If you are a busy company in Dublin, or anywhere in Ireland for that matter, and striving for success there is a good chance that you have a website already and if you do not, it is likely that you thinking about setting one up. Even if you have a website up and running, chances are there may be quite a few things on it that you would like to improve.
The reality is, few companies can afford a full time web developer on staff. There are some exceptions of the companies whose business is solely IT oriented, like providers of IT consultancy services for example, but more often than not managers end up looking for an external software company, or hire a freelance web developer in order to develop/update/administer their website. The key is, however, to know what kind of service exactly you are looking for.
If you are not entirely sure what technology your website is built upon, it was a quick job in the past and the original developer is gone without a trace now, it is very likely that it was built with PHP programming language with some flavour of a content management system built on top of it. In many cases this CMS would be Wordpress, currently the most popular system of the kind in the world. It has its drawbacks, but its popularity is not one of them as it is relatively easy to find a Wordpress developer nowadays, both for theme and plugin development.
In general, you do not necessarily need to know what exactly you need to update or develop on your website, a theme, or a plugin, a good start here would be to find a PHP developer, explain the problem to them and if they are any decent they would be able to take things from there and deliver the result in whichever form is appropriate. However, the more specific you can be in your requirements the better control of the situation you will have.
So, what will it be, a Wordpress theme, or a Wordpress plugin development?
If you need just some relatively minor updates on the site here and there, maybe adding a couple of pages to attract new visitors, or a section for a new kind of product that you have, then any good all around freelance PHP developer will be able to do just that. Also, out of all kinds of web developers PHP programmers would have the most competitive rates, mainly due to the easy start that the language provides which prompts a big number of developers to start their careers with it, creating bigger competition than in other areas.
If you need something bigger, then chances are you are in the theme and plugin territory and need a Wordpress developer just for that. So which is needed for what?
If you are thinking about a total facelift of the site, then likely you will need a Wordpress theme developer since a theme basically deals with the appearance of the site. Now, it can get way more complicated than that but if you link a Wordpress theme with the design of the site in your head you won't be wrong and you would need a theme developer to look after the task. Conversely, if there is some additional functionality that you have in mind for your site, then going for a Wordpress plugin developer would be a wise call.
What kind of functionality can you implement as a plugin? Effectively, quite a lot of things on Wordpress websites that you come across every day rely on plugins in their function. For example, some of the most common ones would be website slideshows and contact forms. Such plugins produce an output visible from outside but on the inside, on the admin dashboard of your site they will provide you with means to quickly build slideshows and contact forms without any knowledge of programming code.
That is the simplest example that there can be really, while some Wordpress plugins can get really complex and do a lot cooler things, for example plugin developers that we know have built a whole accountancy system that can run in the private area of your site giving you access to your books from anywhere in the world. Currently we, here at Disclosure are developing a Wordpress plugin for time tracking and invoicing that will be released commercially soon (a bit of shameless plug here!), so basically sky is the limit in what you can do if you have a good Wordpress plugin developer.
So, at this stage you probably know what kind of service you are looking for, so how do you find a Wordpress developer that won't disappoint? Naturally, the word of mouth is not something to ignore so if you have contacts with other companies that have had their sites revamped or updated recently, try reaching out to them to see if they would have any recommendations.
Secondly, the Internet is a formidable force as well and if you did not find any recommendations that you would be happy with then a quick search in Google (or Bing) will provide you with a lot of options, but you need to be specific in terms of location and it is often beneficial to look for a developer that is close to you geographically. There are a lot of companies and individuals offering web development services at very competitive rates from abroad, as cheap as €20 per hour, or even less but that is often a risky propositions and the outcome of work with such web developers is often can be outlined in "you get what you pay for".
That is not to say that all good value offers for Wordpress theme and plugin developer services are bad it is just there is no incentive for a good freelance web developer from abroad to keep their prices low once they can charge rates that of or close to their Western counterparts once they can provide a comparable level of service. So if you decided to try the foreign route, keep that in mind, as well as the fact that language barriers, cultural differences as well as different time zones do add a lot of complications in trying to manage a local web development project.
So for any Dublin based company it makes a lot of sense to hire a local Wordpress plugin developer, at the end of the day, a Dublin web developer costs more than one from India, but yet is cheaper than one from the US. Also, being able to meet up in person, or make a quick call in case of emergency not worrying about the time zone difference can definitely make dealing with the project priorities much easier.
If you consider the above to be valid points and would need a plugin (or theme!) developer in order to take your Wordpress website to the next level, why not drop us a line at our contact page so we could discuss how Disclosure could help you with that? We will provide you with a free assessment of your requirements and would be glad to meet for a chat in person (or a Skype call, should that be more convenient).