Is WordPress conceptually dead?

[ju112]

I bought a lot of various websites. Each time, this is a full mess dealing with old content.

SEO is a lot about structured data, structured posts, follow-up, and a relevant editorial process. From my point of view, WordPress is not relevant for this. There is a misconception: WordPress is mixing the ease of writing with the frontend result.

I am pretty sure that the future IS NOT in WordPress. It is powerful, but there is a very big need to dissociate the writing experience from the results.

My ideal stack would be like that:

Backend:

• Structured data everywhere
• A good editor (Gutenberg is ok)
• Very detailed stats & search engine. Example: I would like to know which posts have at least two internal links, contains the word "Dog", and have two affiliate links to Amazon. Yep, good luck if you need to do that with WordPress.
• Review process
• Writer helpers (Grammarly, SEO tools like SEO Surfer, etc.).
• Integration of SEO stats: Ahrefs stats, word counts, various stuff).

Frontend:

• Only take care of templates, CSS, HTML and structured data.
• It should look like a WordPress builder, but with clarity: Entry input (what you want) => Template => End results.
• It would be like a plugin collection where the entry data is clearly stated, and you can configure it as you want.
• We all have the same needs: post lists, widgets, etc.

There is a missing piece on the market. For me, it's obvious: I know WordPress, I also know frameworks like Laravel, and I also know most headless CMSs, Jamstack, and other stuff. Frameworks like Laravel are good, but not for the Web. WordPress is good in itself, but not for structured data & algorithms. Headless CMSs are just APIs plugged on CRUDs stuff.

Pretty sure there is a lot of innovation to be made if we consider "backend" and "frontend" as two different expertises. This is not yet the case. I am predicting that all this market will be disrupted, a bit like virtual machines / VPS have disrupted the hosting industry.

What's your opinion?

 

[Rufin jazz]

I agree with you and feel disruption is around the corner. Just not sure when but there will be major disruption and it is much needed too.

 

[CPANathan]

Frameworks like Laravel are good, but not for the Web.

What do you mean by this bossman?

-Someone studying Laravel for the web

 

[ju112]

What do you mean by this bossman?

-Someone studying Laravel for the web

LOL. Laravel is very great, but you ll have to write everything when it comes to SEO. From Meta in the headers to the structured json-ld stuff. You'll quickly understand that there is a missing piece

 

[CPANathan]

LOL. Laravel is very great, but you ll have to write everything when it comes to SEO. From Meta in the headers to the structured json-ld stuff. You'll quickly understand that there is a missing piece

I've been cracking up to find the time to find the connection between Laravel and WordPress; using WP for small tasks I can't code up at my level.

I get you 100%

 

[JavascriptPufferfish]

Very detailed stats & search engine. Example: I would like to know which posts have at least two internal links, contains the word "Dog", and have two affiliate links to Amazon. Yep, good luck if you need to do that with WordPress.

i think you can make that with scrapebox. not an expert and haven't fired up SB in a long time, but it sounds doable to me. if you truly need this, you may want to check it out.

I am pretty sure that the future IS NOT in WordPress.

it may not be the most innovative space, but its certainly a big part of the present. when stuff has such an overwhelming adoption, its staying power is huge. especially for web pages, where most businesses would prefer something that works to taking a risk and changing stuff. i know dissing WordPress is not the point that you are trying to make, i am just saying it may not be going anywhere anytime soon.

 

[allan.d]

WP + Plugins = Never DIE

 

[LuckyGamble]

thats why i've never used wordpress for years now.
html + php works wonders.

 

[Scorpion Ghost]

thats why i've never used wordpress for years now.
html + php works wonders.

Best comment. I looooves me my html+php sites yes i do i definitely definitely do

Wordpress, eh, often just a large pain in the ass.

 

[CPANathan]

Best comment. I looooves me my html+php sites yes i do i definitely definitely do

Wordpress, eh, often just a large pain in the ass.

Trial and error is ok when you can see what's happening
WordPress I guess you have that, just takes 20 minutes of flicking around a 3 page and 2 feature job to see what's bandy

Screw WordPress

said the rookie

 

[Scorpion Ghost]

Trial and error is ok when you can see what's happening
WordPress I guess you have that, just takes 20 minutes of flicking around a 3 page and 2 feature job to see what's bandy

Screw WordPress

said the rookie

I saw you mentioned Laravel. I have 2 websites running on Laravel. I find it very smooth.

Its unfortunate that i really dont understand it and always had a very hard time editing anything in the files.

One little mistake, and your entire site has crashed.

I guess the same can be said about html and wordpress, except there usually a mistake will crash a page or a specific plugin or function, while on Laravel the entire site goes to shit.

 

[CPANathan]

One little mistake, and your entire site has crashed.

I'm loving that because of this page here, I need to figure out more about this side

I found it really hard to find out what was going wrong with what when I was looking at stuff a friend set up for me and it turned me off PHP completely; got called silly a number of times for not looking into Laravel so I took a swing.

Goal is to work back... Can't get better if I'm still "guessing" what the PHP side is actually doing...

Fair play to your brain for understanding how to bring PHP to other languages without frameworks!

Nathan takes your thread off-track, take 700.

 

[k2h2]

So you are betting against the 99% of people who are betting on wordpress for their website development.

 

[onlinemarketer12]

Wordpress is never going to die. The plugins available for wordpress allow so much customization that it makes it impossible for other platforms to beat it.

 

[Scorpion Ghost]

I'm loving that because of this page here, I need to figure out more about this side

I found it really hard to find out what was going wrong with what when I was looking at stuff a friend set up for me and it turned me off PHP completely; got called silly a number of times for not looking into Laravel so I took a swing.

Goal is to work back... Can't get better if I'm still "guessing" what the PHP side is actually doing...

Fair play to your brain for understanding how to bring PHP to other languages without frameworks!

Nathan takes your thread off-track, take 700.

Yeah I don't understand PHP much, but Laravel even less.

I can do some things with HTML and CSS, but that's where my "expertise" ends

 

[J Bird]

Some of the things you mentioned for backend a lot of people do from their pc, not from their server but could probably be solved with plugins.
Like the writer helpers or backend search, for example.

Overall, I think it comes down to what works for people. Things that seem complex to some actually simplify things for others and vice versa.

 

[Gogol]

They are just tools. You use one tool or another to make your product. Not a fan of wp personally, but it is totally workable, if that is all someone knows. But yes, server rendered apps are pretty slow in general, and it shows! Even if you use wp or laravel, or yii2 or blablabla, use it for the backend only, in my opinion. But then, it’s my opinion, nothing more.


What’s more important is to be able to make a product that works for you. Money matters at the end of the day, not the stack.

 

[flprocess]

for my point of view, WordPress has a real issue which is a very old issue happening to everything - it gets over-done.

Instead of keeping it simple for users and devs alike, they complicate things even more with every update they release.

3 years ago it was so simple to add code, create plugins etc. now it's just pain in the ass. TBH it's not only their fault, it is up to the updates of newer PHP versions as well. I find it easier to just use a child theme, edit functions.php and add my code instead of even trying to create plugins, a thing i used to do. why bother?

The classic editor was fantastic and even though Gutenberg introduced new features, they could have also upgrade and remodel the classic editor because people (like me) still use it, instead of deciding for us what to use.

Regarding SEO - the basic wordpress just suck at it. They could add SEO features to the backbone of the application, but they don't and let plugins like yoast to do it for them. You HAVE to use SEO plugin. you HAVE to use Cache plugin. sure it supports a community of devs (and yes, even financially), but man, instead of complicating things they could add basic support of these features and be done with it.

 

[JollyRock]

If you have the tools, then having a custom coded site is always superior,
WordPress is just very bloated and full of features you won't use by design, WordPress sites are also
less potentially secure (more code, more plugins etc... more doors to hack) the SEO also gets hurt
because of duplicate HTML/CSS/JavaScript (i.e you and some other website using the same lines of code) is also not good in Google's eyes
since they look for unique sites.

However, WordPress is very easy to use for everyone, making it convenient for many people, no matter
how much you make certain coding languages easy, some people just prefer to drag and drop and be done with it,
which is why WordPress will never die, and is OK for those who are fine with less.

 

[BlogPro]

OP, you've posted a highly "custom" request as probably a "niche site builder" and you're expecting a publicly available, free CMS to cater to them explicitly.

This is like saying - "I want a CRM to be able to promote stuff to my clients, take orders and show me cool sales graphs. But WhatsApp doesn't cut it for me. So it must be conceptually dead."

WordPress has been around for 2 decades now and is currently powering 43%+ of the Internet. And in its time, it has grown from a rudimentary CMS to a much more targeted open source ecosystem with a community rallying behind it.

Whatever you've asked for can be built with the WordPress API - is relatively simple and is an extension/modular requirement only. If integrated in the vanilla system, it will be considered bloatware as not everyone is looking to check for Amazon Affiliate links and/or integrate with ahrefs.