WordPress Performance & SEO for SMBs
Your WordPress site speed directly impacts your Google visibility and conversion rate. Discover our articles on Core Web Vitals, hosting choices and SEO best practices for SMBs.
You’re Not Scaling Content. You’re Scaling Disappointment
Every few years, the SEO industry discovers a new way to mass-produce content and convinces itself that this time it’ll work. That the sheer volume of pages will overwhelm Google’s ability to assess q
3 CMS Platforms Control 73% Of The Market & Shape Technical SEO Defaults via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern
Chris Green helped analyze 17 million websites and co-authored the latest SEO chapter for the Web Almanac, and his conclusion should matter to anyone who does SEO for a living. Green said the data sho
How AI Agents Decide Which Brands To Recommend: Trust Is The New Ranking Factor via @sejournal, @purnavirji
Would you let an AI agent spend $50,000 of your company’s budget without checking its work? Right now, our marketing world is distracted. We’re busy arguing over AEO/GEO strategies , heck, even the ac
Google Shares More Information On Googlebot Crawl Limits via @sejournal, @martinibuster
Google’s Gary Ilyes and Martin Splitt discussed Googlebot’s crawl limits, providing more details about why limits exist and revealing new information about how those limits can be adjusted upward or d
JavaScript Performance Optimization: 17 Essential Techniques
JavaScript is a staple of modern web development. It helps make websites interactive, dynamic, and engaging. At the same time, when unoptimized, it can also seriously hamper loading speed, which is wh
SEO Vs. PPC Strategy: What’s Right For Your Business? via @sejournal, @brookeosmundson
Digital marketing usually gets discussed as one bucket in companies. It shows up in planning decks as a single line item, even though what sits underneath it is far more nuanced. SEO and PPC both live
Google Discover Core Update Data: Local Publishers Lost Reach via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern
An analysis from Discover tracking tool DiscoverSnoop adds to the post-update data available on Google’s Discover core update, confirming some patterns identified in earlier NewzDash analysis while co
Starting Or Steering The Wave
I wrote a LinkedIn post on this very topic a while ago, and people seemed, at least, reasonably interested. So I thought I’d expand on it a little. It is, IMO, a very good way of framing how you can g
AI Mode Data, Ask Maps & Branded Queries Go Live – SEO Pulse via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern
Welcome to the week’s Pulse: updates affect how AI Mode links work, how local discovery works in Maps, and what you can do in Search Console. Here’s what matters for you and your work. SE Ranking publ
Merchant Center Expands, Google Clarifies Smart Bidding, State Of PPC Report – PPC Pulse via @sejournal, @brookeosmundson
Welcome to this week’s PPC Pulse. Updates focus on Merchant Center access for agencies, bidding strategy, and how PPC marketers are adapting to industry changes. Google expanded access to Merchant Cen
Google Says Hundreds Of Their Crawlers Are Not Documented via @sejournal, @martinibuster
Google’s Gary Illyes and Martin Splitt published a podcast about Googlebot, explaining that it’s not just one standalone thing but hundreds of crawlers across different products and services, most of
Formidable Forms Flaw Lets Attackers Pay Less For Expensive Purchases via @sejournal, @martinibuster
Formidable Forms WordPress flaw enables unauthenticated attackers to pay a small amount and have a more expensive transaction marked as paid. A vulnerability in the Formidable Forms WordPress plugin i
ChatGPT’s Default & Premium Models Search The Web Differently via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern
Ask ChatGPT’s default and premium models the same question, and they’ll cite almost entirely different sources, according to a Writesonic analysis . GPT-5.4 Thinking, ChatGPT’s premium model, sent 56%
Google Maps Launches AI Conversational Search With Ask Maps via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern
Google Maps is launching Ask Maps , a conversational feature powered by Gemini that lets users ask complex questions about locations and receive AI-generated suggestions on a personalized map. The fea
The Shortcut Behind Some AI Optimization Tools via @sejournal, @DuaneForrester
On March 3, 2026, OpenAI pushed GPT-5.3 Instant to all ChatGPT users, free and paid, with no fanfare about what else might have changed beneath the surface. Within days, SEO and AI search practitioner
How modern block themes are changing WordPress hosting
Managed WordPress hosting exists to run WordPress well. It provides an environment tuned for how WordPress behaves under load, how it handles caching , and how it executes PHP. Block themes do not cha
How AI Automation Turns Static Travel Pages Into Living Content & Experiences via @sejournal, @TaylorDanRW
For most of the past 20 years, growing travel marketing meant producing more and more output. This happened because success depended on building additional landing pages for new destinations, publishi
Google Answers Questions About Search Console’s Branded Queries Filter via @sejournal, @martinibuster
Google Search Central announced that Search Console’s branded queries filter is now available to all eligible sites, causing many SEOs to ask questions about it and Google’s John Mueller stepped in to
WordPress Gutenberg 22.7 Lays Groundwork For AI Publishing via @sejournal, @martinibuster
WordPress released Gutenberg 22.7 that contains multiple features intended to streamline the editing workflow as well as align the block editor with AI adoption in WordPress 7. Overall, users will fin
WordPress Security Release 6.9.4 Fixes Issues 6.9.2 Failed To Address via @sejournal, @martinibuster
WordPress published a troubled security release version 6.9.2 to patch ten vulnerabilities that also caused some sites to crash (display a white screen), so WordPress quickly followed up with a bugfix
Manage hundreds of sites with Kinsta’s WP Admin auto-login
For an agency managing dozens or hundreds of WordPress sites, site management isn’t just a technical challenge—it’s a race against time and a battle for security. Every time a team member jumps from o
5 Things I Learned About The Future Of Search From Liz Reid’s Latest Interview via @sejournal, @marie_haynes
I enjoyed this interview with Google’s head of Search Liz Reid on the ACCESS Podcast with Alex Heath and Ellis Hamburger. Liz talked a lot about the future of Search. Here are the five most interestin
How To Prove PR Business Value With UTM Parameters & GA4 via @sejournal, @gregjarboe
For years, communications and PR teams have warned that their budgets are under threat. In 2026, that warning has become a reality. According to industry research , budget pressure remains one of the
How to set up custom MyKinsta notifications with the Kinsta API to catch issues before they impact users
A WordPress site consists of many moving parts that must work in perfect sync with server processes. PHP, the database, and the CDN must operate smoothly together. When this harmony fails, performance
Website Speed Audit: How to Test and Monitor Your Website Performance
Want to understand what a website speed audit really is and how to run one correctly? You’re in the right place. A website speed audit isn’t just a quick test. It’s a global performance approach where
The 8 Best Real User Monitoring Tools in 2026
Want to know the best real user monitoring tools to measure performance? Of course, you want to know how your site truly feels for your customers! Is the checkout smooth or frustrating? Does the page
DEV: <h1> in the Right Direction
Welcome to DEV, your fortnightly feast of WordPress workflows, web wrangling, and weird findings. As always, we’re serving up release rundowns, roadmap revelations, and resource recommendations to kee
Introducing Client Notes in the Hub: Record Everything You Need to Know, Right on Their Profile
Managing clients means remembering a lot. Meeting outcomes, special requests, project preferences, follow-up tasks… the list goes on. And when that information lives across email threads, documents, a
DEV: .AU Over There! Yes, You!
Welcome to DEV, your fortnightly snapshot of what’s evolving across WordPress. We’ll meet you somewhere between “finished” and “shipping,” with the latest developments, ongoing experiments, and commun
Website Speed Optimization: How to Improve Load Times & Performance in 2026
Do you want a fast-loading website? Of course you do! This guide to website speed optimization explains how to optimize a website step by step, using simple, proven techniques. We cover the most commo