7 Easy Steps for Expert of WordPress: How to Become a WordPress Expert

If you've been using WordPress for a while, you're probably used to how your site functions on a daily basis.

In this article, we'll discuss how to become a "WordPress Expert" and then walk you through some steps to get there.

It's crucial to realize that we use the term "experts" loosely when we speak about WordPress. WordPress is a large platform with many options. It's impossible to learn all there is to know about the Content Management System in a single lifetime (CMS).

However, there are methods for learning all there is to know about WordPress. For the sake of this article, we'll define an expert as someone who understands WordPress, can build a high-quality WordPress site, stays current on platform news and updates, and participates actively in the community.

Let's start the celebrations!

A Step-by-Step Guide to Becoming a WordPress Expert

Here are a few ideas on how you may become engaged in the WordPress community. We'll also provide some suggestions for learning resources at the end.

Step 1: Assess your present knowledge and write a list of any areas where you are lacking.

Even if you have a good understanding of WordPress, you're fully aware that you have certain gaps in your knowledge.

Consider what WordPress duty you presently pay someone else to do for you as a quick way to assess your existing knowledge vs your goals. Do you outsource design, development, SEO, maintenance, and speed optimization?

Learning how to do such tasks alone can help you become a more self-reliant user.

Alternatively, since it's tough to know what you don't know, browse an online WordPress course to see if there are any courses on unfamiliar subjects. Below is an example of a common online beginning WordPress course.

Once you've determined what you still need to learn, you'll have a better idea of what learning opportunities to pursue.

Step 2: Double-check that you understand how WordPress' primary components work together.

The WordPress core, your theme, and a variety of plugins are the three most significant moving parts in WordPress. While you may have a basic understanding of each component, there's a good chance you can learn more.

THE BASE OF WORDPRESS

To begin, the "WordPress core" refers to the WordPress core files. You should be familiar with the main core files and what they do. You should also be aware of which ones you may safely modify and which you should avoid at all costs.

Another component of WordPress competency is knowing how to use the built-in and custom post types, as well as the template files that go with them.

Once you've understood the concept of custom post types, you may create your own unique post types, and your website's content will begin to stand apart. You may create a custom post type for almost any set of content you wish to display on your site.

For example, you might develop a website that lists and links to available autos and is published as a custom post on the back end. You may devote a portion of your website to recipes, events, or movie reviews, each with their own set of features.

New post type plugins make it simple to create custom post types, and you can learn to build them yourself as your skills improve.

Because the Beaver Builder plugin works with custom post types, you can create unique posts that describe automobiles as well as beautiful information displays. Beaver Themer may also be used to design layouts for the pages that explain the cars and categories.

WORDPRESS SERVICES THEMES

Themes control the look and layout of components on the page that aren't text, such as headers and footers. A limited number of page layouts and several basic design choices are also included in many themes. Because WordPress requires the usage of a theme, it's a good idea to stay informed about the most popular free and premium WordPress themes, as well as what makes each one unique. You should also make sure that the theme on your site is up to date with the latest WordPress core updates.

It's also helpful to understand the WordPress theme structure and the difference between parent and child themes.

Once you have a better grasp of the more technical aspects of themes, you will be able to decide whether you like a barebones theme that you can further modify or one that comes with a multitude of choices. As your skills improve, you'll be able to evaluate themes for code quality and performance.

Knowing what a theme does can help you understand how and where to utilize a Themer layout to override it, even if you simply want to use the Beaver Themer add-on plugin to create areas of the page that are generally controlled by the theme.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR WORDPRESS DEVELOPMENT PLUGINS

In contrast to themes, which regulate layouts and aesthetics, WordPress plugins handle functionality. From page builders to specialized content design components (sliders, galleries, forms), as well as security, performance, backup, and analytics tools, there's a plugin for almost every kind of feature. Every WordPress user should have Yoast SEO, Jetpack, and WooCommerce installed.

There are a lot of free plugins out there, as well as paid plugins with greater capabilities. Unique post types are used by a lot of plugins, notably those that help with content management and design.

The WooCommerce plugin, for example, adds a Products menu item to the WordPress admin panel, from which you can choose a product and create a custom post.

As you learn to write and construct several sites, it's not difficult to transform your own code into your own custom plugin. It's not difficult to make that custom code into your own custom plugin if you find yourself adding the same custom code to the functions.php file for the majority of your sites to produce the same custom functionality.

Step 3: Become familiar with the Customizer and other WordPress options.

Anyone may use WordPress to build a website using templates, themes, demos, and other ready-made components. WordPress experts, on the other hand, may take websites to the next level by customizing them extensively.

Building a bespoke WordPress site may be done in a number of ways, including utilizing plugins or custom code. It's crucial, though, to start with a thorough grasp of WordPress' built-in customization possibilities.

You'll need to know how to utilize the Customizer and WordPress' primary settings to call yourself a WordPress expert.

Despite the fact that each theme's Customizer settings varies, you should be able to quickly change the parameters of the theme you're working with to create a unique-looking site that meets end-user needs.

The Twenty Seventeen theme's Customizer settings are shown in this example.

Using standard WordPress settings, you should be able to add various structures and functionality to a site. To name a few basic skills, you should be able to:

• Create a website's static home page.

• Maintain a list of memberships and comments.

• Prevent search engines from finding a webpage.

• Create a permalink structure that is consistent.

Using these things is, to some degree, the best method to learn them. A little practice might help you improve your talents. On the other hand, the WordPress Codex contains useful information regarding the Customizer and WordPress settings.

Step 4: Learn about WordPress's technical foundations.

Understanding how WordPress, its themes, and plugins are created is a key part of fully understanding them, which takes some technical knowledge. Now, we're not arguing that being a WordPress master demands a broad understanding of a variety of coding languages.

On the contrary, you may be an expert even if you can't do much more than explore with WordPress.

Although WordPress doesn't need coding knowledge by default, understanding the foundations of the languages that make up the platform's core may help you with debugging, responding to user queries, and advanced customization.

This demands a basic grasp of how HTML, CSS, PHP, and JavaScript are used in WordPress. Suggestions may be found at the bottom of this page in the learning resources section.

Step 5: Become knowledgeable about databases and database management.

One of the most distinguishing features of WordPress is that it is a database-integrated content management system (CMS), which means that pages are dynamically changed to HTML and furnished with content from the database.

Learning how the database stores information about posts and custom posts will help you troubleshoot if you run into problems. Themes and plugins store their data in the database with their own distinct prefixes, which might be handy for debugging.

The flexibility to create custom fields in the database that can be utilized with both normal and custom post types is one of the many benefits of this system.

Returning to the automobile example, you might add custom fields for all of the information you want to show with each vehicle, such as year, make, model, condition, and so on, which you can then display uniformly on the page when writers fill up the post with car descriptions.

Beaver Themer can connect to custom fields in WordPress, Advanced Custom Fields, and Pods, enabling you to add custom fields to your Beaver Builder layouts quickly and easily.

A screenshot of an event from the Events custom post type is shown below. On the single event pages, the Beaver Themer Singular layout is utilized. The date, time, and whole Special Notes sidebar all contain custom fields, ensuring that all event pages have the same information in a consistent place.

In this example, the CPT and custom fields were created by the Pods plugin, and the custom field connections were made possible by Pods' interaction with Beaver Builder.

Unless you're troubleshooting, you won't interface directly with the database, but WordPress experts should be able to do a few basic maintenance tasks. When manually installing WordPress, for example, you need be aware of the responsibilities of phpMyAdmin and the database:

To improve site speed, you must also understand how to conduct basic database maintenance, or at the absolute least, how the database affects performance so that you can use a plugin to handle this task.

Step 6: Familiarize yourself with WordPress's hosting options.

Hosting is a vital component of the process of keeping a website up and running behind the scenes. The following are some important aspects of hosting to be aware of:

• How web hosting works and what to look for in a hosting firm

• What are the different sorts of hosting services?

• Which companies are the most well-known?

• What is the difference between WordPress hosting with a manager and WordPress hosting without a management?

These essentials may assist you in selecting the optimal hosting plan for your website and resolving server-related issues. It will also help you communicate more effectively with the technical support team at your hosting firm.