Learning WordPress is a useful skill set to gain considering the popularity of this content management system and how easy it is to use for both novices and more advanced Web Developers. Not only is it beneficial to learn how to use WordPress, but there are many complementary web design and development skills you can learn to enhance your use of WordPress. An important factor that goes into deciding to learn a new skill is researching complementary and related skills. Doing so will help you make more informed decisions about what you want to learn, and it will help you decide whether or not learning a specific skill is the right decision for you. You will also learn what kind of skills you want to learn to complement your training later on. Read on to learn more about related WordPress training options such as learning about Digital Marketing, Web Design, Front-End Web Development, and User Experience & User Interface Design.
What is WordPress?
WordPress is the web’s most popular content management system (CMS) used to create blogs, websites, ecommerce platforms, and much more; it is estimated that about 43% of the websites on the internet use WordPress, so you are likely to have visited a WordPress website whether you realize it or not. WordPress is open-source software, meaning that the software is not only free but anyone can use, study, rewrite, and distribute its code for any purpose they desire.
WordPress is a popular option for website creation because it is free to use and is an easy and accessible way for those with no coding or programming experience to create professional websites and blogs. WordPress offers thousands of themes to choose from and plugins to download, customizing the user experience for a website. Plugins on WordPress not only allow you to add different features like ecommerce, email integration, discussion forums, and event calendars to your WordPress website, but there are also data analytics plugins to help you run your business, manage the user experience, and optimize your website’s performance. With coding knowledge, you can customize and create themes and plugins to make a WordPress website even more unique and tailored to the needs of a person, business, or brand.
What Can You Do with WordPress Skills?
Learning WordPress skills can have a variety of uses. Whether you are creating a website of your own or creating one for a client, it is useful to become familiar with WordPress, given its popularity as the leading CMS. WordPress itself offers themes and plugins that you can utilize with no programming or coding experience, making it incredibly user-friendly for beginners. With basic knowledge of how to utilize WordPress, you can begin creating personal websites or websites for businesses and even learn SEO strategies to ensure your website ranks higher in search results. Knowing how to create and publish content and do some basic customization of themes and plugins allows you to simplify the process of creating your own blog or personal website, generating an online portfolio for your creative works or business, starting an ecommerce store, opening a membership site, and so much more.
While your basic knowledge of WordPress can allow you to easily generate professional-looking websites, a knowledge of HTML and CSS will help you do more and customize more using WordPress. Once you know these basic programming languages, your WordPress skills will help you build websites from scratch. WordPress Developers, those whose career is WordPress website creation and maintenance, can create themes and develop plugins of their own for websites, optimize a website for the user’s experience, make sure everything is functional across mobile, tablet, and desktop devices, and work with Web Designers to make their prototype website designs a reality. Learning how to use WordPress is a great option whether you are creating a website of your own or pursuing Web Development or Web Design as your career path.
Skills Related to WordPress
Once you learn the basics of how to use and create WordPress websites, you can consider adding a variety of complementary skill sets. This includes learning about digital marketing for those interested in content creation and promotion. Or even adding more programming and coding skills through pursuing classes in web design, user experience, and user interface design, and front-end web development will make you more marketable and increase your ability to use and customize WordPress websites.
Digital Marketing
Knowledge of digital marketing strategies will complement your ability to use WordPress, especially if you have an interest in learning more about advertising and online promotion. With your WordPress skills, you will already know how to utilize SEO strategies, and this is one area where there is a clear overlap between WordPress Developers and Digital Marketers, as both need to know how to optimize a website’s content for search ranking. Digital marketing can be especially useful if you are learning WordPress skills to create an ecommerce website, as knowledge of marketing and advertising will help you raise awareness of this online store and reach potential new customers.
If you are interested in learning more about digital marketing or specific aspects of content or social media marketing, you should consider taking a class. Noble Desktop offers a Digital Marketing Certificate program that covers the basics of content, email, and social media marketing as well as how to do paid advertising and use analytics to track and optimize your website’s performance. With knowledge of both WordPress and digital marketing, you gain valuable skills in creating and promoting a website for a business, brand, or person.
Front-End Web Development
Front-end web development involves learning how to code the part of a website that users will see and interact with. Those with WordPress skills often do similar work as Front-End Web Developers, as both groups need to know how to code using HTML, CSS, and often JavaScript for interactive elements on a website. If you only know how to publish content, update prefabricated themes, and install plugins created by others on WordPress, learning front-end web development is a great option for you to gain control over the more advanced and customizable aspects of WordPress and learn how to code websites on WordPress and beyond.
If you’re looking for one class that can teach you everything you need to know to create websites yourself, look for a class in front-end web development. Noble Desktop offers a Front-End Web Development Certificate that includes a WordPress Bootcamp and aims to teach how to code for what users see and interact with on a website or application.
Web Design
Web design encompasses the full experience of coding and designing a website for optimal functionality. As someone with WordPress skills, you might already know some of what is covered in a web design course such as HTML and CSS or how to use WordPress to create a website. A comprehensive course will not only teach these topics but specifically teach user experience and user design principles and tools so that you know not only how to code websites from scratch but also how to think through how a site should look and function. WordPress Developers often need to communicate with a design team and make their designs a reality for a client, so having a background in web design will aid your ability to understand how to create what your clients are looking for.
If you do not yet know HTML and CSS or are looking for a more complete and well-rounded understanding of designing websites, consider pursuing a Web Design Certificate. This program from Noble Desktop not only teaches you more advanced WordPress skills but also includes expert, guided instruction in designing and prototyping webpage layouts using Figma, considering user interface principles, learning advanced HTML and CSS, JavaScript, and more.
User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) Design
A knowledge of WordPress can be complemented with a working knowledge of UX and/or UI design. UX design focuses on the user’s complete experience with a website or application, including the usability of a website, the emotional experience of a site, and even the safety and security of the site from the user’s perspective. When creating a WordPress website, you will want to consider the user’s experience, of course, but taking a course in UX design can give you knowledge about design principles and methodologies for conducting user research and testing and also teach you how to wireframe and prototype for the user’s experience. UI design, by contrast, refers to the actual look and functionality of the user interface. Learning UI design principles will add more of a focus on the visual design of elements on a webpage, which will enhance how your WordPress website looks and functions as users engage with it.
You can find individual classes devoted to either UX design or UI design or take a class where they are offered together. Not only does a knowledge of UX and UI design complement your WordPress skills, but these are useful to learn together so you can gear your creation of a website to the full experience of the user. Consider looking into the UX & UI Design Certificate program offered by Noble Desktop to learn more about this skill set and how it can benefit you.
Learn WordPress Skills with Noble Desktop
Noble Desktop offers a variety of affordable in-person and live online classes for those looking to learn how to use WordPress effectively. A great bootcamp option is Noble Desktop’s 18-hour WordPress Bootcamp. Knowledge of HTML and CSS is a prerequisite to taking this bootcamp, as it is designed for those who want not only an introduction to WordPress but who want to learn more advanced and specialized ways to code and develop customized WordPress websites and themes. This prerequisite can be fulfilled by taking Noble’s Web Development with HTML & CSS class or equivalent knowledge and training in HTML and CSS. Students taking this bootcamp can expect expert instruction and hands-on guidance as they learn the ins and outs of WordPress from installing WordPress, publishing posts, adding text, images, and video, and utilizing themes and plugins, to learning about more advanced customization options, downloading WordPress onto your own computer, and creating your own custom theme for WordPress.
Additionally, consider taking a longer, more comprehensive certificate program to learn multiple skill sets and tools in one class. The WordPress Bootcamp is included in two useful certificate programs offered by Noble Desktop: the Front-End Web Development Certificate and the Web Design Certificate. Both certificate programs are geared toward teaching WordPress website development and are for those looking to pursue careers as Web Developers, Web Designers, or WordPress Developers. Front-end web development focuses on coding the part of a website or application that users will see and interact with, which is usually the part of web development that you’ll need to know to become a WordPress Developer. The Front-End Web Development Certificate offers hands-on training from experts, and taking this program will provide all the skills necessary to learn HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for front-end web development and WordPress website creation. The Web Design Certificate will be more useful if you are interested in not only learning to code for WordPress and other websites, but also learning important principles of design and gaining hands-on experience creating clickable prototypes of websites to add to your portfolio. WordPress Developers often do not need to design websites themselves but must know how to turn a design team’s prototypes into reality. Thus, it can be useful to know the design side of website creation.
Key Takeaways:
- WordPress is the internet’s leading content management system
- Learning how to use WordPress allows someone to create professional-looking websites, blogs, ecommerce stores, and membership sites with no coding knowledge using WordPress’s themes and plugins
- Learning HTML and CSS allows someone to create their own themes and plugins for a WordPress website
- Your WordPress skills will be complemented by training in website design and development, digital marketing, and user experience (UX) & user interface (UI) design
- You can receive comprehensive WordPress training from Noble Desktop by taking an in-person or live online class