For all of you that may not know, most of the pages on the internet, including this one, are created using WordPress. About 30% of them by the latest count!
Needless to say, WordPress developer jobs are on the rise. And how can they not be?
50,000 WordPress-based websites are launched on a daily basis!
So we are here to talk about the position of being a WordPress developer.
Do you realize now how important WordPress can really be? These numbers alone are enough to convince anyone to realize the potential of WordPress jobs.
Hop on board and let’s find out everything there is to know about this position.
What is WordPress?
WordPress is a type of software that allows you to build any kind of website. It is actually the most popular Content Management System in the world. The majority of developers are using it for creating their sites.
The idea behind WP is to make it possible for anyone to create a site and online presence in a matter of minutes. WordPress allows flexibility and scalability and is free to use.
Generally speaking, anyone can use the platform to create websites and add content. However, you still need a lot of knowledge and skills to be a real WordPress developer.
WordPress Developer Job Description
The job of a WordPress developer revolves around creating and designing a website for companies. Developers’ duties include both front-end and back-end development and involve the implementation of themes and plugins.
The ultimate goal is creating a likable, viewable and user-friendly website that will cater to the client’s needs and specifications.
But as we already mentioned, although easy to use, it takes a special kind and a very experienced person to truly use this platform to its perfection. As this is an important role for every company, employers are looking for a specific WordPress developer profile that they want to hire.
Let’s discuss this further, starting with the necessary skills:
Skills Needed for a WordPress Developer
As you have probably been able to deduce by now a person can’t just go on WordPress and instantaneously be good at it. It requires a lot of work and dedication.
Generally speaking, a tech-savvy person will most likely not have any problems using WordPress. However, technical knowledge is still not enough! You need skills.
Let’s mention some WordPress developer skills needed for this position.
Technical Competence
Starting with the obvious – technical competence! Desire is not enough for anybody to become a WordPress developer. Like any professional who does any kind of work, this position requires you to have particular technical knowledge.
It is a foundation for everything and will only enable you to build further from thereby honing your skills. Also, it might be helpful if you pick a programming language early on – PHP, HTML, MySQL, CSS or JS. Anyone will do.
A Learning Mindset
“What skills do you need for WordPress?”, you keep asking yourself. Well, having a learning mentality. Technology is constantly developing. Thus a person who works with WordPress needs to constantly grow with the market as to meet the wants and needs of clients. A developer needs to keep up with design, technology and security trends so he or she can implement all the latest ideas in designing a website. Stagnation is not an option.
Planning Skills
Being a creative and artistic person is a very good skill to have when working with WordPress. However, if you are not good at time-management, it would be hard to manage even freelance WordPress developer jobs. Something has to emerge from the chaos that is creation.
This work requires serious planning. The most important thing is to break down tasks, set priorities, creating and, more importantly, adhering to deadlines.
Basic Marketing
Creativity and marketing skills don’t usually go hand in hand. It might do you a lot of good if you have at least basic marketing knowledge.
WordPress web developer jobs often include negotiating with clients and in some cases selling themes or plugins. If you are really good at talking with them you can easily achieve your goals and get what you are worth in return.
Focus and Self-Motivation
The first thing that you need to understand is that working as a WordPress developer requires enormous knowledge and abilities.
However, focus is a very important aspect of working with WordPress, particularly with remote WordPress jobs. A lot of people don’t really do this job the regular eight hours a day as they can finish it faster. It could lead to chronic procrastination and eventually not allow you to do your job well and on time. So being able to focus and to motivate yourself in order to finish the job is a major advantage for anyone.
Now that you have the skills, let’s check on some of your potential responsibilities.
WordPress Developer Responsibilities
The duties and responsibilities of a WordPress developer are vast and can depend on a lot of things. One of them is, of course, the seniority level. There are also the needs of the clients to consider and the requests of your company that you need to fulfill.
However, certain responsibilities are shared between all WordPress developers.
Here are some…
Meeting with clients and discussing website design and function.
Creating the architecture of a website.
Designing and building the website front-end.
Generating WordPress themes and plugins.
Troubleshooting content issues.
Conducting website performance tests.
Monitoring the performance of a website live.
Conducting WordPress training for clients.
Developing new functions for the current website.
Creating interfaces and visuals for mobile apps.
Another important aspect that comes with WordPress developer jobs is collaboration. Developers need to work with their colleagues on a daily basis. They often need to work closely with graphic designers so the site they are developing together is streamlined perfectly. Developers also need to follow the best practice for web development perfectly in order to guarantee the best quality.
So after learning all of this, you are most certainly wondering if you need a piece of paper to prove your worth.
Next topic – Education!
What Education Do I Need to Become a WordPress Developer?
Since WordPress is free and a lot of tech-savvy people are able to work with it, no formal or official education is needed. Acquiring entry-level WordPress developer jobs can be really easy if you have all the skills and traits that we already talked about above.
However, in order to become a high-level WordPress developer, some formal education is required.
The bare minimum is an Associate’s Degree. This is a base requirement when hiring WordPress developers.
But if you want a more technical position, a Bachelor’s Degree is much better. The best one that you can acquire is the one related to computer programming, computer science or a related field.
Keep in mind that applying for jobs for WordPress developer also requires certain experience. It will give you a massive advantage as opposed to other applicants.
But there is another important thing that springs to mind when we talk about WordPress education requirements – Programming languages!
What Programming Languages Do I Need to Know to Become a WordPress Developer?
Programming languages are a very important part of WordPress. Developers who want to be decent at their jobs need to learn a least one of them.
Often times people ask the wrong question and wonder “Is WordPress a web design software?” But the question that they should be asking is “What coding language does WordPress use?”
The answer is very simple – There are four!
HTML
HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is an essential part of the web. Any page that you can find on the internet with some kind of content is labeled as a version of HTML.
HTML is actually not really a programming language, but a “markup” language. Generally speaking, it is a big text document with “markup” baked into it in order to explain the specific meanings of various parts of the text.
CSS
CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is used to style or give a specific appearance to all modern pages on the web. Using CSS you will be able to style HTML elements or HTML attributes and is more than necessary for all WP engine jobs.
PHP
PHP is the most important language needed for you to truly understand WordPress. It is what essentially runs WordPress on your web server. We use PHP on the server to build pages and put them together.
The original purpose of PHP was making HTML pages easier to build. By default, it will render the results of operation into an HTML page, which the server will then show to the site’s visitors.
JavaScript
The job of JavaScript is to allow the programming of HTML pages after they have been hit by visitors on a web browser. So whatever you click on a page and the subsequent reaction that it portrays is actually JavaScript at work.
Even remote WordPress jobs will require you to have at least the basic knowledge of all four programming languages.
If you are just getting into WordPress you would want to get to know the three main ones first. HTML and CSS are the mandatory building blocks for any good developer, while PHP is used for the added heavy lifting and creativity. JavaScript can be added on a little bit later in order to advance your skills.
With all this knowledge at hand, the next logical question would be “How much does a WordPress developer make?”
Let’s find out, shall we?
WordPress Developer Salary
In 2016, the average salary for any WordPress developer amounted to $66,130. However, in the same period, it was reported that the positions in this category are expanding much faster than the average as it was predicted that many more job openings will be offered by 2024.
Thus we come to today when most of the jobs related to this field are paid $60,000 +. It is a little hard to determine exactly what the average is though, as there are so many employers now.
But we can estimate a WordPress developer salary in 2019 by looking at some information gathered from the premium hiring sites:
So basically if we take all of these rates together and combine them we come up with an average salary of around $63,348. This is basically what you would expect a WordPress developer jobs salary to be around at.
But there is another important way that we need to look at WordPress developer payments – Freelance!
There are a lot of people who work as developers from home or at remote positions. Freelancing has become a genuine way of earning in today’s society.
Large freelance marketplaces include:
Upwork
Freelancer
People Per Hour
Toptal
Fiverr
Anyone can sign up here and get paid. But the wages may differ based on experience and previous work. Payment stats from Upwork show that people are paid between $20 to $100 depending on the job.
So, how much do WordPress freelancers make?
Codeable says that rates go from $60 per hour as the lowest all the way to $90 per hour as the highest.
CodementorX has rather similar payments with the lowest being $61 per hour and highest going all the way up to $90 per hour.
Here are some stats in regards to WordPress developer freelance payments:
67% of freelancers charge an hourly rate of $15.
24% of freelancers charge an hourly rate of $15 to $35.
7% of freelancers charge an hourly rate of $35 to $60.
2% of freelancers charge an hourly rate of over $60.
However, keep in mind that you can increase your salary steadily with hard work. An entry-level WordPress developer jobs salary may seem a bit low at first and may discourage a lot of people. But hard work and patience can get you to the upper 2% which earns a lot more.
You can increase your earnings in a few different ways:
Become a specialist in a specific area of WordPress.
Increase your price.
Offer value-added services, like maintenance, for instance.
Work on your communication.
Choose a better and quality marketplace.
Complying with some of these will most certainly help you increase your WordPress developer hourly rate.
This concludes our salary part, but there is still a lot more to discuss.
Next, we will discuss the costs of a WordPress site.
WordPress Website Costs
I understand that we previously mentioned that using WordPress is free. But let’s be honest, nothing in this world comes free of charge.
While it is true that WordPress is an open-source software available for everyone to download and use for free, there are still a ton of costs that come additionally for using it.
Knowing all the fees may answer the famed question – “How much should I charge for a WordPress website?”
The cost can be broken into four main categories:
WordPress hosting
Domain name
Design
Plugins & extensions
Web hosting: If you want to start creating your site, you first have to have web hosting so you can store your files. Web hosting usually amounts to $7.99 a month.
Domain name: Next comes the domain name! Or as some refer to it – your website’s address on the internet. Users on the internet will type this name in order to find your site so they can reach you. Getting a domain name typically costs $14.99 a year.
Design: Even remote WordPress developer jobs require adding specific designs. There are actually a lot of free templates available on the net. However, if you do want something specific, custom templates are available for added fees. They do work much better than your standard ones.
Plugins & extensions: Finally, there are tons of plugins and extensions that can be added to your site. In fact, there are more than 54.000 of them. They are all used to make your site better and help you add necessary features to it.
As you can see, many parts do come for free but most of the advanced ones still need to be paid for. So depending on the situation you can pay as low as $100 for a site or as high as $30,000 if you wish it so. The situation may differ with WordPress contract jobs.
WordPress website budge categories:
Building a WordPress site on a low budget – Estimated cost: $46 to $100 a year.
Building a WordPress site with more features – Estimated cost: $500 to $1,000 a year.
Building a WordPress site for small businesses – Estimated cost: between $300 and $500 to $1,000 a year.
Building a WordPress eCommerce site – Estimated cost: $1,000 to $3,000 a year.
Building a custom WordPress site – Estimated cost: standard site $5,000 while a bigger one $15,000.
Looking for WordPress developer may also include estimating the costs before putting things in motion. It may sometimes lead added negotiations.
But bear in mind that you should not undersell yourself nor the creation of a site if you are a quality developer.
Keep in mind that WordPress also comes with a lot of other career options and opportunities as well.
Time to look into some alternative career paths.
WordPress Career Paths
Almost anyone can make a breakthrough in their careers with the help of WordPress. Some can even be done without any specific or professional training or a degree.
There are various WordPress jobs and alternatives to being a developer.
Let’s take a look at some of them:
WordPress Designer
There are many job postings under the label “WordPress website designers near me”. Being a WordPress designer does not require so much technical knowledge. Their focus is more on the aesthetic side of the site which includes colors, fonts, and style. However, they still do have to have coding knowledge to fulfill their tasks.
Being a WordPress writer essentially means making your own blog and writing about anything that you wish. There are literally thousands of topics that you can write about and you can even create technical-related content for websites that write about WordPress. You can monetize your blog with promotional ads and posts and become an affiliate to other sites.
When you look up at ads for WordPress experts near me, you will often see ones about WordPress educators. Educators often share their knowledge about plugins, design, development, absolutely anything related to WordPress to their listeners. The downside is that this position does not really exist within any company and you have to pull through for yourself, for example via a YouTube channel.
Average Salary: Not consistent
As you are able to see, knowledge about WordPress can take you on any career path that you wish. And like any other job, you only need to have some consistency, determination, and integrity to do it.
To Conclude
The recent WordPress developer hourly rate in US will confirm the importance of the position. It is a very high paid job that if done correctly may even ensure your future.
Since the majority of the internet is running on WordPress now, estimations say that its usage will only increase. So, there will be a lot more experts with this type of knowledge and skills needed.
So start considering WordPress developer jobs! It might be your way to a better future!
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a WordPress developer?
A WordPress developer is a professional who is able to work on the WordPress platform using its basic coding and infrastructure. The initial aim is creating completely new products, usually websites, for clients or companies. Additionally, a WordPress developer will maintain the site through the WordPress platform. He or she will strive to improve WordPress itself by building plugins and themes.
Actually, anyone with the basic knowledge can aim for WordPress developer jobs as there is no specific diploma required. That is why there are so many freelancers who do this.
What skills are needed for WordPress?
It actually does not take a lot to start your career as a WordPress developer. However, if you really want to be good at it and earn more money and more accolades, certain skills are required for both full-time in-house and part-time WordPress remote workers. We can divide them into two categories: Technical skills and business skills:
Technical skills include having basic competency and knowledge when it comes to using the WordPress platform. Additionally, if you really want to advance, you should know a certain programming language. Being familiar with PHP, JavaScript, CSS, and HTML is vital. It also helps to have some SEO knowledge as well.
As far as business skills go, a WordPress developer should be able to prioritize, be competent to set goals, havе a basic understanding of marketing, and be able to lead negotiations with clients.
How do I become a WordPress developer?
Becoming a WordPress developer takes much more than simply looking for “WordPress freelance developer near me” posts. Try understanding the primary skills that are required to become a successful WordPress developer. Acquire as many skills and learn everything you can about WordPress and how it works. Chose a specific area of development and concentrate on it.
One can start as a freelancer as there are many people who have begun their careers this way. Eventually, you can apply to a firm and get hired full-time. However, this is a long journey so you must have patience and consistency.
Are WordPress developers in demand?
The position of a WordPress developer is in high demand right now. Many even offer work from anywhere WordPress jobs. The thing is that WordPress powers about 30% of the internet right now which translates to more than 10 million sites. The need is growing and predictions say that employers will start looking for more WordPress experts in the future.
Does WordPress require coding?
A lot of people are convinced that WordPress developers should be proficient in coding. However, the truth is that you don’t really require any coding skills, especially for part-time WordPress developer remote work. But keep in mind that coding skills do come in handy. It can allow you to make changes to your website much more effectively and will also make you a much more proficient developer. On the other hand, there are available plugins that can help people who don’t have any coding background but want to dip their toes into WordPress developer jobs.
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