From Constant Contact to Shopify, WebDevStudios (WDS) has proudly provided WordPress plugin development for big brands. However, there’s more to building a branded plugin than development.
The truth is that a customized WordPress plugin built to represent your brand requires a team that is dedicated to:
- Ongoing support via the WordPress Support Forum
- Updates and maintenance
- Performance
- Security
- Quality assurance and testing for compliance
WDS receives many inquiries requesting plugin development, some of which come from folks who don’t understand the complexities of WordPress plugin development. Here’s what you need to know.
A Brief Background on Plugin Development
WordPress plugins are a vital part of the overall WordPress ecosystem. The official WordPress Plugin Directory features over 60,000 freely available plugins that can be installed and used on any WordPress website.
A plugin could be as simple as a few lines of code, or as complex as an entire eCommerce system, there really is no limit! WordPress is also used on more than 43% of all websites on the internet. So, if your company or services can interact with a website, you absolutely need an official WordPress plugin, to expose your business to almost half of the internet!
Plugin development requires understanding the “WordPress way.”
For many, the idea of building a simple plugin may not seem like a tough task. The reality is that so much more goes into plugin development than most realize.
Genuinely understanding the core WordPress software, and the proper ways to integrate your plugin is critical in building a solid plugin foundation that can grow as your users and services grow. If you aren’t building your plugin the “WordPress way,” it will likely be rejected by the Plugin Directory review team.
Working with a company that understands the correct way to build a WordPress plugin is essential. We even wrote the book!
Do you know how to get your plugin listed?
Listing your plugin on the official WordPress Plugin Directory also takes some experience. All plugins are reviewed by the plugin review team, and if they aren’t up to spec will be rejected.
That’s why it’s imperative you work with experts who specialize in not only building powerful WordPress plugins but also someone who understands the process for review and acceptance to the directory.
Compliance is key.
WordPress continues to grow as a platform, and as such new major versions are released approx four times a year. Point releases, or minor updates, occur, on average, about once a month. As new versions are released it’s crucial your plugin is tested and confirmed to work as expected.
There are also notices within the Plugin Directory that indicate your plugin is fully compatible with the current version of WordPress, giving new and existing users confidence that your plugin will continue working as expected when they upgrade WordPress.
Every brand must keep their WordPress plugin compliant with the most current version of WordPress. If it’s not, WordPress lets users know. Such a warning can be embarrassing and looks terrible for your company.
While compliance is key, the keys to achieving compliance are testing and quality assurance. Besides having a dedicated developer ready to respond to WordPress Support Form requests, do you also have one responsible for consistently and constantly testing your brand’s WordPress plugin? It’s vital that you do.
Safe, Secure, and Performant
Security and performance should be at the forefront of everything when developing a WordPress plugin. Our team is trained on and follows WordPress security standards.
We verify all codes are as secure as possible using the proper WordPress hardening methods within the code. Your team should do the same, and if you don’t have one, find professionals who can do that for you.
Performance is another critical area of focus for all plugins we create. How will your plugin handle five users vs five million? You better have a plan for that.
Your plugin users expect access to support.
No matter how much documentation you provide for your brand’s WordPress plugin, your users are bound to encounter errors or simply misunderstand instructions. That’s normal.
However, they expect help. They want to be able to interact directly with the plugin developer and have their issues resolved in a timely manner.
Once you have launched your plugin, have a developer assigned to respond to tickets in the WordPress Support Forum. Be ready to deliver the same kind of customer service for your plugin that your brand normally offers for your other products and services.
Your brand’s WordPress plugin should continually be updated and maintained to perform well.
A plugin that is not continuously updated and maintained is a plugin with poor performance. Your users will hate that and stop using it. What’s even worse, your users could very well leave negative reviews of your plugin. Let’s avoid that.
After launch, continue to update and maintain the health of your plugin. This commitment will show in the performance of your plugin, which will impress your users. The performance of your brand’s WordPress plugin must complement the quality of your brand’s reputation.
WebDevStudios Plugin Development for Brands
It’s essential that your plugin scales as your success does. Our team can help advise and recommend performance techniques, including advanced caching methods, transients, performant SQL database queries, and more. Your plugin will be capable of handling any amount of traffic and growth!
WebDevStudios literally wrote the book on WordPress plugin development. As a co-author of “Professional WordPress Plugin Development, 2nd Edition,” the WDS team and I have valuable experience and expertise in the subject matter.
Your success is our mission. That means that when we develop the official WordPress plugin for a client, we don’t abandon them after launch.
Our dedication to their plugin continues after. We provide ongoing support, including interacting with users at the WordPress Support Forum, maintenance, security, updates, quality assurance, and testing. Every plugin we customize for our clients complies with each WordPress release.
Are you ready to have a customized WordPress plugin built for your brand? Then contact us. Let’s talk about launching your brand’s WordPress plugin.
A good article to make people aware of how much actually goes into creating a plugin, and how much planning has to be done beforehand. The whole process is more than just creating a wall of code, post-development maintenance, updates and support are key, and there are so many questions surrounding this aspect, e.g., how much time, resources and how many staff members should be devoted to these aspects? An ill-maintained, unsupported plugin will die quickly and all the development will be for nothing.