When you’re not a website developer, you only have two options: learn how to update and manage your own website or hire a developer.
It’s not impossible to learn how to manage your website, especially when you use a CMS like WordPress. However, there are a handful of reasons it’s better to hire a developer.
Advanced knowledge is the number one reason to hire a quality WordPress developer to update your WordPress website. Some updates require more than editing text or uploading an image. For example, if you decide to add some JavaScript to your website, you can use a header/footer injection plugin. However, your newly added JavaScript might create a conflict with an existing WordPress plugin or even your theme.
A developer will know that JavaScript conflicts are common, and they’ll have a system for identifying the conflict. For example, they’ll disable each plugin one at a time in order to identify the source of the conflict.
If the conflict isn’t caused by a plugin, they’ll temporarily activate a basic theme like Twenty Twenty and see if your theme is the problem.
Once a developer identifies the conflict, they’ll start working out a solution. If the conflict isn’t resolved by disabling your theme and/or plugins, they’ll look into the JavaScript.
Finally, if they can’t get the JavaScript to work without causing problems, they’ll find another script to accomplish the same goal.
Making mistakes when editing your website is inevitable, even when using a content management system like WordPress.
Some mistakes can cause your entire website to break. Most mistakes won’t really break a website – they’ll just cause an error that makes the site appear to be broken.
For example, if you edit your CSS file directly and omit a semicolon, your site will look like it’s broken. All you have to do is add that semicolon, and your site will return to normal. The same goes for editing PHP – if you insert extra spaces accidentally, your site might look blank or return a parsing error.
The problem with making minor mistakes is that without WordPress development experience, you probably won’t know what mistake you made. Not knowing exactly how your site broke will make it difficult, if not impossible, to fix the problem.
According to Jetpack – one of WordPress’ most popular plugins – there are six common ways people break their WordPress sites:
While you’re trying to fix your mistake, your website could be down for hours, days, or possibly even weeks. Every minute your site is down, it is lost revenue.
On the other hand, when you have a website developer making your updates, they’ll be less likely to make those small mistakes. And, if they do, they’ll know precisely how to diagnose and fix the problem quickly.
WordPress makes it relatively easy to update your website through a visual editor. If you don’t use the native visual editor, you probably have a visual editor plugin like WP Bakery. Many custom themes come packaged with some kind of visual editor.
Although visual editors are drag-and-drop, they’re not always easy to learn. Some visual editors have a steep learning curve with plenty of complexities you have to memorize just to edit a block of simple content.
When you hire the best WordPress developers to keep your site updated, and they aren’t familiar with your visual editor, they can usually bypass the editor and work directly with your HTML. For developers, editing content in HTML is usually faster than using a visual editor. This streamlined development process not only speeds up web development but also makes sure that your custom theme is integrated and optimized for digital marketing purposes.
How often do you update your core WordPress files and your plugins? If you’re not security-minded, you might skip these important updates. However, skipping updates can lead to your site getting hacked or even deleted.
Your website is more secure when you hire a professional WordPress developer on retainer to manage your site. They’ll log in regularly to check for updates and install them right away.
While some updates contain small fixes like typo corrections, layout adjustments, and feature improvements, some updates are actually patches. The difference between a feature update and a patch is night and day. Feature updates create a better user experience, but patches fix bugs and major vulnerabilities that hackers might exploit.
If you don’t have time to stay on top of updates, you’re better off hiring a skilled WordPress developer on retainer to manage your content updates and your core WordPress plugin development.
What would you rather spend your time doing – watching a bunch of WordPress tutorials on YouTube? Or strategizing your next product launch with your marketing team?
Your time is valuable and is worth more when engaging in tasks that will grow your business. Only you can come up with your next product or service. Take your time back and hire a WordPress developer to manage your website.
When you’re in charge of updating your own WordPress website, you won’t really know what you can do to improve the way your site functions. You might have ideas here and there, but you won’t know how to implement those ideas. You can browse the internet for ideas, but you probably won’t find what exactly you’re looking for.
On the other hand, when you have a developer to update and manage your site, you can tell them your ideas, and they’ll come up with a solution. They can also create a custom plugin that exactly meets your needs.
Most people would agree that hiring a professional website developer makes life easy. Did you know that hiring a developer to manage your WordPress site is easy and affordable?
Hiring a website designer is a worthwhile expense, but it won’t break the bank. You can hire a developer on retainer to perform regular maintenance and updates, or you can pay someone by the hour when you need them. It’s up to you and your budget.
Would you like a WordPress developer to manage your website development updates so you can have more time to yourself? No matter how comfortable you get with WordPress, nothing beats having someone else do all the work.
If you’re ready to delegate your website maintenance and updates, contact us today. At Dev.co, we love taking on projects for clients who just need a little help here and there.
Our team of professional developers offers WordPress development services and will take on any responsibilities you’d rather delegate to the pros. Whether you need updates, maintenance, or even a site redesign, contact us today for a free quote.
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