How to Choose a WordPress Theme Developer for Your Customized WordPress Theme

  • Siften Halwai
  • July 12, 2022
  • 7 Minute Read
How to Choose a WordPress Theme Developer for Your Customized WordPress Theme

WordPress powers 43% of all websites on the internet. As such, if you were to set up your website using the default WordPress themes and settings, your website would look no different from the others!

Here’s where a WordPress theme & WordPress theme developer enters the scene to spice things up. What are WordPress themes? And how can a WordPress theme developer help your business? Most importantly, how do you find a WordPress theme developer for a customized business website? This post answers all your queries. So, let’s get started!

What is a WordPress Theme?

A WordPress theme is a collection of files, such as style sheets, codes, graphics, typography, etc., which work together to govern the overall appearance of your website. In other words, you can use WordPress themes to differentiate your website from the rest!

Given this competitive advantage, businesses are turning to WordPress theme developers to impart a degree of uniqueness to their websites. It is best to hire WordPress experts to ensure that your requirements are carried out professionally.

Who is a WordPress Theme Developer?

A WordPress theme developer is one who can create such WordPress theme assets to make your website truly memorable and outstanding! They curate a compilation of all WordPress theme-related elements (style sheets, codes, graphics, typography, etc.) to create aesthetic, modern themes for WordPress.

Why Does a Custom WordPress Theme Developer Matter?

To truly understand the importance and value of a WordPress theme developer, one needs to understand the importance of custom WordPress themes first.

As a webmaster, one of the first decisions you have to make regarding your website revolves around the theme. Hiring professional WordPress theme developers also ensures that your current content, tables, and the best WordPress plugins required for your website are compatible with your custom theme.

On the flip side, themes are one of the first elements that leave an impression on a visitor’s mind.

As such, themes are one of the first considerations on either side. On that note, let’s take a look at why you should create custom WordPress themes so that we can later tie them to the need for a WordPress theme developer:

1. Custom WordPress Themes Developers Offer a Branded Presence

A custom WordPress theme will be better aligned with your organizational goals than its templatized counterpart. A capable WordPress theme developer will infuse the mission, vision, and objective of your business within the theme and maintain it consistently until it becomes a brand.

Here is the Distribution of the Best WordPress Themes on Top WordPress websites.

WordPress Theme Usage Distribution in The Top 1 Million Sites

2. Custom WordPress Themes Expedite Development Timelines

You may think that a cookie-cutter theme is better than working on a blank WordPress theme and customizing it. However, it is quite the opposite. Default themes require the WordPress developer to work extra hard to make them “yours”.

Plus, the unused assets will make the website look half-baked. On the other hand, custom WordPress theme development will undertake the process from scratch while maintaining a laser-sharp focus on the deliverables and outcomes.

For such exclusive and custom needs for your website, it’s also recommended to pre-mention them in your WordPress developer job description to meet the right candidate.

3. Custom WordPress Themes Developers are SEO-Friendly

When a website theme developer works on the WordPress theme, they put in the effort to customize it, even on the SEO front. As such, you will see custom WordPress themes reflecting a better information architecture, schema layout, quicker load times, etc., which will improve the visibility of your website.

4. Custom WordPress Themes Deliver Better Performance

As seen previously, custom WordPress theme development bleeds into other aspects of web designing. By focusing purely on the features and functionalities that your business requires and making the best use of the assets, the theme developer can offer you a modern theme for WordPress that outperforms the template ones.

From quick loading to high responsiveness to cross-device performance – a WordPress theme developer can give you all.

5. Custom WordPress Themes are Easier to Update

Much like editing an existing theme to personalize it, updating a template theme is tough. Plus, every update cycle will result in mounting redundancies, affecting the theme’s performance. With custom WordPress theme development, updating themes is simpler as all you need to do is notify the WordPress theme developer and share your requirements. The update will soon be ready for installation.

Note: If you want to create SEO-friendly plugins along with your SEO-friendly theme, then do consider hiring and knowing about a WordPress plugin developer to create custom plugins.

6. Custom WordPress Theme Developer Enhances Security

The greatest issue with blank WordPress themes is that they are susceptible to your run-of-the-mill security flaws. Further, as we have seen above, addressing such issues can be time-consuming.

Fortunately, custom WordPress theme development overcomes these challenges as they are specially curated for businesses with certain requirements like design and security in mind. At the same time, your WordPress theme developer will immediately respond to any security threats and release patches and updates that can address security issues immediately.

7. Custom WordPress Theme Developer Offers Full-Time Support

Whether you download a theme from the WordPress library or purchase one from a third-party website, you would be relying on external parties for support if things were to go down south.

On the other hand, having a WordPress theme developer at your disposal puts you in the driver’s seat as you enjoy first-hand support in real time. Also, they better know the difference between WordPress.org Vs WordPress.com so they can help you with whichever you work on.

Why Should You Hire a Professional WordPress Theme Developer?

Given the benefits of custom WordPress theme development outlined above, it is only logical to hire a WordPress theme developer to maximize the value of the process. As they say, it is always best to employ a professional for such a task (and to get it right the first time).

Why Should You Hire A WordPress Theme Developer

 

However, if you are still considering whether you should hire a professional to create a bespoke WordPress theme, think of the following advantages:

  • They bypass the need to learn the ins and outs of how to create WordPress themes.
  • WordPress theme developers can add unique designs, features, and functionalities to your site – or at least make provisions for them if you were to add them later.
  • The WordPress theme developer will leverage their skill and expertise to help you get the most out of the WordPress theme, which means better site performance, greater visibility, robust security, and so on.
  • You will have a single point of contact for any technical issues surrounding the theme, such as installing updates, adding security patches, fixing bugs, etc.

Note:- If you are looking to hire an expert, then you should have a clear idea about the charges. In case, this guide on “WordPress Developer Salary in the USA and Worldwide” may come handy for you.

Given this slew of these huge advantages, why should you not hire WordPress developers?

How to Find and Hire the Best WordPress Theme Developer for Your Project?

Finding and hiring the best WordPress theme developer will require some amount of research and grunt work – which can be overwhelming. But, what if we were to tell you that you can work smart than hard to navigate this process?

Here’s how you can follow this easy process to find WordPress website designers and developers.

3 Steps to Find and Hire a WordPress Theme Developer

1. Know Where to Find

The neatest trick in hiring the best WordPress theme developer lies in finding them in the first place! You have the following options:

Relying on recommendations 

It can be the easiest way to find a website developer for the WordPress theme. Ask through your professional networks for a WordPress theme developer and approach the ones that feature highly in the list of recommendations. However, you will only get success if you receive recommendations from reliable and trusted sources; else, this very advantage can lead to your downfall!

Sourcing from third-party sites

Third-party freelancing websites allow businesses to get in touch with WordPress theme developers directly. You get to preview their skill sets, past performance, portfolio, and pricing and make the decision. However, you are responsible for vetting the talent and onboarding them, which can get cumbersome.

Hiring an agency

Roping in an agency can be the most hassle-free way to hire a WordPress theme developer on your team. You will have access to a pool of pre-vetted talent, a no-questions-asked talent replacement policy, and a single point of contact. All you need to do is share your requirement and kick back as the hiring agency takes care of it.

2. Set Your Expectations

From the above, it is clear that hiring an agency is the quickest way to get your modern theme for WordPress. However, regardless of the medium that you choose, you will have to share your base expectations with the WordPress theme developer so that they can deliver accordingly.

So, prepare a list of deliverables that you can share with the theme WordPress developer. Ask yourself, will WordPress theme development cover a specific functionality? Or will it purely be from a design perspective? What would be the KPIs that will determine the efficacy of the custom WordPress theme? Remember to capture these expectations as SMART goals so that the progress and the deliverables remain tangible.

3. Match Expectations With Offerings

After you have shortlisted your options, it is time to seek compatibility between your expectations and the offerings. Your budget will be an important factor to consider here. So, it’s advised that you analyze the cost to develop a WordPress website and theme beforehand.

Categorize your expectations into needs and wants and compare how the prospect fares against them. Naturally, the one checking all your boxes would be the right pick, but certain requirements would carry greater weight than others.

For instance, you could choose a freelance WordPress theme developer to keep the custom WordPress theme development within budget. However, if you are looking for a developer and a designer, while also working on a tight deadline, it would be smarter to pick an agency at a slightly higher cost.

A few considerations that may come to play during the why, what, when, and how to develop a premium WordPress theme include:

  • The kind of WordPress website that you envision.
  • Level of experience and attention to detail.
  • Degree of support and maintenance.
  • Budget and timelines.

Weigh out your options, and you will find what is best for you.

Conclusion

Now that you know how to hire WordPress Experts and where to get started, hiring an agency appears to be the quickest and smartest way to get results. And if you are looking to harness this strategic advantage, we highly recommend that you check out what Uplers Talent Management Services have to offer. We filter in the top 3% of the talent so that you get the best of the lot. 

From transforming blank WordPress themes into a work of art or custom WordPress theme development from scratch – we can do it all. So, what are you waiting for? Get in touch with Uplers to discuss your custom WordPress theme development requirements and we will hook you up with the creme de la creme!

Siften HalwaiLinkedin

Sr. Content Marketing Strategist
Have you heard of tech professionals with a knack for marketing? Siften is a Software developer by degree but a Content Marketing Strategist by profession. Apart from being a great chef, foodie, poet, and adventure lover, he has the dexterity for producing quality content. Understanding the consumer persona and curating engaging content strategically is his forte and he strives for excellence.