What’s it really like to hire a WordPress developer to build a new website? How much does it cost? And why bother outsourcing your work to a white-label WordPress agency instead of completing the project in-house?
In this guide, UnlimitedWP’s WordPress experts for hire outline their exact process from the consultation and initial concept phase to site creation, testing, and beyond.
Why Hire a WordPress Developer? 6 Key Benefits
Before we get into our step-by-step process for developing a WordPress project, let’s first talk about the advantages of outsourcing the work to a development agency.
1. More Cost-Effective Than Hiring an In-House Developer
There’s no getting around the fact that hiring a new employee can be expensive, sometimes prohibitively so.
Even if you ignore the loss of productivity caused by all the time you need to find and vet suitable candidates, there are still the added costs of placing job ads, onboarding, overheads, and employee benefits to consider.
One report from Indeed noted that all this can cost companies as much as $4,000 – $20,000 per employee.
Now, compare that to the typical cost of outsourcing the project to a WordPress development agency.
At UnlimitedWP, for example, you can purchase a complete dev plan for only $749 per month.
This all-encompassing plan includes complete website development as well as
- Website Redesign
- Theme and plugin customizations
- eCommerce and payment integration
- Custom PHP code and more.
Ultimately, this means your WordPress project is completed at half the cost with none of the hassle.
2. Gain a Competitive Advantage for Your Agency
On top of all the costs we just mentioned, you’ll of course have to add a new recruit’s salary.
If you’re an existing web or marketing agency looking to expand your service offer, you might look at that as a worthwhile investment.
After all, an extra developer in the office means you can take on more work. More work means more revenue. More revenue means growth.
That’s certainly true, but let’s look at it from another perspective:
The average annual salary of a full-time WordPress developer is $84,542, while top developers can expect a salary of up to $156,500 per year.
In order to cover that and make a profit, you’ll need to charge your clients a pretty hefty fee.
When you hire a WordPress developer instead, your costs are lower. That means you can add your markup and make a profit while still passing savings on to your clients.
Being able to offer lower costs while still delivering high quality could be the unique selling point that gives your agency the competitive advantage it needs.
3. Tap into Industry-Leading Expertise
Installing a basic WordPress site is a relatively simple process, but once you get into customizations and bespoke front and back end customizations, you require real expertise.
This is where hiring a development agency really starts to prove its worth.
Although you’ll always have a dedicated single point of contact you can rely on, the agency approach allows you to tap into the skills and experience of a full-team of experts.
At UnlimitedWP, for example, our expansive team is made up of 90+ experienced WordPress experts, many of whom have specialist skills in coding, WordPress security, or customizations.
Together, we work in unison to complete each project to the highest industry standards.
4. Meet Deadlines, Even at Short Notice
There’s nothing worse than having a last-minute deadline thrown at you, especially when you don’t have all the necessary resources to meet it.
Partnering with a reliable developer eliminates the stress of facing such a seemingly impossible challenge.
Equipped with the talent and technical infrastructure needed for a fast turnaround, we have a proven history of completing countless WordPress in record time.
5. Seamless Integration with Existing Systems
As a business competing in the digital age, there’s little doubt that WordPress isn’t the only application in your arsenal.
Whether it’s a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platform, sales and e-commerce tools, or a marketing suite, there’s usually at least one tool that needs to communicate with your WordPress installation to ensure your business (or your client’s business) runs smoothly.
Some tools offer out-of-the-box compatibility with WordPress via a dedicated plugin. However, many don’t, particularly those that are custom-made to meet a specific business’s needs. This can make them tricky, if not impossible, to integrate without a tailor-made solution.
WordPress developers can provide those solutions, ensuring the tools you rely on the most work in harmony with one another.
6. Long-Term Maintenance and Support
Even when a project launches without a hitch, the nature of the ever-changing beast that is WordPress means even the most well-developed site will eventually run into problems without ongoing maintenance.
Those problems can range anywhere from basic performance issues to vulnerabilities in outdated plugins that pose a serious threat to your website’s security.
Fortunately, a WordPress agency’s work doesn’t have to stop on your go-live date.
Monthly care and maintenance plans are available, offering long-term support directly to your agency or your clients under a white label agreement.
Working With a WordPress Development Agency: How We Build Your Dream Website
1. Consultation
Your first step towards finding your new development partner involves booking a free demo call at a time that’s most convenient to you.
During that call, one of our WordPress experts for hire will take the time to listen to your needs, understand your pain points, and take note of your deadlines.
Once we’re clear on what you need from us, we recommend which of our monthly dev plans is best suited to your project.
2. Pick Your Development Plan
The good news is that you’re under no obligation to make any commitment during our initial consultation. You can take all the time you need to first review our recurring plans.
Unlike other agencies, we don’t charge by the task but rather by the hour, with the option to choose one of three plans:
| Plan | Daily Hours | Cost |
| Business | 6-8 | $2,997/m |
| Pro | 3-4 | $1,497/m |
| Starter | 1-2 | $749/m |
All three of our options include:
- A dedicated project manager in a US time zone
- Access to a project management tool to track progress and request tasks
- Live chat and instant messaging with your developer.
You can use our free WordPress project cost estimator to determine which plan covers the amount of time required to complete your project, ensuring you don’t pay for more time than you need.
3. Concept and Planning
Once you’ve signed up to work with us, you’ve done all the hard work on your end.
The rest is up to us.
We’ll provide you with a secure project management platform that you can use to submit a task request for a new WordPress development.
We’ll accept the request, confirm your requirements with you, and begin drawing on our expertise to design a future-proofed concept that delivers exactly what you ordered.
This includes making recommendations on theme choices, the best WordPress plugins for maximum functionality with minimal performance impact, and a full plan of action for completing each stage of the project.
At this stage, we’ll also:
- Create a schedule of tasks to be completed along with deadlines.
- Produce a detailed document detailing all your requirements and how we plan to meet them.
4. Approval
Remember, this is a partnership between our agency and yours, so we don’t start building anything until we get your approval.
In the next stage, we will provide you with the opportunity to review our concept and planning documents so that you can be confident that we are giving you what you’ve asked for.
If you’re not, simply tell us, and we’ll work with you to accommodate any changes that need to be made.
Having said that, every hour we spend at this stage is deducted from your monthly plan, so we really go all out to get it right the first time. That way, you can be confident you’re getting the best possible value for money.
5. Creation
When you’re fully satisfied with our recommendations, our expert WordPress developers will strap on their work boots, and get to work on building your dream website.
This stage involves multiple steps:
A. Allocating Resources on Our Development Server
At this stage, we build everything on our own secure development server. That way, curious customers don’t swing by and accidentally discover a half-finished work in progress that doesn’t yet offer the functionality or information they’re looking for.
B. Masking Existing Sites
If you or your clients have a domain name pointing to an existing site, we can connect it to a basic WordPress installation with a ‘Coming Soon’ page.
These are effectively a type of landing page that hides the rest of your site from public view while also allowing you to add an email sign-up form.
Users can subscribe to your email list to be notified when the new site launches, which can have a positive impact on your marketing efforts.
C. Site Architecture
Website architecture is a blanket term we use to describe the framework and structure of your website.
That means laying out clearly defined navigation, and setting up any sub-folders if you’re dividing your site into separate sections.
It means creating a blueprint that can be expanded to include your chosen design elements and content assets later.
D. Adding a Theme
It may be that you’ve already chosen the perfect WordPress theme and simply need us to make customizations that tailor it to your specific needs.
Alternatively, you may decide that your site needs a completely bespoke theme designed from scratch. We can help with that too.
Either way, you can be sure that your finished website will include a theme that:
- Provides a look and feel that accurately reflects your company branding
- Is fully mobile-optimized to provide optimum user experiences on any device
- Is 100% up-to-date and free from security vulnerabilities
- Doesn’t slow your site down
- Is compatible with the plugins and other tools we plan to use.
E. Installing and Configuring Plugins
With all the design aspects in place, it’s time to install pre-made plugins and any custom-build for you.
We ensure all plugins are fully up to date with lightweight yet airtight coding to ensure they’re fully secure and don’t affect site performance.
F. Adding Content Elements
The final part of our development process involves adding all your content to the site, optimizing images, and ensuring all your site’s information and services are in the right location.
6. Testing
Although you’re welcome to check in with us at any time for a progress update, we’ll never come to you claiming the project is finished until it’s been thoroughly tested.
All told, we run three types of tests on your project:
A. Functionality
Does your site function the way it’s supposed to? Do your interactive features work as expected without requiring additional tools or software?
B. Performance
Slow-loading pages are the death knell for many websites, so we’ll never hand over your project until we’re confident that every page loads quickly, even on smartphones and other mobile devices.
C. Security
Although we pride ourselves on our high-quality coding standards, we never take it for granted that our finished code is impenetrable.
Instead, we thoroughly check every line, searching for vulnerabilities that could provide malicious actors with access to your site. In the rare instance that we find any, we’ll fix them and test again until we’re 100% confident that we’re giving you a fully secure website.
D. Usability
Is it easy for your end users to get what they came for? We check that your navigation is clear and well-defined and that your text, images, and other content can all be viewed properly.
7. Demo and Feedback
Once your site passes our testing process with flying colors, we’ll invite you to take a look around.
This is your opportunity to view our work with a critical eye and run your own tests to ensure we’ve met your brief to the letter.
If you feel like we’re not quite there yet, you can use the project management platform to send through your revision requests.
8. Finishing Touches
As your launch date draws closer, we’ll implement any revisions you send us, run the testing process again, and send it to you for final approval.
9. Website Migration and Go Live
Finally, once you’ve given us the go-ahead, we’ll work on migrating your WordPress site from our development server to your hosting server.
Where necessary, we’ll configure your domain name, remove any “coming soon” pages that are in place, and make your website public.
How WordPress Developers Can Help Post–Launch
Although we’re happy to leave the new site in your capable hands once it goes live, our partnership doesn’t have to end there.
We can continue working together on three crucial aspects of running a successful WordPress site.
1. Ongoing Maintenance and Support
After launch, you have the option to keep us on board as your ongoing WordPress support and maintenance partner.
Our WordPress care plans cost $47 per month, per site and include:
- Updates to WordPress core, themes, and plugins
- Daily malware scanning
- Premium security suite
- Daily backups and backup restoration
- Technical SEO and core web vital audits.
Taking care of all these tasks on your behalf means that any websites you’re in charge of, whether they’re your own or your clients, should continue to perform at their best and most secure month after month. However, if problems do arise, the care plan also entitles you to 30 minutes of support and bug fixes each month.
2. Analytics
Any business investing in a new WordPress site needs to be confident that they’re getting the results they wanted.
If you’re hiring us as your white label agency, you’ll certainly have a duty to demonstrate a Return on Investment (ROI) to each of your clients.
That’s where tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console prove invaluable. These tools track important data about your website, including:
- Organic traffic
- Number of unique vs. returning visitors
- Most visited pages
- Which keywords generated the most traffic.
Not only does this reveal how a website is currently performing, but it also reveals valuable insights on how to improve and grow going forward.
We can set these tools up for you, integrate them with your site, and generate custom reports.
3. Search Engine Optimization
It may be that you tasked us with handling Search Engine Optimization (SEO) during the development stage.
If not, we can continue working with you to improve your visibility and click-through rate from major search engines like Google.
Our SEO plan costs $97 per month, per site, and provides you with a scheduled plan of action designed to help you pull in organic traffic.
This schedule includes:
A. SEO Audit and Recommendations
We begin with a complete audit of your website, looking out for any SEO errors and areas for improvement.
We’ll compile our findings into a complete report along with our recommendations for bolstering your site’s SEO.
B. Sitemap and Robots.Txt Optimization
Sitemap.xml and Robots.txt are two essential files that ensure Google search bots can crawl your site properly, and index your content.
We’ll check that your site has both in place and that they’re properly configured. If they’re not, we’ll take care of that for you.
C. Broken Links and Canonical URLs
Broken links impact SEO and user experience in equal measure. If our site audit reveals any links that aren’t working, we’ll remove or replace them with ones that do.
While we’re working on that, we can also configure canonical URLs to improve site indexing.
D. On-Page SEO
Quality content still plays a vital role in attracting visitors to your website.
We make sure yours gives you the best chance of strong search rankings by optimizing page titles, metadata, and schema markup.
From there, we can help you plan future content by conducting competitor analysis and keyword research.
E. Ongoing Monthly SEO Support
Going forward, we’ll continue to carry out all of these tasks on your behalf. We’ll also provide you with a detailed monthly SEO report, which includes:
- Top 20 highest-performing keywords
- Monthly organic search traffic
- Other key insights and data according to set KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).
As a white-label WordPress agency, we can provide these reports with your branding and information, ready to pass on to your clients.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a WordPress developer revamp my existing site?
Yes. We don’t just build new sites. We can also give your current site a complete overhaul by upgrading your theme, incorporating extra functionality, or carrying out performance optimization.
How many changes can I ask my website developer to make?
As many as you like. We charge by the hour, not by the task. So any changes or design revisions you need will simply be deducted from your monthly allowance.
How long does it take to develop a WordPress site?
It depends on the size and scope of the project. Once you approve our plan and concept, we can turn around a simple WordPress site with a theme, plugins, and a few content pages within 24-48 hours.
Larger sites with more customizations or complex features may take several weeks.
UnlimitedWP: Your Trusted WordPress Development Agency
By now, you’ve learned exactly what’s in store when you hire a WordPress developer like UnlimitedWP.
For example, you’ve learned how working with us can benefit your agency by saving you time, money, and stress on every WordPress project. You’ve also discovered our complete process from initial consultation all the way to your Go Live date and beyond.
If you’re ready to learn more about what UnlimitedWP can do for you, book your free demo call today, and let’s talk.
