🚀 WordPress Website Development Roadmap (Beginner → Advanced)
Master WordPress from scratch → professional websites → custom themes/plugins → full-stack WordPress development.
⭐ 1. WordPress Basics (Beginner)
✔ What WordPress Is
- CMS (Content Management System)
- 40% of all websites use WP
- Open-source & highly customizable
✔ WordPress.com vs WordPress.org
- .com = hosted
- .org = self-hosted (full control, plugins, themes)
✔ What You Need to Start
- Domain name
- Hosting (Hostinger, Bluehost, SiteGround)
- WordPress installation (1-click install)
🏗️ 2. WordPress Dashboard & Settings
✔ Learn the Dashboard
- Posts vs Pages
- Media Library
- Themes
- Plugins
- Menu settings
- Widgets
✔ Key Settings
- Permalinks
- Reading settings
- Discussion settings
- General info (site title, tagline)
🎨 3. Themes & Page Builders
✔ Free Themes
- Astra
- OceanWP
- Blocksy
- Neve
✔ Premium Themes
- Divi
- Avada
- Kadence
- GeneratePress
✔ Page Builders (No-Code)
- Elementor (MOST POPULAR)
- WPBakery
- Divi Builder
- Beaver Builder
- Gutenberg (WordPress block editor)
✔ Learn How to:
- Install themes
- Customize layouts
- Create responsive designs
- Build headers & footers
- Create landing pages
🔌 4. Must-Have WordPress Plugins
✔ SEO
- Rank Math / Yoast SEO
✔ Speed Optimization
- WP Rocket
- LiteSpeed Cache
- Autoptimize
✔ Security
- Wordfence
- Sucuri
✔ Backups
- UpdraftPlus
- JetBackup
✔ Forms
- WPForms
- Gravity Forms
✔ Ecommerce
- WooCommerce
✔ Page Design
- Elementor addons (Crocoblock, Essential Addons, Happy Addons)
📦 5. WordPress Content Management
✔ Posts
- Categories
- Tags
- Featured images
✔ Pages
- Home, About, Contact
- Static vs dynamic pages
✔ Media
- Optimizing images
- ALT text
- File organization
🧩 6. WooCommerce (Ecommerce)
✔ Learn Setup
- Products
- Categories
- Variations
- Coupons
- Shipping settings
- Payment gateways (Razorpay, Stripe, PayPal)
✔ Customization
- Product page template
- Shop layout
- Checkout optimization
🚀 7. WordPress SEO Optimization
✔ On-Page SEO
- Titles, meta descriptions
- Keyword optimization
- Internal linking
- Image ALT tags
✔ Technical SEO
- XML sitemap
- Robots.txt
- Schema markup
- Permalink structure
✔ Tools
- Google Search Console
- Rank Math / Yoast
- Screaming Frog
⚡ 8. Website Speed Optimization
✔ Techniques
- Caching
- CDN (Cloudflare)
- Image compression
- Minifying CSS/JS
- Using lightweight themes
✔ Tools
- GTmetrix
- PageSpeed Insights
- Pingdom
🔐 9. Security Best Practices
- Enable 2FA
- Change login URL
- Use strong passwords
- Regular backups
- Firewall plugins
- Malware scanning
🖥️ 10. Hosting, cPanel & Server Management
✔ Learn
- File Manager
- PHP version manager
- Database (phpMyAdmin)
- Cron Jobs
- Email setup
✔ Backup & Restore
- cPanel Backup Wizard
- Migrate website manually or via plugin
🔧 11. Custom WordPress Development (Advanced)
Move from designer to developer.
✔ Learn PHP Basics
- Variables
- Arrays
- Loops
- Functions
✔ Theme Development
- Theme structure
- Template hierarchy
- functions.php
- Creating a custom theme
✔ Plugin Development
- Hooks (Actions & Filters)
- Custom functionality
- Shortcodes
- Widgets
✔ WordPress APIs
- REST API
- Settings API
- Options API
- Metadata API
🧱 12. Advanced Features
✔ Custom Post Types (CPT)
- For portfolios, events, services
✔ Advanced Custom Fields (ACF)
- Custom layouts
- Page + post custom fields
✔ Elementor + Dynamic Content
- JetEngine
- Crocoblock
🛠️ 13. Website Deployment & Migration
✔ Staging Website
- Test changes
- Push to live
✔ Migration Tools
- All-in-One Migration
- Duplicator
- Manual migration (FTP + SQL)
📊 14. Analytics & Conversions
✔ Tools
- Google Analytics 4
- Google Tag Manager
- Microsoft Clarity
- Hotjar
✔ Learn
- Tracking events
- Heatmaps
- Conversion funnels
🧠 15. Soft Skills for WordPress Developers
- Client communication
- Understanding business goals
- Debugging
- Troubleshooting plugins
- Speed optimization expertise
- Selling WordPress services & freelancing
📅 16. 30-Day WordPress Learning Plan
Week 1 – Basics & Setup
- Install WP
- Learn dashboard
- Build 3 simple pages
Week 2 – Themes & Page Building
- Learn Elementor
- Build multipage website
Week 3 – Plugins & WooCommerce
- Add SEO, speed, security plugins
- Build mini ecommerce store
Week 4 – Custom Development
- Learn PHP basics
- Experiment with CPT & ACF
- Create custom templates