CEO of WPRiders. World-class programming put to work for small to mid-sized businesses, startups and nonprofits.
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When you create a website for your business, you have to think ahead. There are a lot of things that you should consider, and a good WordPress development agency is one of them.
Now, you might not need one right away. You can write a good website specification and start building a website all on your own using a no-code approach. But once your online business picks up, you will notice the need for professional support and guidance. After all, no entrepreneur wants to live with the fear of their website crashing.
You might think that choosing a WordPress development agency is not that difficult. After all, there are so many seemingly good ones out there and, if you don’t like the results, you can just hire the next one on the list. Unfortunately, business owners who go this route end up with a messy and unstable WordPress website most of the time. Here’s why this happens.
A Broken-Down Website Is Like A Broken-Down Car
Let’s say your car breaks down. You take it to the closest garage you could find and the mechanic there tells you that your car has several issues. The mechanic starts working on your car, but every time you visit the service shop, you don’t see any significant improvement.
You decide to take your car to a different service shop. Your new mechanic doesn’t know what was initially wrong with your car and what the other mechanic did to it. He patches up the problems that he sees and overlooks the issues that were halfway done by the first mechanic.
You take your car home and it breaks down again after one week. By now, you’re frustrated and angry at the two mechanics and you go to a third one, who patches your problems again. The exact same thing can happen with a website if you keep patching it.
The symptoms of a website that has gone through too many developers’ hands are:
• Errors appearing when you try to change the smallest thing.
• Random errors popping up.
• A long loading time.
What Happens When You Work With More Than One Developer?
So, the question remains —what happens when you work with multiple developers over a short period of time?
From our experience, these are the most common issues that clients have when working with a multitude of developers:
• The developers don’t follow the same plan or structure; therefore, there’s no cohesive approach to the website.
• The developers keep trying to reinvent features that already work because they don’t know they exist and, hence, don’t reuse them, which leads to redundancy and bloat.
• Websites become full of patched-up work. This tends to happen because developers think they are working on a short, one-time project. They don’t see the full picture and they’d rather apply a hasty patch to deliver the job.
• There will be unused code on the website because the next developers don’t have time to read the old code, adjust it and reuse it or clean it up. The code that is left behind will slow down the website.
• There is no strategic master plan to which everyone should adhere to. This leads to a lot of wasted time.
What Is The Solution?
You might think that the solution is simple. You pick a good website developer and you stick with them through thick and thin. But unexpected things can happen when you least expect them to. You can wake up one day with a website half done and no developer.
To avoid this, we suggest you hire a WordPress development agency instead. But even this decision does not guarantee the success of your website.
You need to get involved. After all, you can’t just hire your developers and call it a day. Here’s what you should find on your to-do list:
1. Steal an agency: A smart thing to do when researching for a new team of developers is to go to a website that looks similar to what you would want and check to see if it was done by a certain agency.
2. Perform a background check: You should also do a background check on all of the possible candidates. Ask your candidate agencies to put you in touch with one of their clients and have a short meeting with those clients.
3. Look for thoroughness: When you have a solid list of candidates, ask for a quote from your target agencies. If the quote they offer is detailed and includes all the features you want, that’s a sign they have properly understood what you want.
4. Compile a strategic master plan: Work with your agency to compile a strategic website master plan for the next six to 12 months. Having a clear direction will help you navigate important strategic decisions.
5. Maintain constant communication with your development team: You and your team should agree to have periodical meetings so you can get informed on the process and development of your website. You should never lose contact with your team of developers.
6. Articulate the right website requirements: Knowing what you want and how you want it done is not enough for your web developers. If you want a job well done, you should also focus on why your clients need the new features of your website and when they are going to use them.
Conclusion
Finding a good WordPress development agency might not be easy, but it’s a must. And the sooner you do it, the better. Whether you’re just starting your WordPress journey or you’re looking to improve the quality of your website, you need to find a dependable team of developers and stick with it.
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