WordPress is one of the world’s most popular content management systems, and for good reason: it makes adding and editing your website’s content as easy as possible.
It comes as no surprise, then, that many businesses look to hire a WordPress agency to help deliver a new website, and this guide should be a useful starting point if you’re hiring a WordPress agency for your project.
Is WordPress for you?
WordPress is not for everyone: it provides a great platform for smaller (and some larger) websites, but is not necessarily the right platform for your project, so it’s worth exploring other options with a web consultant (we’ve know some very talented web consultants!).
And whilst WordPress does have options for ecommerce (including WooCommerce), sometimes it’s not the best platform for your ecommerce business, and considering other options such as Magento (or Magento Enterprise), Drupal Commerce or even hosted platforms such as Shopify. Again, exploring different platforms’ strengths and weaknesses is essential for any project, and can help you confirm WordPress is the platform for your needs.
Migrating to WordPress
Another thing to consider when looking for a WordPress agency is whether or not they have experience migrating your existing website’s content (and product, customer and order data, too if you’re using WooCommerce). For small websites of 50 or so pages, content migration could be done manually, though there are many tools to help you import content from other platforms in to WordPress.
Review their WordPress portfolios
As with hiring anyone, reviewing a selection of their existing work is a must: review the agency’s WordPress portfolio and see if their style of design and scale of websites they’ve previously built matches your own requirements.
Responsive (mobile-friendly) WordPress websites
WordPress training is often overlooked when commissioning a new website, and this can cause the long term failure of your new website: if you don’t know how to update it,
A key part in ensuring the ongoing success of your new website is to enable you to feel comfortable adding and updating content in WordPress: a well-structured WordPress training course is essential in giving you the knowledge – and confidence – in managing your website in to the future.
Marketing your WordPress website
Once you have launched your new WordPress website, your job is not over: your website will likely need some help with marketing and promotion in search engines, social media and other channels, depending on your target sectors for customers.
Dealing with a reliable digital marketing agency or search engine optimisation consultant can produce great results for increased enquiries – and therefore, hopefully, increased sales – and is an ongoing process of experimentation to find the right means for your business. You can ask your WordPress agency about marketing, or approach a specialist marketing agency or freelancer for their advice.
WordPress web hosting and support
As with any website, WordPress websites will require hosting – a computer to store your website’s files so they’re visible to everyone on the web. The web hosting charge is typically monthly or annual, and will vary on the size and complexity of your website as well as the traffic volumes visiting your website.
WordPress provides some great tools to help you edit and manage your website on a daily basis, but there will still be some tasks – such as refreshing the design – that you will need to ask your web designer or developer to look at for you. An ongoing support package for your WordPress website can be beneficial to you in ensuring WordPress is kept secure and up to date, maximising your website’s availability to customers and ensuring it’s attracting as much new business as possible.