Establishing an exceptional website is paramount for any business seeking a thriving online presence. With WordPress reigning as the powerhouse behind a staggering 40% of websites on the Internet, it’s no surprise that this platform has become the preferred choice for web development.
WordPress stands out thanks to its remarkable versatility, user-friendliness, and extensive library of plugins and themes, making it the ultimate toolkit for web developers.
If want to improve your WordPress development skills and craft websites that truly shine in 2023, you’ve come to the right place.
Within this comprehensive guide, we will delve into the top 10 WordPress development best practices.
Our aim is to empower you with the knowledge and expertise needed to excel as a WordPress developer in the present year.
You will learn the art of writing and structuring your code effectively, ensuring it aligns with WordPress Core standards and embraces the best practices for crafting and managing outstanding websites.
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Setup Local WordPress Development Environment
When managing updates and implementing changes on your WordPress site, minimizing the risk of crashes is essential. Setting up a test environment becomes crucial for this purpose.
While minor updates and adjustments may suffice on a staging site, deploying them in a local environment is preferred for more extensive testing or entirely new designs. This allows you to work without impacting your live site.
In these considerations, it’s important to also plan for unpublishing your WordPress site when necessary. For those unfamiliar with setting up test environments, Local, a free application, offers a convenient solution for quickly creating a local WordPress development environment. With Local, you gain control over your testing process, minimizing risks and ensuring your website remains stable and error-free.
Prioritize Responsive Designs
It’s imperative that your website functions seamlessly across a wide range of screen sizes and devices. With mobile phones accounting for a significant portion of global internet traffic, ensuring optimal performance on these devices has become a top priority. One highly effective approach to address this challenge is to select a responsive WordPress theme.
Responsive WordPress themes, including well-regarded options like Divi, Hestia, and Tusant, can be your trusted companions on this journey. These themes not only save you valuable time but also elevate the visual appeal of your websites.
Their adaptability ensures that your content is presented in an engaging and user-friendly manner, regardless of the device used to access it. Furthermore, they confer a significant WordPress SEO advantage since search engines, most notably Google, prioritize mobile-friendly websites in their rankings.
By choosing a responsive theme, you’re not just keeping up with the times; you’re ensuring that your website remains accessible and attractive to a diverse online audience, which ultimately boosts your online presence and user engagement.
Get Used To Gutenberg Editor
WordPress 5.0 brought about a substantial transformation in the landscape of content creation with the introduction of the Gutenberg editor. While some users may initially lean towards the familiarity of the Classic Editor Plugin, it is highly advisable to embrace Gutenberg this year for several compelling reasons.
The pivotal distinction between Gutenberg and the Classic Editor lies in the fundamental structure of content. In the past, you were confined to a single, continuous text area for your content. However, Gutenberg disrupted this traditional approach by introducing a block-based system.
These blocks have the flexibility to encompass an extensive array of elements, ranging from plain text and captivating images to eye-catching headings, dynamic widgets, and even theme-specific components.
The transition to Gutenberg promises a more dynamic and versatile content creation experience, offering WordPress users a wealth of new possibilities to explore and elevate their online presence.
Gutenberg’s block-based approach offers unparalleled flexibility and creativity, making it an indispensable tool for crafting engaging and visually appealing content. With this transition, you’ll be better equipped to harness the full potential of WordPress, making your WordPress development skills improve further.
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Adhere to WordPress Coding Standards
Before you know how to create a website using WordPress, you must enhance your coding standards. WordPress coding standards have been meticulously crafted and refined over time by experienced programmers.
They play a pivotal role in maximizing business success and, equally importantly, bolstering the security of your WordPress website. Although transitioning to a new coding style might seem challenging. However, with relentless practice, you’ll discover that adhering to these standards is more straightforward and ultimately more rewarding.
In fact, this dedication to coding standards enhances the quality and consistency of your code, ensuring it’s easier to write, read, and maintain.
As you delve into WordPress development and create websites using WordPress, it’s imperative to recognize that these coding standards span across four core languages: HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and PHP.
Delve into each set of coding standards, from attributes to space usage, in your chosen language to ensure you’re consistently on the right track.
Selection Of Plugins & Themes
In WordPress development, plugins and themes can be your greatest allies, but choosing wisely is paramount. Select third-party plugins that receive frequent updates, reducing compatibility issues with the latest WordPress versions.
Regular audits by dedicated resources help ensure your plugins are updated and performing optimally. Remember to uninstall unused plugins during these checks to minimize malware risks.
Crafting a secure and efficient website when learning how to make a website on WordPress necessitates making informed decisions regarding your choice of plugins and themes.
Ensure The Security Of Your Website
Securing your website in an age of escalating cyber threats is an absolute necessity. The foundation of this security begins with choosing a username and password that are both strong and not easily deducible. Cybercriminals often target weak login credentials as a point of entry.
Furthermore, it’s advisable to implement a Captcha or an equivalent filtering method on any form that can be submitted on your website. This added layer of protection effectively thwarts bots and spammers, who frequently employ repetitive requests as a common spam tactic, potentially causing disruptions and compromising your site’s integrity.
To comprehensively fortify your website’s security, you should consider integrating powerful security plugins such as iThemes Security or All-In-One WP Security & Firewall. These tools offer multi-faceted protection, ranging from tracking and blocking fake login attempts to facilitating blacklisting and whitelisting, monitoring user activity, and thwarting brute force attacks.
To further enhance your defenses, configuring a robust firewall like Sucuri WAF or Cloudflare is highly recommended. These measures go beyond just mitigating DDoS attacks; they provide granular traffic control, further augmenting your website’s overall security and ensuring your online presence remains resilient in the face of potential threats.
Prioritize User Experience
The quality of user experience directly influences how frequently visitors return to your site. By understanding and catering to user needs, you create an environment that’s not just user-friendly but also captivating.
To achieve this, integrating user research into your WordPress development process is a crucial step. Inviting a novice user from your target audience to test your website allows you to see your work through fresh eyes and make adjustments accordingly.
The result is a WordPress website that doesn’t just meet but exceeds user expectations, ensuring visitors are not only enticed to return but also share their positive experiences with others.
Conclusion
As we’ve explored the significance of adhering to coding standards, selecting the right plugins and themes, securing your website, and prioritizing user experience, one thing remains crystal clear: the ability to adapt and evolve is your strongest asset.
By continuously honing your skills, staying updated with the latest technologies, and seeking user feedback to enhance the user experience, you’ll be well on your way to mastering the art of WordPress development.
So, If you want to know how to become a WordPress developer in 2023, and want to grow your development skills, this blog will help you to move your steps closer to that. That way, you can also create exceptional websites that stand out in the digital landscape.
