At Ultimately Better we’re pretty laid back people. We’re not here to gatekeep professions or tell people that they can or can’t use a certain job title. However, one of the biggest complaints we hear from new and prospective clients is that the WordPress agency or developer they’ve been trying to work with previously… well, they can’t actually develop.
The symptoms of a WordPress developer who can’t develop
The symptoms are fairly easy to spot:
- Heavy reliance on third party themes and plugins, especially “kitchen sink” style bundles that do 80 different things mediocrely instead of one thing really, really well
- Two or more plugins that do the same thing slightly differently, because the ‘developer’ didn’t know how to extend the first one to suit their specific needs
- Conflicts between third party add-ons, in particular when building for WooCommerce websites
- Integration of pagebuilders like WP Bakery, Elementor and Divi
- Unsolveable bugs; the ‘developer’ tries to fix them with more plugins but the issue remains
What’s wrong with non-developers, though?
There’s nothing wrong with non-developers. There’s nothing wrong with not knowing how to code, or not having an in-depth knowledge of the WordPress system under the hood. There will always be demand for someone who’s a whizz in the dashboard, or who can creatively pull together a landing page seemingly like magic, and we frequently recommend WordPress implementors to clients who need this kind of talent.
But… the problem arises when you have a website which has complex needs that can’t be solved by moving stuff about in the dashboard, such as when the requirements of a project are technically complex or business critical, e.g. on an e-commerce/WooCommerce website.
When your business lives or dies by its online presence, it’s absolutely crucial to have a WordPress developer who understands how things work, and where to start debugging if something suddenly stops working. The downside to using a WordPress developer who can’t develop is that when problems arise with a plugin, or with the user experience of a website, or when conflicts between add-ons occur (and they do): the knowledge isn’t there to find and fix the root issue. This leads to the developer throwing more plugins or third party code onto the heap in the hope one of them solves the customer’s problem, inevitably causing the issue to worsen or creating more bugs in the process!
So what do I do if my developer can’t develop?
You’ve potentially spotted that your developer can’t actually develop, so what do you do now?
First things first, it’s important to figure out if you actually need a WordPress developer. If you’ve only got a small brochure site that collects enquiries or that is signposting your potential customers elsewhere, you may not need a developer; someone who can maintain a few pages and update the plugins might be sufficient for your business needs.
However, if your WordPress website consists of multiple “moving parts”, has processes that involve e-commerce or working with customer data, or the website connects to APIs to send or receive requests: you need someone who knows their way around code. If this is the case, it’s time to start looking for a WordPress development agency or a freelance developer who can:
- Extend or build bespoke WordPress themes and plugins
- Demonstrate previous experience of integrating with APIs, payment gateways, and other third party services
- Explain why a bug or an issue is happening and the technical steps to put it right
If you need help finding a digital agency or freelancer to help with your WordPress or WooCommerce website, reach out and we’ll happily provide free, no-obligation advice on next steps to get your website the care and attention it needs.
Lead photo by Joshua Aragon