Freelance WordPress Developer from the Philippines.

WordPress Common Questions And Answers

• What Is WordPress?

  WordPress is a content management system, it helps users easily manage their website. During the old times ( story time ) the only way to update your website is to log in via FTP and make changes and there comes WordPress. WordPress started as a blogging platform way back 2003, years have passed and the community has extended it further, creating powerful plugins to sell products online , almost anything can be done with WordPress now. WordPress powers over 43.5% of the website online that is how popular WordPress is.

• How much a new WordPress website development cost?

  Development costs vary based on requirements and the developer who will do the development. In my case, I will always calculate the website development cost based on my hourly rate and simply multiply the total hours it will take to finish the website and my hourly rate.

• Why hire a WordPress freelancer instead of a WordPress agency to create a website for your business?

  Working with an agency is a good option as they have several people who specialize in their fields like graphics designers, digital marketing, WordPress developers, and even a team of content writers. The only down side of working with a WordPress agency is the price as they will need to pay multiple people working on the project. 

  A freelance WordPress developer on the other hand will be providing a smaller price for the development , but as a business owner you should be working with a well established freelance WordPress developer and interview several freelancer to make sure you will be getting the best value and most experienced freelancer.

• What is a WordPress plugin and WordPress theme?

  Think of your website as your house, your house needs paint so it looks good on the outside, and that is the same with a WordPress theme. WordPress theme is a collection of template files, codes, stylesheets, and scripts to make your website look good when a potential business customer visits your website.

  With a WordPress plugin, you can think of it as the appliances inside your house or even the electric wires. WordPress plugin enhances the functionality of your website much like the appliances inside your house. Needed a form to collect details from your potential customer? WordPress plugin can easily do it.

  The good thing with WordPress themes and plugins is most of them can be downloaded freely from WordPress website there are paid versions of plugins and themes too that comes with more functionality.

• Why is my WordPress website slow?

  There are several factors why a WordPress website is slow let me enumerate them:

  1. Slow hosting
  2. No website caching
  3. Huge image file size

  Slow hosting: Hosting plays a huge role in your WordPress website speed; one hosting differs from another. As a business owner, you might find it odd why hosting companies offer different pricing and packages because you need to consider the resources that are being offered by the package. Just a tip in hosting, avoid those hosting that only resells from other big companies as most of them is slow because it shared with other websites hosted on the same server.

  No website caching: The WordPress website should have a caching plugin in place, The website cache stores files temporarily so each time someone visits your business website the files (images, scripts, stylesheet) will load faster to the visitor. It is a best practice to ask a developer to setup the caching of your website as it will easily break your website if not set up properly.

  Huge file sizes: The best solution for huge image file sizes is to resize it either manually or use a plugin or online service that will do it for you. Doing it manually might require a photo editing tool for resizing and I highly suggest saving the file to .webp format to compress the size and that is what search engine such as Google suggest.

• How important maintenance to my website?

  Websites especially WordPress need to be updated at least every month. WordPress website maintenance should include:

  • Updating WordPress version, themes, and plugins
  • Automatic website backup to secure offshore locations like Amazon S3, Google Cloud, or even Microsoft Azure
  • Automatic malware scanning
  • Checking of website logs
  • Deleting spam comments

  WordPress itself is secure but from time to time users will find exploitation to WordPress core that is why WordPress is an outstanding Content Management System and since it is open source fixing any vulnerability will be faster.

  Hundreds of thousands plugins and themes available too for WordPress same as the core plugins and themes can be exploited too which is why updating it on a monthly basis will be good to increase security of your website.

  The bottom line is WordPress website maintenance is important to increase security of your website and avoid any unnecessary downtime due to security issue.

• Can I create a WordPress website without experience?

  Sure you can, anyone can WordPress offers good documentation where it gives instructions step by step on how to set up your website you can read it here.

  Users without experience in creating WordPress websites may find it challenging to customize their site, which is why hiring a WordPress developer can be a better option. Experienced developers can save business owners time.

  Wouldn’t it be better for a business owner to focus on managing your business and just ask an experienced WordPress developer to create the website that you have in mind?