Top 10 essential Web Development Skills that a WordPress Developer should have

| Updated on March 26, 2024

WordPress is an open-source content management system that enables WordPress developers to create, deploy and administer websites (CMS). WordPress developers create and supervise website architecture, ensuring that applications are appealing and easy to use. They’re in charge of WordPress development, troubleshooting, and fixing website issues for clients and coworkers. WordPress developers are in high demand across various industries, especially eCommerce, Graphic Designing, and other IT industries.

It will be difficult to comprehend your customer’s wants and give tailored solutions if you do not have a technical advantage. Even if you assemble an expert WordPress developer team, you will fall behind because you will be unable to see the big picture. And if your business abilities aren’t up to par, you can struggle to get new clients, expand your firm, and make money.

Essential Skills to Have in WordPress Developers

As previously stated, being a good developer entails knowing how a WordPress website works, understanding customer requirements and building a robust WordPress application, and learning how to deliver a seamless user experience to the users.

By doing so, you will gain credibility and be able to locate potential pain points to constantly improve the website and upgrade the UI/UX for better results.

To become a highly successful WordPress developer, you must have the following skills in your arsenal:

  1. HTML: HTML or HyperText Markup Language is one of the essential skills WordPress programmers should acquire, even though it is not a programming language. Knowing it will help you understand how the web works and equip you with the skills necessary to create a website from the ground up, including page layout, text formatting, image addition, etc.

Even if you plan to accomplish the majority of your work with WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editors or CMS (content management systems), knowing HTML will provide you with a lot more control.

  1. CSS: While HTML powers a website’s structure, CSS is responsible for its visual appearance. CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets, a programming language used by WordPress developers to design the style and appearance of HTML websites.

CSS specifies how the page’s elements will be displayed on the screen, including colors, font size and styling, text positioning and distribution, block formatting and configuration, animation, and backdrops. In a nutshell, it determines whether a page’s style and content are aesthetically appealing or not.

CSS is one of the most critical WP development skills for building a high-quality website.

  1. JavaScript: The key interactive component of a website is JavaScript (JS). Being among the most popular programming languages, it is responsible for a site’s dynamic behavior. JavaScript can also be used for both front-end and back-end development.

If you want to become a dedicated WordPress developer, you should learn JavaScript first. Understanding how JS interacts with HTML and CSS to create the three layers of web configuration can help you create interactive WordPress themes, web applications, games, and mobile apps.

It will not only help you gain a greater insight into the development process but also expand your creativity while proposing solutions or projects to clients.

  1. PHP, ASP, Java, or Perl: Different web programming languages can be used to create websites, with PHP, Java, ASP, Perl being the most common for WordPress web design. Ideally, learning all the above languages should make you an ace programmer, but mastering PHP can give you an edge over others.

PHP is the back-end backbone of WordPress and the web’s current pioneer, making it a valuable addition to your WordPress technical skills. It is used by both seasoned developers and freshers/beginners due to its simple yet flexible structure.

  1. Bootstrap: Manually writing every line of code is time-consuming and, in many cases, unnecessary with new technologies like Bootstrap, which provide ready-made website parts for free.

You can copy the base code for your sites from the open-source framework and then edit it to get the results as per your project requirements.

Templates for CSS, JS, HTML5, responsive meta tags and box-sizing are all included in Bootstrap. The tool can help WordPress developers speed up their work while also adhering to the current online standards.

  1. Responsive design: The days when a desktop computer was the only way to access the internet are long gone. People increasingly access the internet through various devices, and web applications must have cross-device compatibility.

Responsive design should be included in all modern WordPress themes, and knowing how to optimize your layouts for mobile traffic is crucial for WordPress developers. Mobile-friendliness enhances the user experience and influences how users engage with the content on your pages. It is also necessary for search engine optimization. Only the mobile version of websites is acceptable in search result pages after Google’s mobile-first indexing update.

  1. SEO knowledge: SEO knowledge is one of the critical skills needed to manage a website. Even the best websites with the most professional design and functionality are useless to a company if customers cannot find them online. While on-page SEO is primarily concerned with content layout and keyword optimization, technical SEO necessitates the assistance of WordPress developers.

You should make your websites comply with the newest search engine standards and regulations to ensure that they are correctly crawled, indexed, and ranked. And, because they’re constantly changing, you should keep up with SEO trends and be on the lookout for new releases. Google typically discloses them ahead of time, giving website owners and developers ample time to make any necessary changes.

Overall, SEO aims to improve the user experience by making websites mobile-friendly, quick, and easy to navigate, as well as making the content entertaining, valuable, and trustworthy. Knowing how to use these in your work can enhance your WordPress technical skills as well as the success of your organization.

  1. Goal setting: You should be able to define clear goals for your team to steer them in the right direction. When it comes to achieving your objectives, planning is crucial. It is the technique for determining a company’s precise orientation. WordPress developers must appropriately allocate their resources and communicate the goals clearly to the team.
  1. Business communication: Understanding and delivering what the client wants is the key to success in website building, as it is in any other field. Failure to explain difficulties or get to the heart of the matter in business communication, on the other hand, can lead to misconceptions, which can damage the quality of your work, your schedule, task deployment time, and, in the end, loss of your clients.

It’s critical to know how to communicate with your coworkers and customers if you want to achieve the business goals. WordPress developers should also be able to deliver information to all the technical as well as non-technical stakeholders.

  1. Strategic thinking: Strategic thinking is a must-have skill for WordPress developers to possess. Nothing is more important for a company’s growth than building strategies to track and measure its growth through KPIs.

Strategic thinking includes the ability to understand your industry, market, competitors while hiring the right people to work for you. All of these factors should be taken into account while planning and making business decisions.

Conclusion

WordPress application adapts seamlessly to rapid technological advancements. You’ll be amazed to learn that a simple WordPress website with basic functionality can be up and running in about 15 minutes! Creating a user-friendly, competitive, and feature-rich website remains a challenge because you’ll need to deal with back-end programming like database integration, plugin integration, theme loading,  and so on.You should always learn new things as a WordPress site developer and stay up to speed on the latest upgrades. There are a plethora of free and paid WordPress tutorials available online for you to choose from. Such tutorials also provide community support for your doubts and queries. Once you have mastered the skills mentioned above, you will be eligible to apply for a high-paying WordPress developer job and accelerate your career.





Leena Ray

Digital Marketing Writer and Editor


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