How to Become a WordPress Developer in 2024

If you think that you can sustain and excel in your business without having a website in this era of digitization, you are surely mistaken. You need a highly functional and feature-rich website. Period. 

Having a website can open the floodgates of benefits for you. All you need is the right platform and a team of expert developers who can develop a tailor-made, business-centric, and robust website for you. 

When it comes to choosing the right platform for website development, WordPress is the name that comes to mind. It is the most popular CMS that was earlier used to create personal blogs. However, dedicated WordPress theme developers have made the platform so advanced that businesses look up to WordPress when they want to develop a wide range of web applications such as ecommerce websites, business websites, personal blogs, web applications, etc. 

All you need to do is to hire a WordPress developer for your website development project. 

Businesses all over the world are looking for WordPress developers to build high-end website applications, theme development, plugin development, and other WordPress-based solutions. 

If you want to become a WordPress plugin developer, your can escalate your chances to earn good and accelerate professional growth. All you need to do is to follow this article and you will know how to become a good WordPress developer. 

Businesses and enterprises are ready to hire WordPress developers in India and other countries. If you have the right skills, you will get good freelance projects as well as get a decent-paying job in any web development company. 

So, let’s discuss how to become a WordPress developer. 

Before that, let’s discuss some statistics to know why WordPress is the best web development technology and why you should consider becoming a WordPress developer. 

As of now, 35% of websites are built with the WordPress platform. 

In the website development market, the market share of WordPress is 62%.

What do these statistics reveal? Becoming a WordPress developer is the right choice for your career growth. 

To become a WordPress developer you don’t need any superpower or super skills, all you need is the right guidance and some time to hone your skills. Once you become a WordPress developer, there is no looking back. 

You can pursue the following career paths after becoming a WordPress developer. 

• Front-end WordPress developer
• Back-end WordPress developer
• React developer
• WordPress plugin developer
• WordPress custom theme developer
• Full-Stack WordPress developer

What is a WordPress Developer? 

A WordPress developer is one that takes care of building high-end, feature-rich, and customized WordPress web applications. They are responsible for the front-end and back-end of the web development. Also, they develop custom themes and plugins for WordPress websites. They first understand the business needs of the client and create features and functionalities that match the expectations of the client.

Also, WordPress developers India are responsible to address technical issues and errors. They should also work as a troubleshooter when any functional or technical issues arise. 

Companies hire WordPress developers who are familiar with all the relevant technologies such as PHP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and others. A WordPress developer should also be good at various content management systems such as Joomla and Drupal. They should be able to develop custom themes and plugins according to the custom needs of clients. 

What are the responsibilities of a WordPress developer? 

As a WordPress developer, you will be doing many things that fall under your responsibilities. You are the core person who will develop and maintain the WordPress web application. Some of the duties of the WordPress developer are discussed below. 

Install and Configure WordPress

The primary duty of a WordPress developer is to install and configure WordPress. It includes downloading and setting up the software on a server, database configuration, and theme and plugin installation. 

Also, the developer must make sure that the software is secure, highly optimized, and updated to the latest version. As per the needs of the client, he also must configure the WordPress settings. 

Designing and developing themes and plugins

WordPress has a large number of free and paid themes and plugins. Mostly, clients choose themes and plugins from available resources. However, sometimes, due to the complex needs of the business, clients ask the WordPress developer to build custom themes and plugins for WordPress. In that case, the developer should be able to build scalable WordPress themes and plugins. 

The developer must be well-versed in PHP, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to develop high-performance themes and plugins for WordPress. Also, they must possess sheer expertise in WordPress API and coding standards. 

They also need to make sure that the themes and plugins are highly compatible with the latest WordPress version. 

Setting up WooCommerce Shops 

WooCommerce is an ecommerce platform that can be built on WordPress. A WordPress developer must be able to set up the WooCommerce store for the client. It requires an in-depth understanding of the WooCommerce platform and a developer must be able to configure WooCommerce settings, product page creations, and setting up payment gateways and shipping options. 

Also, the WordPress developer must ensure the security and optimization of the WooCommerce store and integrate third-party APIs into the store for optimum performance and user-friendly features. 

Identifying and addressing errors 

Offering a seamless experience to visitors is the main responsibility of a WordPress developer. He must ensure that the website or online store does not have any errors or bugs. To ensure that, he must be able to use the latest testing tools and methodologies to check the website thoroughly. He should be able to resolve all types of errors such as conflicts between WordPress themes and plugins, web server issues, hosting issues, fixing errors and bugs in custom code, etc. 

How to become a WordPress developer? 

Now that you know all the duties and responsibilities of a WordPress developer, it is time to know how to become a WordPress developer. For a WordPress web development company to hire you, follow the steps discussed below. 

You need to master the fundamentals of coding 

Though WordPress is a content management system and does not need superlative coding skills, a WordPress developer must know the fundamentals of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP. These skills can help a WordPress developer to troubleshoot errors, debug, and develop custom themes and plugins for a website. 

For example, if you want to make sure that external links are opened on a website in a new tab, you will need JavaScript knowledge to facilitate this functionality. Furthermore, if a client wants a new design for a website, you should have enough knowledge of HTML and CSS. 

There are many such coding tasks that a WordPress developer might need to perform. Hence, learning the basics of such technical skills is the primary requirement to become a WordPress developer. 

Read About WordPress Development

There are various WordPress resources available online that you need to go through. Learn about WordPress content management system and why it is unique compared to other systems. It will help you become a master of WordPress. 

Some of the online resources to know more about WordPress are WordPress Codex, Envato Tuts+, WordPress Developer Resources, Know The Code, etc. 

Some of these resources have in-depth documents and some have training videos that will give you more insights about this powerful content management system. If you want to become a WordPress web developer, go through these resources and learn as much as you can. There is no other option. 

Choose an Area to Explore 

You need to choose the field in which you want to be an expert. There are three areas when it comes to WordPress web development. 

• Core WordPress Development
• WordPress Theme Development
• WordPress Plugin Development

Let’s learn about these three areas in brief. 

Core WordPress Development

Core WordPress developers are responsible to develop custom WordPress websites for clients. Here, developers will download the software and start developing a website based on the custom business requirements of the client. They will write and review code, add features and functionalities, test the website, report security or functional vulnerabilities, and deploy the website. 

WordPress Theme Development

Though WordPress has a large number of free and paid themes to be used by developers, businesses, sometimes, want to develop custom themes for their websites. WordPress theme developers are responsible for developing such custom themes. Sometimes, they do it for individual clients or sometimes they develop themes and release them for free in the WordPress Theme Directory. You need to make sure that the themes you develop must be compatible with the latest WordPress versions. 

WordPress Plugin Development

WordPress plugin developers are responsible for developing custom plugins for clients. Similarly, like custom theme developers, plugin developers can create custom plugins for clients or release them in the WordPress Theme Directory. Companies hire WordPress plugin developers India to build tailor-made plugins for their websites to facilitate a seamless experience for their users. 

Develop a Development Environment for Testing 

Testing is an inseparable part of the WordPress web development process. You need to set up a development environment. It offers many benefits. With a development environment in place, WordPress developers India can quicken their development and also end up developing a better and more high-performance product. 

There are two options when it comes to developing the environment: Local or Remote. 

Here, you will be able to store all your website development data such as themes, plugins, and core files. The development environment will allow you to test and review files and view changes in a browser. 

The development environment also allows development teams to collaborate for testing and debugging before the release of the theme, plugin, or security patch. 

Earlier, developers used to create a development environment manually, but now they have advanced development tools such as DevKinsta and Local by Flywheel. 

Contribute to the WordPress Community 

Compared to other content management systems, WordPress has the largest developer community where thousand of developers contribute and help other WordPress developers to make stunning and compelling websites. 

You can contact them online or offline via WordCamp meetups and start participating and contributing to the community. You can stay updated with the latest advancements and development trends by actively participating in the community. 

Build a Portfolio 

Even if a WordPress web development company wants to hire you, it will not be possible if you don’t have a professional portfolio. It is indeed an important piece of the puzzle that you might be missing. 

No matter how brilliant you are at WordPress development with the required skills, you will need to have a portfolio to show to your potential clients and WordPress development services providers. 

A good portfolio will help your potential clients to access your work, projects, and other details. It is like your resume where your expertise is written all over it. 

You can add all your projects, skills, custom themes and plugins you have developed, personal or professional information, the names of the clients, testimonials, and other relevant things in it. 

Make a portfolio in a manner that represents your personal and professional traits perfectly and accurately. 

If you are a beginner and have nothing to add to the portfolio, you can develop some demo websites and mention them in the portfolio. 

Once you start getting jobs, you can keep adding projects and other details to the portfolio and enrich it to get more promising opportunities. 

Conclusion 

Either you can join a WordPress development company or start working as a freelancer developer. When you follow the instructions mentioned in this post, you will be a dedicated WordPress developer. 

If a company or business wants to hire a WordPress developer, you are the perfect candidate for that. All you need to do is to keep learning more knowledge about this fantastic CMS. 

WordPress is one of the most preferred content management systems to develop impressive, secure, and feature-rich websites. Work dedicatedly and keep offering highly valuable web solutions to your clients and keep enriching your portfolio.