a particular candidate is. All of the following will be essential skills a web designer should have without needing to outsource.
3.1 Website Creation and Maintenance
Among the widely varying responsibilities attributed to the web development roles of our respondents, there was an area of relative uniformity. Approximately 90% of web developers indicated an involvement with website maintenance. The tasks involved in maintenance were not described similarly by all respondents. Some developers indicated small scale tasks such as content updates, proofreading copy and monitoring site statistics. Other stated maintenance tasks included debugging, modifying current code, and monitoring site security. These respondents feel that the maintenance aspect of web development is crucial and are quick to point out that it is not merely a matter of making additional money. Development and maintenance are the key stages of a website’s life cycle. It has been suggested that the trend for web development is gravitating towards remote maintenance tasks. This is the result of client software solutions becoming more and more complex, requiring an in constant state of update, and the ever-growing popularity of the Content Management System (CMS). Web developers familiar with modern CMS systems such as WordPress, Drupal, etc., are likely to find themselves more involved in maintenance tasks than those working with static HTML websites. This shift in trend is reflected by the fact that the respondents displaying an aptitude for maintenance had on average 1-2 years more experience than those whose skills resided in development and implementation. This suggests that maintenance, and remote maintenance in particular, could be the future standard of website life cycle management.
3.2 Plugin and Theme Customization
They focus on business operations while the web developer is concerned with the technical aspects of the website. Customization of plugins and themes is the sole focus of a developer and most users of WordPress are not aware of this. A user is able to browse the WordPress plugin directory for a few particular plugins, and then proceed to upload and install these on their blog. But what happens if the user wants to do a few alterations to the plugin to suit their needs? This may or may not be an easy task depending on the plugin. Users will often contact the plugin author and ask if they would be willing to do the particular customization. Plugin or theme customization is usually a short-term job. Users will often keep developer on standby in case more customizations are needed in the near future, or if they want to revert back to the original state of the plugin. Ongoing support is common as the next step would be to create a new version of the plugin, or to add the particular customization into the next release. Step and scope of the job can be indefinite. The developer should make proper lines of contact so in case of any bugs with a new release, the plugin author can still get in touch.
3.3 Website Optimization and Security
The security is foremost. A site owner’s job is to protect sensitive information on his site. It is our duty to ensure the safety of his website and resources. We will have to protect the website from malware, secure the admin panel, login attempts, and protect the server and resources from DoS attacks. There are various security plugins available in WordPress like Wordfence, Sucuri from which we can secure the website, but we have to make sure the security checks don’t consume too many resources.
Website optimization and security are those aspects which should not be overlooked by any WordPress professional. As an effective website is the main target of every stakeholder, so in turn, website performance should meet their expectations. Every website owner wants their site to load quickly and have enough resources to run their business operations. Our responsibility is to make sure that their resources and website meet the specific targets. Website performance is a sort of measuring how much time the browser takes to render the website of the server. It is our duty to make sure their website consumes fewer resources and gives maximum output. There are various tools and techniques to optimize the website such as the use of CDN, optimization plugins, etc.
3.4 User Support and Training
The duty of User Support and Training is important to the client because it provides detailed and understandable training on how to use the WordPress features given to them at the end of the project, so that the client can have the freedom to manage their website. The Service Provider’s role is to ensure that the client can adapt and become familiar with the training and be able to use the features comfortably. They should provide thorough and friendly user support to the client when they need help or are facing difficulties using the features. Additionally, they should provide additional training when the client employs new staff and employees. The responsibilities of the Service Provider include providing training on backend WordPress features and in-depth features of the project that the client has. They should employ training with a step-by-step guide and provide recorded videos of all the training sessions. User support should provide quick and effective solutions to any problems faced by the client when using a feature from the project. They should also provide additional training when the client employs new staff and employees.
4. Finding and Hiring WordPress Professionals
With an abundance of WordPress professionals available for hire, finding the right candidates can seem like a daunting task. There are various methods to locate and evaluate potential hires depending on the size of your project and your specific needs. CV and online job boards such as the jobs.wordpress.net or freelance switch job boards are a good starting point. As both boards are subject to moderation, you will only be viewing responses from individuals who are capable to date and serious about finding work. For other more general online job boards you will need to sift through a lot of applicants as anyone can post an application without moderation. Elance and oDesk are also good sources although these websites involve you posting a job and individuals or agencies applying to the job. You can then review and contact the applicants that interest you.
Networking and referrals are particularly effective if you are seeking an individual with a good work ethic and solid reputation. If you have colleagues within the web industry, ask them if they can recommend anyone for the job. A referral is the most valuable tool as it reflects the opinion of another person who has experience with the individual being referred. If the referral is based on a positive personal experience, it is likely that the candidate is a suitable choice for your project.
4.1 Online Platforms and Job Boards
Online platforms and job boards may simplify your search for WordPress professionals by aggregating resumes from professional WordPress developers, and in some cases offering easy online application processes. There are also separate services available that help connect companies with WordPress professionals. Websites like Elance, Freelancer, and Odesk will allow you to post your job and have contractors apply for the position. These websites have rating systems and feedback, so you can learn about the reputation of the developer you’re looking to hire. Odesk offers a nice solution by taking random screenshots of the contractor as they work to make sure they’re billing accurately and working hard. Nonetheless, these platforms are often a good way to find average/intermediate developers as professional developers may not spend their time trolling job boards.
Upwork, Guru, and Freelancer are popular with developers who are willing to work for lower rates and occasionally bid against each other to win a job. Post your project description and watch the bids flood in. These sites are most suitable for small tasks or projects with clearly defined scope. With no disrespect to any developers, a large portion of those found on these platforms are usually looking to build their skill-set, are students, or are in it for some side money as opposed to career professionals. This isn’t to say that there aren’t professional developers on these platforms, but you’re likely to have to filter through many proposals to find the right person.
4.2 Networking and Referrals
Networking is all about who you know – and it can be one of the most efficient and effective ways to find and hire a WordPress developer. Quality developers will themselves network with other developers and professionals; knowing this, it can be as simple as putting the word out to friends and colleagues who are also in the tech industry.
Joining online and offline WordPress and tech with like-minded professionals is also a great way to build a rapport with individual developers, ask around or posting the requirements to such groups can yield some very positive results. Just be sure your online presence is professional as developers may also seek to evaluate you based on what they see and hear.
Developers with a good professional attitude and keen business sense are looking for clients who are a good fit and who will have potential for ongoing association – these types of developers will often refer work that they cannot take on themselves to other quality professionals they know. If you happen to come across a developer who is an ideal fit for your requirements but is unavailable, do not be afraid to ask if they can recommend someone for the job.
4.3 Evaluating Portfolios and Experience
If the task is completed to a high standard and you are satisfied with the work, then this would be a good time to negotiate a time and price for your project. In the event that things do not pan out, there is no obligation to give the developer any more work. If things go well and the result is successful, then you have found yourself a suitable developer.
The next thing to evaluate is the developer’s technical skill. While the design may look nice, you will need to make sure it is built with the best practice of modern standards and will not be prone to error. A good way to assess a developer’s work is to ask them specifically how they have implemented certain features on the site and how they have overcome any technical challenges. A developer who has intelligent answers and has no problem explaining technical processes is likely to be more skillful than one who is going to resort to trial and error. The most effective way to evaluate technical skill is to give the developer a small task to complete on a test server. In most cases, this will be paid work, as it is not fair to ask a developer to work for free. Make sure you give clear instructions of what you want and the requirements it needs to meet. This is a good chance to also evaluate how the developer communicates and the estimated time they give for the task. A developer with good communication and is realistic about their timeframes is a desirable attribute.
Evaluating a developer’s work is a crucial part of the hiring process. The portfolio is a developer’s resume and typically displays their best work. The first thing to look for in the developer’s portfolio is to make sure their style of work will be a good match for your project. Look for examples of work that are similar to what you are wanting to accomplish. If you are wanting to build an e-commerce site, then hire a developer who has a history of creating e-commerce sites. Look for developers who have experience working on projects relevant to your industry. If you are a non-profit organization, it would be beneficial to hire someone who has done work for non-profits in the past. At this point, you are not only looking for relevant technical skills, but you are looking for a developer with a good understanding of your project and has a good chance of delivering a successful product.
4.4 Interviewing and Assessing Skills
The interview process is the most important step in hiring an individual. A smart question and answer session will increase the probability of finding the right person for the job. It will help discover if the candidate’s ability fits the job requirements and if the person will fit in with the existing team. The goal of the interview process is to:
– Observe the interviewee’s character and personality to assess if they are a good fit for the team.
– Sell the position as well as the company to the potential employee.
– Clarify any information that was discovered from the interviewee’s resume.
– Discover any job specific knowledge or experience the candidate has.
– Gather work related examples to see if the person possesses the required skills.
There are various ways to interview, this includes by phone, instant messenger, in an informal public place or a face-to-face formal interview. With a skilled interviewee, the best results will usually come from a face-to-face interview. During the interview process, it is important to take notes so that information on the candidate can be reviewed at a later time. It is also essential that all interviewees are asked the same questions to make the process fair.
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