If you want to create a WordPress website for your business, you may benefit from professional assistance. A WordPress design consultant will know what works and what doesn’t in terms of visual style, user experience, and functionality. But you might be wondering: do I really need one?
Web design consultants can help you improve an existing website or develop new projects. They may even coordinate with other experts, such as web designers and developers to bring those projects to fruition.
In this article, we’ll take a closer look at what WordPress design consultants do. We’ll also discuss where to hire them and whether you need one. Finally, we’ll talk about hiring an agency as an alternative. Let’s get to it!
What does a WordPress design consultant do?
If you’re looking into options for building a WordPress website for your business, you might have heard about design consultants. These web design experts can guide you in developing professional pages for your website. They may also suggest what features to include, and help you select branding elements like fonts and color schemes.
Think about a WordPress design consultant as an interior decorator. Their goal is to help you find what works for your website, even if they’re not the actual experts who implement features or customize themes to make design ideas possible.
Therefore, a design consultant is not the same as a WordPress designer. A WordPress designer will work on your website and try to make it look as close as possible to what you want.
To give you a better idea of what a design consultant does, let’s go over some of the specific tasks that they can help you with:
- Developing a visual identity for a target audience. A consultant will help you find a visual style that resonates with your audience and help ensure that your brand looks appealing.
- Helping you develop an engaging user experience. The right design consultant will help you improve your site’s User Experience (UX) to make sure that visitors leave with a good impression.
- Ensure that your website is easy to navigate. An experienced consultant will help you improve and streamline your site’s navigation. This can make it easier for users to find the content they want.
- Helping you improve conversions through design. If you want to collect emails, make sales, or get other types of conversions, a consultant can help you figure out how to leverage design to get them.
- Coordinating with designers and developers to make changes. The consultant can act as a bridge between WordPress designers and developers, and your business. It’s their job to communicate your needs to these professionals, and make sure that they work on the right design and functionality.
Hiring a WordPress design consultant can be a challenge, though. Being a WordPress expert does not necessarily mean you have the knowledge to give design consultancy services. Therefore, you’ll want to vet professionals carefully and make sure they have a good track record.
Before we talk about how to find the right design consultant, let’s discuss whether you can benefit from using one.
Should you hire a WordPress design consultant for your website?
WordPress design consultants don’t come cheap. An expert will typically charge high fees on a per-hour basis. That means costs can add up quickly depending on the website’s complexity.
If you’re new to using WordPress and you want to create a website for a business, it can make sense to hire a design consultant. This can be costly, but with the right consultant, your website will be optimized to meet your goals from the start.
Plus, you wouldn’t have to spend weeks or months tinkering with your site’s design, and trying to find what works in terms of layout, UX, and conversions. Thus, paying for a design consultant can be a smart investment for your business.
If this isn’t your first rodeo with WordPress, you probably have an idea of what kind of website can work for your business. WordPress is a highly beginner-friendly platform and, if you have enough time and don’t mind looking at documentation, you might be able to build the website you need on your own.
This can also be the better approach if you’re working on a simple project or a portfolio website. The expense of hiring a WordPress design consultant might not be warranted if you don’t plan on monetizing the final site or it’s not related to a business.
Several WordPress themes have ready-made templates that you can easily customize. You can also use a page builder like Divi or Elementor to build your site.
Additionally, you have the option of contracting WordPress freelancers to help you with specific tasks or aspects of using the CMS. A retainer service can be useful in this scenario as it means you have experts on call to help you figure out issues with WordPress (while still being cheaper than hiring a design consultant).
Where to hire a WordPress design consultant
If you think a WordPress design consultant can be a good fit for your project, you’ll probably want to start looking at freelancer marketplaces. Popular platforms such as Fiverr and Upwork enable you to browse through dozens of available WordPress design consultants:
The biggest upside of using freelancer marketplaces is that you get access to a global talent pool, and many professionals offer competitive prices. Their biggest downside is that, with so many WordPress experts on these platforms, you might have to spend a lot of time vetting candidates until you find someone who can understand what you need and has good reviews.
It’s important to note there’s no standardization for WordPress consulting services. You’ll find design consultants who do a bit of everything, while others may focus on specific areas such as Divi or UX design:
If you use Fiverr, you can look for WordPress design consultants that offer fixed-price work. Upwork requires you to post a job and receive bids, which can be a more time-consuming process. However, you’ll typically be able to find freelancers with more experience on Upwork.
Using freelancer marketplaces to look for design consultants can be hit or miss, depending on how much time you have on your hands. If you’re in a hurry or not interested in interviewing dozens of freelance consultants, you might prefer to hire a WordPress agency instead.
It’s more likely for an agency to have standardized design consult processes in place. Moreover, the right WordPress agency won’t only help you with design consultation – they should also be able to create your website and offer ongoing maintenance and support.
Hire a WordPress agency to help you with design consults
An agency will typically charge more than freelancers. However, you’ll get access to a team of experts who are used to working with each other on design projects. This also means that you wouldn’t have to worry about hiring multiple individuals to work on different aspects of your website.
At Freshy, you’ll have designers, developers, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) specialists working together on your project. You also get to enjoy the following perks with our WordPress agency:
- Dedicated project managers. Every project handled by Freshy gets a dedicated manager. The project manager’s job is to coordinate with you and translate your needs into instructions for the design and development teams.
- In-staff design consultants and experts. At Freshy, we have design experts with dozens of WordPress projects under their belts. That means they know what works and what doesn’t in terms of design, and they can help you find the right visual identity for your next website.
- Help with design and feature implementation. With a full team of WordPress experts, the design consultants can communicate with the developers and designers directly. This translates to fast iterations for your site’s design.
Freshy offers WordPress web design and development services, as well as related services such as speed optimization and website management:
Once your website is up and running, you can sign up for WordPress maintenance and support services. We’ll help you keep your website running in top shape so that it not only looks good but also offers a great user experience.
You can contact us to discuss your project and we’ll provide you with a quote.
Conclusion
If you have the budget for it, hiring a WordPress design consultant can be a smart option. A design consultant will help you figure out what resonates with your audience visually, and how to create a website that aligns with your brand. They may also be able to advise on structuring pages that offer a great user experience and lead to conversions.
If you hire a WordPress agency, you’ll be able to work with different professionals, including design consultants, designers, and developers. While agencies may charge more than freelancers, this solution can be a good investment in the long term.
At Freshy, we can help you plan your dream WordPress site and bring it to life. Get in touch with us today for a quote!
Image credit: Pixabay.
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