Wordpress is a horror

The Shining!

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WordPress is a horror story of every SEO manager

TL;DR

If you're not interested in investing, don't have any money, or want to avoid delving into the deeper meaning of life, then WordPress is an ideal tool for building your website. Go for it! Click here to download.

Is WordPress a real SEO manager's horror story? By real SEO managers, I mean those who know something to code, not the clickety-click 'SEO Managers.'

Currently, 34% of all websites have been developed in WordPress. As discussed in this blog post, let's start in detail.

What is a WordPress?

wordpress cms
WordPress is a free CMS.

WordPress is a CMS (control management system) for a blog. Indeed, it is the perfect CMS for a blog. It has permanent and logical URLs, good SEO basics (I am speaking about a blog), categories, various plugins like a sitemap, and advanced SEO.

Back then, most bloggers used WordPress because of the main difference between him and Joomla! (At that time, the most popular CMS) were nice URLs, categories, and simplicity of use.

People need nice URLs! Joomla: "f... them!"

programming php
coding CMS

While Joomla! version 1.x had this type of URLs:

example.com/index.php?option=com_example&view=showitem&id=14

WordPress had:

example.com/blog/post-example

Google thought the same because it provided a better ranking, a better out-of-the-box solution, no coding, and no possible tampering—an ideal solution for non-programmers.

The fire was set and immediately started to spread—most influentials were on WordPress, and the word about the easy-to-use CMS kept spreading.

Back in Joomla's world, no one cared. The figures started to run to WP's advantage. At that moment, WordPress began to be everything except a blog tool.

Real Estate, Listings, Classified Ads... Holy Grail?

WP had new plugins and builders. Plugins spread in every direction, from blog tools to real estate websites, listings, classified ads, etc.

The main problem is themes. In addition to plugins, you can buy a beautiful theme/template for 30-50 bucks.

Developers made one theme and then continued making the second one with more code, which would fix the previous one. In the end, the third theme gets 100 CSS and JavaScript files.

Websites started to slow down, maintenance became difficult, and amateurs often idiotically wrote PHP code.

Today, WP is a ruin—the most horrific bunch of everything, a packet full of surprises, and no one knows how exactly it outputs the code in combination with x plugins. An excellent, top-notch programmer needs hours to catch a function. And I haven't mentioned page builders!

What about SEO?

Search engine optimization
SEO analysis

For some reason, Google pretends to be silly regarding speed, i.e., parsing pages in the browser. The code usually needs to be corrected; there are some standards, but no one has control.

For a straightforward website, sometimes you have over 100 CSS and JavaScript files without needing them. Website speed and fancy browser rendering (whatchamacallit, client-side rendering?) are all the rage in SEO. Google keeps saying it matters; everyone's on the bandwagon, even me!

But here's the funny part: Google is more relaxed about penalizing slow websites.

The whole SEO industry is breathing, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Meanwhile, these WordPress themes, even the ones bragging about their SEO magic, are about as effective as a chocolate teapot for website speed.

The most famous plugins are causing problems. Creating a well-functioning website requires careful consideration of both canonization and handling of URLs—a bunch of unnecessary sitemaps and a need for knowledge in multilingual situations.

I saw websites where the owner entered more than 500 words in meta descriptions because nothing was explained or limited to him. I had to intervene and fix a few extensions so they would work properly. Horror!

Is there a fix?

fixing code
Use better tools

There is a fix if the leading team of developers introduces standards and doesn't publish poorly written plugins. So, yes, no, as blogs no longer exist, it is time to proclaim WP for cultural heritage and finish it for good.

Is there an alternative for WordPress?

Indeed, there is, and don't be afraid—be smart. There are control management systems written in the same programming language, PHP. I would start with my favorite: ProcessWire.

PW is on the one hand, and all others are on the other: severe and proven Drupal, fabulous Joomla!, and super-duper Magento for e-commerce solutions. Here, you can learn more about CMS comparisons.

PS: As I am right, I am glad I didn't install comments, as I can imagine what owners of the code/plugins/themes would write. They are a bunch of ignorant tugs ripping off honest people.

Published on 26. Jun 2021.

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Miljan Vujosevic
Miljan Vujošević aka Leftfield

SEO Evangelist, Head of Marketing, a car-travel addict, a fan of sun shadow, mostly spending free time thinking.

"If you don't stick to your values when they're being tested, they're not values: they're hobbies." - Jon Stewart.

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