While launching and scaling a website/online store/app is indeed possible using website builders and Content Management Systems (CMS) like open source WordPress (using library of existing themes and plugins) that should be sufficient for small businesses, yet as an owner of a small business, you will want more customization at some point. It is then when expertise in web development comes to action.
Training in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript will give foundational expertise in front end web development. Earlier you on your WordPress site were using existing themes. Now after also learning PHP, you will have expertise to give a fresh look to your responsive website (modifying existing themes with your own HTML and CSS codes or come out with your own new theme) with fonts, headers, footers, colors, menu as per your wish.
The goal of the Front End Web Developer Nanodegree program is to equip learners with the unique skills they need to build and develop a variety of websites and applications. Graduates of this Nanodegree program will be able to construct responsive websites using CSS, Flexbox and CSS Grid, develop interactive websites and UI (User Interface) applications using JavaScript and HTML, and connect a web application to backend server data using JavaScript. Students will also build competency automating application build and deployment using Webpack and improving offline performance of websites using Service Worker.
While front end web development takes care of visualization/user experience in terms of way the website appears, back end or full stack web developer will be in a position to add new functionalities (plugins in the world of WordPress).
The goal of the Full Stack Web Developer Nanodegree program is to equip learners with the unique skills they need to build database-backed APIs and web applications. A graduate of this program will be able to design and build databases for software applications, create and deploy database-backed web APIs, and secure and manage user authentication and access control for an application backend. Students will also learn how to deploy a Flask-based web application to the cloud using Docker and Kubernetes.
The above two courses by Udacity are not limited to a particular technology/software. If you use WordPress, you can still benefit from the above two courses while implementing your learning in WordPress environment that uses PHP language. Udacity does not have any course specific to WordPress. Udemy has a large number of courses on WordPress.
Another online place to learn from scratch front end web development is Scrimba that has a cheaper pricing than Udacity. Scrimba’s inline code-editor cum video viewer and its active Discord community forum makes Scrimba a great platform to consider.
