Did you know that WordPress powers over 27% of the web? WordPress is the most popular Content Management System (CMS) today, so it would be a great choice to become a WordPress developer and provide WordPress services to your clients. WordPress is a joy to work with, and it’s super easy for non-technical people to pick up and update their content.
Gone are the days when a client would rely on their developer to make content changes to their site. WordPress allows you to empower your clients to make changes, which will help them take their business further and enable you to focus on things like maintenance, improvements, or new projects.
If you want to be a professional WordPress developer, get started by checking out this article, as we present to you the things you should consider to turn yourself into one of the best WordPress developers today. And stick around for the infographic we’ve prepped at the end.
1. Compile Reading Materials About WordPress
The best way to start exploring the world of WordPress is to read materials about it. However, with hundreds of thousands of articles and blogs from the community, it can be quite hard to distinguish which ones offer the most comprehensive and non-intimidating approach to this niche.
To help you with that, here are some well-known authorities that offer high-quality resources about WordPress:
- WordPress Codex – It’s a community-based repository of all WordPress-related information and documentation. The “Getting Started with WordPress” page guides you through the basics of the WordPress environment up to some intermediate topics.
- Books About WordPress – Getting yourself a good book about WordPress can give you some precious information. Examples are WordPress for Dummies by Lisa Sabin-Wilson, Professional WordPress Plugin Development by Brad Williams, Justin Tadlock, and Ozh Richard, and Professional WordPress: Design and Development by David Damstra.
- Blogs – Some of the top WordPress developers also run their own blogs. You can subscribe to them to know their thoughts and techniques. Some of the best WordPress blogs are Digging into WordPress, WP Tavern, and Newt Labs.
2. Understand the Basics of WordPress
These are the three essential components that you need to familiarise yourself with to understand how WordPress works fully:
- Core – Holds all the default functionality of the WordPress ecosystem, including the admin backend, post scheduling, password strength checker, creation of additional users, etc.
- Themes – Responsible for the website’s front-end or making it as intuitive as possible to its users. While the core handles all the posts, pages, and other content, the theme ensures that it is correctly displayed on your website.
- Plugins – Plugins are a piece of software that extends the functionality of the core or provides additional functionalities that, otherwise, would not have been available in the WordPress Core.
3. Focus on One Specific Area at Once
Focusing on one specific area at a time on WordPress ensures that you remember all of its intricacies much better and gives you a strong understanding of it.
Here are the areas where you will need to know more before you dive deeper into WordPress:
Themes
Learning how its front end works not only lets you design varied projects, from a stand-alone site to content-heavy dynamic WordPress websites. It also enables you to tap into WordPress’s flexible nature to create bespoke WordPress themes for your or client’s needs.
The required files for a theme are the style.css, the main index.php (if you don’t have a homepage.php for the homepage), home.php, single.php, page.php, archive.php, and 404.php
Some resources for learning WordPress Theme development include Theme Shaper, Tuts+ WordPress Code Tutorials, and Smashing Magazine WP Techniques.
Plugins
Plugins have the power to transform WordPress into any website you want. Developing a plugin can be a big help, especially when making a website for clients with specific needs.
The two essential terms you should understand in plugin development are filters and actions. Both take in some code and return a variable. The difference is that the filters return code like a string of HTML or a newly updated variable. Actions, on the other hand, return code directly into hooks that are predefined in WordPress themes, plugins, or even in the WordPress core.
REST API
REST API is relatively new in the WordPress landscape, and you might only encounter this after you have mastered theme and plugin development. Through the REST API, you can craft applications based on WordPress, such as iOS and Android apps and even TV apps.
Its feature is comparable to the core of Twitter or Instagram: It retrieves the latest posts from any website and uses HTML and CSS to display them on your website. This means the REST API can make a WordPress website a repository of information and build the dashboard and the backend using a different system overall.
Core
Thousands of developers around the world develop WordPress. 482 people worked on WordPress 4.7, and many others are working on other aspects, such as translations, mobile applications, accessibility, and support.
It will take a lot of experience to contribute code to the WordPress core, but the easiest way to get involved is to identify and verify bugs and glitches and propose ideas to fix them using the WordPress Trac.
4. Familiarise Yourself with the Essential Tools
There is a set of tools that you need to familiarise yourself with to get started with WordPress development. Here are the languages you need to know to help you tap into the full potential of WordPress:
- HTML and CSS – These two are critical for WordPress development. The HTML provides a structure for the website, which impacts everything that comes after it. The CSS gives the website its character: text colour, image alignment, border colours, float properties, border thickness, etc.
- PHP – The language that WordPress is built on and is used by 82.4% of all sites in places where it is known. Unlike HTML, PHP is a server-side language, meaning a server processes a command before it is sent to the user’s browser.
- JavaScript – Used to add dynamic functionality and interactive effects within the web browser.
- MySQL – Used to access and work with data stored in the database. As a developer, you might only use this in some special cases, but if you want to optimise data retrieval for your website, having a basic knowledge of MySQL is beneficial.
5. Explore Advanced Tools
Once you have familiarised yourself with the essential tools, you can choose to explore advanced developer tools. This can include SASS, which is a superset of CSS. This language adds the functionality to use variables, functions, and other concepts, which are not inherent in CSS in the first place. Here are some other advanced tools that you can explore:
- Build tools – Monitor file changes, optimise images, link relevant files, and download external packages.
- Terminal – This command line can help you install themes, plugins and test content much faster and faster.
- Version Control – Used to work on projects collaboratively, but can also be used to manage them, fix bugs, and back things up simultaneously.
6. Follow WordPress Coding Standards
Being a professional WordPress developer includes abiding by the different guidelines and coding standards. There are specific guidelines for each type of programming language used in WordPress, all of which can be found in the WordPress Codex. These guidelines can help you keep your code clean, updated, and user-friendly.
7. Seek Help from the Community
To maintain WordPress websites is hard work, and there will be times when you need help from other programmers and developers. You can seek help and guidance on your project from the following places so you can practice WordPress development at a high level.
- Stack Exchange
- Intermediate WordPress Facebook Group
- Advanced WordPress Facebook Group
- Subreddits such as Learn JavaScript, LearnPHP, and webdev.
You can also follow top WordPress developers on their blogs and ask them for advice:
- Andrew Nacin (@nacin)
- Bill Erickson (@billerickson)
- Matt Mullenweg (@photomatt)
- Carl Hancock (@carlhancock)
- Cory Miller (@corymiller303)
- Joost de Valk (@yoast)
8. Put Your Knowledge into Practice
Nothing will hone your skills more than putting it to the test. Gaining first-hand experience can help you assess your skill level and identify the areas you need to work on. The following are the best ways to gain experience with the WordPress platform:
- Create a WordPress website for a client
- Work in a digital agency specialising in WordPress development projects
- Build a Public WordPress Theme
- Create a Plugin
- Contribute a Patch
- Be an Expert in Debugging
- Write Tutorials for Beginners
You must know these things in the professional WordPress design and development space if you want to turn it into a career. From educating yourself to applying the knowledge you have gained in real-life scenarios, being a WordPress developer requires endless effort. But if you keep at it, you will soon see the fruits of your labour.
From here, you should also be able to decide whether to be a WordPress freelancer or an entrepreneur. Both have pros and cons, so one isn’t necessarily better. It depends on your skill level and qualities concerning which of the two is right for you.
How to Become a Professional WordPress Developer Infographic
In the following infographic, we at Newt Labs give you a guide for your WordPress journey. This includes what and where to learn, who to look to for help, the tools to pick up along the way, and the next steps for success with your newfound knowledge.
