As a website and content management platform, WordPress can be a joy to use. It’s relatively user-friendly, and allows most small business owners to edit their website content without having to hire a professional WordPress consultant. However, WordPress can also come with its challenges. Plugins, security, updates, content management, backups, PHP errors and small business website redesigns can derail even the more technically savvy small business owners. In this article, we’ll provide you with a simple guide to (1) determining if hiring a WordPress consultant is the right decision for you, and (2) if you decide to hire a WordPress consultant, how to go about doing so. Let’s dive in!
Table of Contents
1. What Is a WordPress Consultant?
A WordPress consultant is a technical professional who can assist in developing, maintaining, and optimizing WordPress websites. WordPress consultants bring a wealth of knowledge about WordPress themes, plugins, SEO, site security, and performance optimization.
Key Roles of a WordPress Consultant:
- Site Planning & Strategy: Helping clients identify goals for expansion (or cleanup) and creating a roadmap to accomplish those goals.
- Design & Development: Customizing themes, plugins, and layouts, or adding new plugins and features to improve your digital experience.
- Optimization & Performance: Improving website speed, SEO, and usability of your website
- Troubleshooting & Maintenance: Addressing security, backups, and regular or one-time updates.
- Training & Support: Providing training materials to allow you to self-manage your website into the future if so desired.
2. Top Reasons to Hire a WordPress Consultant
Something Is Broken On Your Website (SEND HELP!!)
We’ve been there. You wake up one morning ready to make a quick update to your website and BAM! The dreaded error code. This is usually the most common reason for reaching out to hire a consultant, and that’s understandable! These error codes are not only hard to read and understand, but they also could indicate much larger issues with your website that may get worse from there…quickly. Time to bring in the big guns and hire help.
Your Website Is Running Slowly / Site Speed Issues
Over the last few years Google has made it no secret that a significant part of the user experience is related to website speed. Think of it this way – if you have not made any specific efforts to check in on or improve the speed of your website, then it’s probably too slow. WordPress consultants help your site get to Speedy Gonzales status, and quickly. There are often just a few things that are easy to fix, but affect your website speed greatly.
Want to try to improve your WordPress website speed yourself? Here are a few tools to check out:
You Need Custom Website Functionality
In a burst of motivation, you may have gotten your basic WordPress website up and running on a template in a weekend. Inevitably, you grow and start to wish that your site did “all the fancy things.” It happens. A WordPress consultant can quickly take your site from “same” to “standout” with cool custom features. You can work with a consultant to add all kinds of awesome things to your site like e-commerce add-ons, fancy calculators and website apps, advanced tracking and more.
You’re Concerned About Website Security
AKA – you got hacked 🙂 – or – you think you might have?! 🤷 Either way, this is definitely a time to call in a WordPress consultant to help make sure you’re not spamming your website visitors. WordPress definitely comes with security challenges that a WordPress consultant will be well aware of, and if they know what they are doing – will have specific security measures to counteract.
Want to try to improve your WordPress website security yourself? Here are a few tools to check out:
You Want to Improve Website SEO
“SEO” is a broad term that often gets misunderstood by website owners. SEO, when done well, is a thorough, long, painstaking process of creating a digital experience and content that drives steady, qualified traffic and leads to your website. Are there “quick SEO fixes” that can be done to improve things? Sure. But a WordPress professional can help guide on what the best plan of attack is moving forward.
Want to try to improve your WordPress website SEO yourself? Here are a few tools to check out:
You Need Website Training and Ongoing Support
For many reasons, running your own WordPress website can be really hard. Most times, it makes total sense to hire a consultant to manage your website. But there are often website owners that really do want to “go it alone.” If that’s the case, then it makes total sense to hire a WordPress consultant who can provide thorough training materials that can be referenced on into the future to help you manage your WordPress website.
3. Understanding the Process of Hiring a WordPress Consultant
From a one-time fix to ongoing retainers, hiring a WordPress consultant can definitely be overwhelming. While this list is not exhaustive, it serves to provide a general overview of what the process might look like when hiring a WordPress consultant. Your specific process may vary, of course, and the complexity of your website needs will certainly affect the actual reality of the roadmap.
Initial Consultation and Goal Setting
The initial phase of hiring a WordPress consultant often involves a discovery call where you discuss your goals, existing pain points, and vision for the website. This helps the WordPress consultant understand your needs and assess how they can assist you. Sometimes the issue you face is so simple that you can get the WordPress consultant access to your website and have the issue resolved within a few hours!
Proposal and Project Scope (Larger Issues)
After the initial consultation, the WordPress consultant will provide a proposal outlining the scope, timeline, and cost. This document will typically detail each phase of the website project, so there’s transparency on both sides, and an understanding of what will and won’t happen during the engagement.
Development and Testing
This is the core phase where the WordPress consultant begins work on your site. Each element is tested for functionality, and you’ll be able to review the site for any necessary adjustments and updated project scope.
Training and Handover
Once the site is ready, WordPress consultants often provide a training session for your team, ensuring you’re comfortable making updates, adding content, and managing minor fixes. If you are hiring your WordPress consultant to do ongoing work for you, then this step is less common, as the WordPress consultant will take care of everything for you.
Ongoing Website Maintenance
While some clients prefer to manage the site themselves, others opt for an ongoing website maintenance plan where the consultant handles updates, security, and optimizations. This can often be the most cost-effective approach for your needs when you consider how much time it takes you to try to perform website updates yourself. Many small business owners fall into this trap, thinking that making their own updates is less costly. It hardly ever is!
5. How to Choose the Right WordPress Consultant
Ok, so you’re ready to hire?! Great. But how do you know who to trust? Selecting the RIGHT WordPress consultant can be just as important as realizing you need one in the first place. While not an exhaustive list, the below guidelines can help guide you to some criteria that you should use when considering whom to trust.
Experience and Portfolio
WordPress consultants are a dime a dozen these days. After all, it only takes a laptop and an internet connection to be a “WordPress consultant.” Any good WordPres consultant will have plenty of recent (keyword RECENT) portfolio experience to show off. Be wary of WordPress consultants who are hesitant to provide examples, or don’t have them publicly displayed.
Technical Skills and Services Offered
Not all WordPress consultants offer the same services. Ensure the WordPress consultant is skilled in areas that are essential to your project, such as custom coding, plugin development, or e-commerce. Ask specific questions related to your needs to ensure that the WordPress consultant has relevant experience and also has the team and skills to handle your project.
Client Reviews and Testimonials
Testimonials are an excellent way to gauge a consultant’s reliability and results – maybe even the best. Let’s put it this way – positive reviews over a long period of time are hard to acquire! If a WordPress consultant has awesome reviews – it probably means they have done a great job over many years! Here are your go-to places to look for reviews:
- Google Reviews
- Trustpilot
- Clutch/Design Rush/UpCity/Bark (aggregator platforms)
Pricing and Budget Compatibility
Discuss the WordPress consultant’s pricing structure and your budget early in the process in order to not waste anyone’s time. Some WordPress consultants charge hourly rates, while others work on a fixed-fee basis. Make sure there’s a clear understanding of what the fee covers, how long the engagement is, etc.
Communication and Responsiveness
If there is one criteria that we can’t stress enough – it’s this one! You are busy. We’re all busy. But many WordPress consultants do not take responsiveness seriously, or at least not seriously enough. The last thing you want to encounter is a WordPress consultant who doesn’t respond in a timely and professional manner when you need things done on your website. You can often tell within the first few days whether a potential WordPress consultant you are looking to hire is going to be responsive and give you the attention you deserve.
FAQ’s – Hiring a WordPress Consultant
How Much Does a WordPress Consultant Typically Charge?
Pricing services from a WordPress consultant can often vary widely, but here are some general guidelines to expect:
- One-Time Fix – you can generally expect to pay anywhere from $30/hour on the low end to $175/hour on the high end for hourly fixes and/or WordPress consulting time. Generally, the higher the hourly rate, the more experience and professionalism the WordPRess consultant will bring to the table. At Bandicoot Marketing, we charge $100/hour for hourly WordPress consultant work. Some WordPress consultants are higher than that, and some are lower.
- Ongoing Retainer / Care Plans – there are numerous WordPress Consultants out there that offer WordPress care plans that are a cost-effective way to get ongoing WordPress website needs taken care of.
- Project-Based – if you have a one-time larger project that you are looking to hire a WordPress consultant for, budget ranges often range anywhere from around $1,000 to $50,000 or more, depending on the project. Your specific project needs can vary widely and thus it’s hard to nail down a very specific number here.
What’s the Difference Between a WordPress Developer and a Consultant?
Great questions! A WordPress developer typically focuses on coding and technical aspects, while a WordPress consultant has a broader role that may include strategy, design guidance, and training in addition to development. At Bandicoot Marketing, we find that most clients usually need some strategy guidance and “what do I do here?!” kind of help prior to being ready to hire a WordPress developer directly.
How Long Does It Take to Complete a WordPress Project?
As with the budget question, this one can vary widely as well. For example, if you need a quick error fix on your website or you need a plugin updated, that can often be finished within 24-48 hours. If you have a complex project that you need help with, it can of course take months to complete.
If You’re Ready to Hire a WordPress Consultant
Busy business owners can often get convinced that “going it themselves” is the right approach to making WordPress website updates and changes. But this couldn’t be further from the truth. Website experts and WordPress consultants exist for a reason – because they’re experts! Eating, sleeping and breathing website errors and WordPress updates is not for everyone. If you’re ready to take the next step, here are several great places to find a WordPress consultant to get those website fixes and/or new WordPress website or strategy taken care of:
- Bandicoot Marketing (If you’d rather work with a personable team)
- Codeable (If you’re ok with a service/larger company)
- UpWork (If you’re willing to put in the work to vet out your own WordPress consultant)
- Toptal (If you want talent vetted for you and are willing to pay for that luxury)
- Pro Bonus Tip – check out our small business website checklist for general tips for your small business website!