Building a WordPress website can feel overwhelming, especially if you’re new to web development. To take some of the stress out of the process, we’ve put together a few handy best practices for WordPress development.
Here’s everything worth knowing about WordPress development, from building a workflow to locking down your site’s security.
Creating a WordPress development workflow
A WordPress development workflow is simply the process behind creating, building, and maintaining a WordPress site. Development usually flows one direction: local, then staging, then production. That means core, theme, and plugin updates happen locally first, get tested in staging, and only then get deployed to production.
A few ways to sharpen your workflow:
- Choose a good hosting provider
- Use a staging site
- Implement version control
- Schedule automatic backups of your site
How can I customise my WordPress theme?
Can’t find the perfect WordPress theme? Customisation lets you build a perfectly tailored site anyway. Start with a theme that’s already close to what you want, if you’re a corporate business, for example, a corporate WordPress theme is a good jumping-off point.
Starting closer to your end goal means less editing on your end. Worth knowing too, some themes are simply more customisable than others.
There are three main ways to customise a theme: the Customizer, page builders, or editing the theme code directly in HTML and PHP. The Customizer is built natively into WordPress and is the easiest way to adjust basic styling without touching any code.
You’ll find it under Appearance > Customizer in your WordPress dashboard. From there, you’ll see every editable aspect of your site listed on the left, with a real-time preview as you make changes. At the bottom of that panel, you can also preview how your page looks across different screen sizes.
A page builder is a WordPress plugin that enhances the standard page and post editor, making layout changes much easier. Elementor, WPBakery, and Themify Builder are among the most popular.
Most of these let you drag and drop elements directly onto the page, previewing exactly how it’ll look for visitors. They update the underlying code automatically, so you can modify layout purely through dragging and dropping.
Editing the theme code directly gives you the most control over how your theme looks, but it’s best suited to experienced users, beginners risk breaking their site if something goes wrong. If you just want to add your own CSS, you can do that safely through the Customizer under “Additional CSS.”
How can I develop custom plugins?
Before building your own plugin, do your research to confirm something similar doesn’t already exist. Once that’s settled, set up a testing environment, and from there you can start to create your plugin.
Save your work regularly and test changes as you go. This is exactly where a staging site earns its keep, letting you test the plugin and catch any security issues before it ever goes live.
Once you’re confident it’s free of security issues or vulnerabilities, test it on a live site. From there, you can start distributing it. Submitting it to the WordPress Plugin Directory is one of the best ways to gain exposure.
That gives you access to WordPress’s massive user base and a steady stream of potential new users. Sharing the plugin on your own website is worth doing too, giving you room to go into more detail. Many developers promote premium versions of their plugins on their own site while offering a free or lite version through the official directory.
How can I optimise the performance of my WordPress site?
One of the best ways to boost performance is choosing a solid hosting provider, one offering fast speeds, a strong uptime guarantee, and reliable support if something goes wrong.
Optimising your images matters too, since oversized images are a common cause of slow load times. Reducing file size before uploading goes a long way toward improving speed. Plugins like Smush and Jetpack can also optimise images automatically as you upload them.
Don’t forget security!
WordPress is generally considered a safe CMS, but it’s not immune to attacks, which makes keeping up with security best practices genuinely worthwhile. A secure site protects both you and your visitors, and it can even help your search rankings.
Strong passwords are one of the simplest, most effective defences. “Password123” might be easy to remember, but it won’t hold up against much. A password manager can generate strong passwords and keep them organised in one place.
Regularly checking for and installing plugin updates helps eliminate the vulnerabilities that come with outdated software. Just remember to back up your site first, and double-check plugin compatibility with the latest WordPress version before updating.
Installing a security plugin is another strong move. All-in-one options like SiteGround Security handle most of the manual work for you, scanning for intrusion attempts and preventing content theft like hotlinking.
Looking for a hand building a WordPress website that elevates your digital presence? Get in contact with us at hello@omdigigroup.com to find out how we can turn your dream site into a reality.
