If you are interested in becoming a WordPress developer, here is a roadmap you should follow:
- Learn HTML and CSS or pick up a framework
- Learn JavaScript and Jquery
- Learn PHP
- Learn SQL
WordPress is relatively easy to learn compared to most of the CMS around. But that doesn’t mean WordPress is the least favourable Content Management System. I am a strong admirer of WordPress and make my living predominantly as a WordPress Developer. My upselling skill is SEO Services which I personally think that no one does better than WordPress.
So here are my recommended roadmaps for being a WordPress Developer in 2024.
Learn HTML and CSS or pick up a framework
HTML and CSS build the front end of any website. So if you learn HTML and CSS, you are learning a major component of front end development.
HTML and CSS are fairly easy to learn and master. My personal recommendation is if you have enough time, try to learn everything from scratch so that you don’t have to be reliant on any framework. Having the ability to code your own HTML and CSS will have an extra advantage.
If you are in a rush and limited to time, try learning some CSS framework. My suggested framework is Tailwind.
Likewise with CSS, try to custom code HTML and keep in practice of minimizing html to text ratio. This can be really your arsenal when it comes to SEO Optimization, and want to focus on WordPress SEO in the long term.
Recommendations:
Try to learn custom coding both HTML and CSS if you want to put priority on SEO
Learn JQuery and/or JavaScript
JQuery is relatively easy to learn compared to JavaScript. But JQuery itself will get you a long way with WordPress front end development.
You can learn JQuery as you go and develop more on WordPress. Once you build more on WordPress and want to try using WordPress as headless CMS, that will be the right time to pick on JavaScript.
Learn PHP
PHP is server side scripting language used by WordPress. If you want to take WordPress seriously and get into Advanced Plugin developments in future, you have to master PHP.
To get started and get a site running, the best place to start will be learning WordPress templating, which will help you get the websites up and running. Here is a good place to start.
Recommendations:
- Check out the default WordPress theme and try to familiarize with it
- Have a look at ACF and ACF Pro - it’s a killer plugin if you want to develop custom themes
Learn SQL
SQL is a query language for storing and retrieving data from a database. In WordPress most of the time it is MySQL.
To develop basic themes, you don’t even need to know SQL. You can learn as you need with WordPress.
Overall Recommendations
So what would I have done to start with WordPress Development if I were to start as new.
Here is what I will recommend:
- I will find a course in Udemy for HTML, CSS and JQuery
- I will also go through courses on HTML and CSS on web.dev as they will form my base for SEO. I will spend time on the site for various other courses around performance, accessibility
- Will familiarize myself with WordPress templating
- I will learn ACF and ACF Pro (this is premium plugins)
