7 Best Free WordPress Courses for All Levels (Updated for 2023)
WordPress can be challenging at first. As such, you may be looking for educational materials to help you learn new skills. However, with so many options available, it can be difficult to choose the best free WordPress courses for your needs.
Luckily, you can find various WordPress-based courses that won’t charge you a penny for learning. You can take advantage of free trials on e-learning platforms or explore introductory courses that help you get started with new subject areas.
👨🎓 In this guide, we’ll examine seven of the best free WordPress courses for different levels and niches, including the best options for the following categories:
Let’s start!
If you’re looking for comprehensive free WordPress courses that start with the basics and progress to advanced skills, consider enrolling in Learn WordPress Step-by-Step. This complete curriculum contains more than eight hours of content and includes topics such as:
The WordPress Academy approaches this free WordPress course by breaking it down into subtopics and guiding students through mini-projects. You’ll learn practical skills and how to apply them, while also getting general advice and tips on how to use WordPress.
Students enjoy this course for its clear instructions, helpful information, and hands-on projects. It’s also a beginner-friendly option, as it doesn’t require any basic knowledge of WordPress.
Some of the more complex issues, such as B. PHP and WordPress development require some intermediate level knowledge to complete. However, you can contact the course’s troubleshooting forum if you encounter any problems along the way.
You can access one one-month free trial with Skillshare. This means that you can access the course for free if you complete all modules within 30 days. After the trial period ends, membership fees depend on your region.
WordPress development can be a lucrative career path. The average WordPress developer makes more than $58,000 per year in the United States [1]. Additionally, if you develop and sell premium themes or plugins, you could use these skills to build your own thriving business.
Luckily, WordPress development doesn’t have to be difficult to learn. By providing you with a strong foundation, Become a Junior WordPress Developer can help you get a good grip on the basics of developing for WordPress.
This learning path consists of 12 individual courses with a total of 20 hours. It covers topics like:
This free WordPress course uses videos and written content to teach you about development topics. It is also taught by seven different experts in the field, each with a unique perspective. At the end of the learning path, you will receive a certificate of completion that you can view on your LinkedIn profile.
You can access one LinkedIn learning free trial for 30 days. Therefore, the course is free if you can complete it within that month. After the trial period is over, you must pay $19.99 per month for an annual subscription if you wish to remain logged in to the LinkedIn Learning Platform.
WordPress design skills are essential if you want to customize your website’s layout to match your branding and provide a good user experience (UX). Building a full website with WordPress can kickstart your WordPress journey by guiding you through the website design process.
This course is a coursera project, which means you learn through practical skills. The platform offers an instructional video that plays on a split screen. This setup allows you to follow from your WordPress dashboard and learn each skill step by step.
In this free WordPress course, you will learn how to:
- Start a website from scratch
- Design homepages, landing pages and blog pages
- Add links and buttons to share on social media
- Work with different themes and plugins
Building a full website with WordPress takes two hours if you follow the content continuously. At the end you will have a fully functional website and the opportunity to apply your skills in various design projects.
This free guided course may be ideal if you prefer a hands-on approach. However, note that minimal support is available if you encounter any issues during your project.
This course assumes some basic to intermediate WordPress knowledge, so it might seem quick if you’re a complete beginner. Note that this course is also optimized for North American learners.
Knowledge of SEO is crucial if you want to run a website. If you use SEO properly, you can increase your website’s visibility on Google and attract more traffic.
Yoast SEO is one of the most popular freemium SEO plugins for WordPress. You can dive deeper into this tool with Yoast SEO plugin training from Yoast Academy.
This free WordPress course contains two hours of content spread across 41 videos. It will teach you:
- Here’s the best way to use the Yoast SEO plugin
- SEO basics and ranking criteria
- How to write SEO optimized content
- Tips for troubleshooting SEO problems
- How to optimize your content for social media platforms
Even if you use another SEO plugin, the Yoast course material can be helpful. It covers general SEO tips and can get you on the right path to optimizing your content. However, the curriculum will serve you best if you use this plugin on your website as well.
The Yoast SEO plugin training comes with 14 quizzes to test your knowledge as you progress through the learning journey. You also get access to downloadable PDFs that contain the core course material and additional tips for optimizing your website.
When you complete this course, you will receive a badge and certificate of completion. You can also opt for the premium plugin and associated training for $99 per year.
Once your WordPress website is up and running, you need to continuously protect it from spam, malware, and hackers. These security measures are all the more important when you consider that around 100,000 websites are hacked every day [2].
Luckily, Learn Complete WordPress Security can teach you how to secure your website. This video-based free WordPress course has over two hours of content covering:
Despite its short content length, this course is quite comprehensive. They cover multiple topics, from basic security tips to advanced and advanced content protection techniques. The curriculum can be suitable for WordPress beginners and experienced users alike.
This course is completely free. However, it only has video content and lacks quizzes, personalized instruction from instructors, or a certificate of completion. While this syllabus can be a good starting point for learning WordPress security, you may need to continue to supplement your learning over time.
Starting an online store for your products and services is one of the best ways to monetize your WordPress website and start a business. However, creating an ecommerce store can feel overwhelming if you are new to WordPress and online sales.
Learning How to Build an Ecommerce Website with WordPress is one of the more beginner-friendly free WordPress courses. It explains how to set up and run an online store and covers topics such as:
- Find Ecommerce Hosting
- Create shop pages
- Using the WooCommerce platform and WooCommerce plugins
- Adding and configuring products
- Customize your online store
- Add navigation menus
The course is video-based and includes almost three hours of content. In addition, it is ideal for beginners as it requires minimal knowledge. If you’ve never worked with WooCommerce before, you can probably benefit from this straightforward walkthrough approach.
Of course, this course might not be as helpful if you’d rather work with another ecommerce platform like Easy Digital Downloads. While the general online store tips still apply, the WooCommerce specific content won’t be as useful to you.
Learn how to build an ecommerce website with WordPress is free no matter how long it takes you to complete the course. However, it is video-only and has no interactive elements, troubleshooting forum, or reviews. Therefore, it is best suited if you prefer more self-paced learning.
Performance optimization is essential if you want to provide the best possible UX and maximize your Core Web Vitals results. If your website loads slowly or has errors, it can easily put off your visitors and send them straight to your competitors.
WordPress: Speeding Up Your Site is a comprehensive performance tuning course from the LinkedIn Learning Platform. This video-based curriculum consists of six different modules covering:
This free WordPress course is led by Patrick Rauland, the Brand Manager for WooCommerce. He is also an expert in plugin development, commercial website design and application building. When you complete the course, you will receive a downloadable certificate of completion that you can add to your resume or view on your LinkedIn profile.
However, note that this course is designed for more advanced users. It assumes basic WordPress knowledge and focuses specifically on optimization tips. If you’re brand new to WordPress, you might want to come back to this course after learning the basics.
As with other LinkedIn Learning courses, you can study this material for free by taking advantage of the 30-day free trial. After this period, you must pay for a subscription or purchase the course. It costs around $30 if you want to buy this course alone.
Try one of these courses today
There can be a steep learning curve when you start working with WordPress. As such, you may prefer guided learning with free WordPress courses rather than spending unnecessary time learning the basics yourself.
If you are looking for a comprehensive curriculum for beginners, we recommend Learn WordPress step by step by WordPress Academy. This in-depth course takes you through the core elements of WordPress, covering everything from WordPress themes to development.
💡 For some other ways to improve your WordPress knowledge, you might be interested in one of these posts:
