With knowledge of WordPress, you can easily create and design websites for your own use or in service of a business or brand. WordPress is the leading content management system and many popular brands and companies build their websites using WordPress. If you are still determining if learning WordPress is right for you, read on to learn more about the myriad uses of WordPress tools and techniques. Not only will learning WordPress open up new career opportunities, but it also has a lot of potential personal uses.
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 not only is the software free but anyone can use, study, rewrite, and distribute its code for whatever purpose they desire.
WordPress is a popular option for website creation because it is free to use and it is an easy and accessible way for those with no coding and programming experience to create professional websites and blogs. WordPress offers thousands of themes to choose from and plugins to download to customize the user experience for a website. Plugins on WordPress not only allow you to add different features to your WordPress website like ecommerce, email integration, discussion forums, and event calendars but there are 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 a person, business, or brand’s own needs.
Professional Uses for WordPress
Learning how to use WordPress will set you on the path toward a variety of interesting and in-demand careers. Without programming knowledge, you could become a professional blogger or content creator for a brand or company. With a more detailed knowledge of how to customize themes and plugs, you could work as a Content Marketing Manager for a specific business or as an SEO (search engine optimization) Specialist, as there are many SEO plugins for use with WordPress. To become a WordPress Developer, you will need knowledge of programming languages HTML and CSS, which will allow you to customize and create your own themes and plugins either for a company or that you can sell yourself.
Customize WordPress Themes & Integrate Plugins
As a WordPress Developer, one of your main responsibilities will be to customize and update the WordPress theme for a business and integrate and ensure the functionality of the necessary plugins. WordPress developers will need to know CSS and HTML to edit scripts and create truly customized themes and plugin experiences.
Consider checking out this Learn WordPress guide for information about what learning WordPress entails and how you can turn it into a career.
Enhance User Experience
WordPress Developers will often need to know web design and user design principles as many businesses want to ensure that their WordPress websites are optimized for the user or customer’s experience. This includes maintaining functionality of web features, ensuring functionality across mobile, tablet, and desktop interfaces as well as working with the members of a company’s design team to configure the user interface and the user experience of a website.
Read more about what web development entails in this comprehensive guide to learning web development.
Optimize website for Performance & SEO Best Practices
Whether working for a company or doing freelance WordPress development work, many clients will want you to know the most up-to-date SEO strategies. This will involve not only knowing the best SEO plugins to use but also optimizing a website’s content, links, and use of keywords to ensure that a company remains high and visible in the search ranking.
To learn more about SEO, check out this Learn SEO guide on what is it and how your SEO knowledge can lead to different specialized careers.
Other Uses for WordPress
There are many non-career uses of WordPress, thanks to the myriad plugins that WordPress users have created to add functionality to their websites. WordPress is a popular host for many personal websites, blogs, newsletters, discussion forums, and ecommerce stores. Creating your own WordPress can be a great way to build up your own internet presence and connect with others through broadcasting your creative endeavors or connecting over your shared interests.
Personal Blog, website, or Newsletter
Creating your own WordPress site does not need to be a business endeavor. Indeed, many people use WordPress to create a personal website, broadcast their views, showcase their creativity, or even just let others know what is going on in their daily lives. Newsletters created with WordPress, for example, are a great way to keep loved ones and even parasocial internet “friends” or followers updated on the books you’re reading, the music you’re listening to, the recipes you’re cooking, or the new finds you’re shopping.
Portfolio
Many people use WordPress to create and showcase personal and business portfolios. WordPress is an excellent place to not only market your professional skills but it can be a space to collect your creative works in a location easily accessible to anyone with an internet connection.
Ecommerce Store
You can use WordPress to set up your own ecommerce store or help a friend or loved one get started with theirs. By adding a plugin to WordPress, WooCommerce being one of the most popular, you are a few steps away from being able to sell goods through your WordPress website.
Membership Site
WordPress is not only great for creating websites that are easily accessible to a broad public, but you can also create your own membership site using WordPress. A membership website allows you to create a paid place where your subscribers or followers can access exclusive content and features, all while building a sense of community.
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. 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 HMTL & CSS class or equivalent knowledge and training in HTML and CSS. Students taking this bootcamp can expect to receive 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, you can consider taking a longer, more comprehensive certificate program to learn multiple skill sets and tools throughout one class. The WordPress Bootcamp is included as part of two useful certificate programs offered by Noble Desktop, the Front-End Web Development Certificate and the Web Design Certificate. Both certificate programs are geared towards teaching WordPress website development and are for those looking to follow career pathways to become 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 and this 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 of 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 getting hands-on experience creating clickable prototypes of websites to add to your portfolio. WordPress Developers often do not need to design websites themselves but will need to 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 world’s leading content management system (CMS) and it is used for creating a variety of personal and commercial websites
- WordPress offers accessible website creation and customizable themes and plugins that you can use with or without coding knowledge
- Learning how to use WordPress can allow you to become a WordPress Developer or even move into careers related to SEO and content marketing
- You can use WordPress for your personal blog, website, newsletter, portfolio, ecommerce platform, or membership website
- Noble Desktop offers comprehensive WordPress training in-person and online. Consider taking a targeted bootcamp or a longer certificate program to learn all the skills necessary to start creating WordPress websites for fun or as a career