There’s no doubt WordPress provides everything you need to create a stunning custom website. After all, with all the flexibility and customization options available, it’s the no-brainer choice. Plus, it can support nearly any type of business, including e-commerce stores, blogs, and nonprofits. With all its capabilities, you might be wondering, “can I build a custom WordPress site myself? Easy-peasy, right? Not so fast. Before you download WordPress.org and jump into development, there are a few things to consider first. In this article, we’re going to explain all the key variables that go into creating your own WordPress site to see if it’s worth the DIY undertaking.
WordPress Website Design Experience
Before you launch feet first into the design, ask yourself: what content do you plan on publishing? How will you organize it? These answers are excellent indicators of the complexity of your custom WordPress site. The more pages on your website, the more complicated its design might get. Also, if you publish lots of content, you may have to upgrade your web hosting.
During your brainstorming session, you may realize you need extra features to enhance your user experience. You may want to utilize email marketing, website forms, loyalty program, or popups, to name a few. With the added functionalities, you might get a sense of the complexity of your website.
This leads to the design elements of WordPress. WordPress.org offers a wide selection of professional-looking free and premium theme templates to choose from. Each theme template comes with its own specific features and capabilities. They also come with their own limitations. This means if your theme doesn’t have the right features to match your vision, you’ll have to add them. And you’ll have to add them either through code or plugins.
WordPress Coding Experience
WordPress is an open-source web software platform. This means it provides site owners with control over their code base, along with the ability to customize the site with add-on features. If you’re unable to code these features yourself, you may have to purchase and use-third party WordPress plug-in.
To run a successful website, it has to meet a core set of standards concerning website speed, responsiveness, hosting, SEO, and security. Although some fantastic multi-purpose themes are out there, some of these ready-made themes aren’t performance or mobile-optimized. Often, they come with tons of features you don’t need. Because of that, there are loads of necessary code that can slow down your website and affect its performance.
If you want a high-performing website, only have the functions you need. A custom WordPress website that’s created from scratch by a web developer often works best. This is because they can code it from the ground up with all the right features and functions baked in.
If you do not have the technical know-how, we strongly encourage you to turn to a professional web builder instead.
WordPress Performance and Security Knowledge
Another critical factor for website performance and security is your hosting service. Your hosting provider has a massive bearing on your website’s speed and security. WordPress.org does not offer domain or hosting services, so you’ll need to do your research to ensure the service you’re getting provides an SSL certificate, automatic backups, caching, and firewalls at a minimum. This is why it’s recommended to use a web hosting provider that specializes in WordPress. They’ll actively monitor your website’s performance and security for you.
WordPress Website Maintenance and Support Abilities
Websites need constant attention – updates, tweaks, upgrades, etc. You have to stay on top of improving your website’s performance to ensure your site is always up-to-date and secure. This includes backing up files, updating software, plug-in updates, SEO, and fixing HTML errors, just to name a few. While WordPress will notify you of some of these updates, it’s up to you to make the changes. WordPress does offer some website maintenance services to assist you, but they come at an added cost.
Web design agencies manage and maintain all this for you, so there’s less worry about keeping up with the security, software, and SEO updates. If a conflict is found, a team is already on hand to solve the issue and edit the code if needed. In addition, plugins can be added without conflict or downtime to the operation of the site.
Final Thoughts
Do you think you can build a custom WordPress site on your own, or are you better off using a professional web agency to do it? If you’re still on the fence, here are a few other questions to ask yourself:
- How many people will you need to hire to help build it? Does your in-house team have the skills and time to do it?
- Do you know how to use WordPress.org?
- Can you create the website yourself with the functionality you need using the existing plugins?
- Will you have enough time to learn the necessary steps?
- What budget can you set aside for the ongoing maintenance, updates, and potential plugin additions down the road?
So there you have it. WordPress is by far our favorite web platform for creating a one-of-a-kind website. It has been on a steady increase since it came on the scene in 2003 and has evolved into the most robust and versatile web platform around. All that said, its full capabilities are best executed when designed by a professional web agency like Fusion One Marketing. If you don’t have the technical know-how to build a custom WordPress site, we highly recommend you leave it to the experts.