Is WordPress still the best choice for SEO?
Short answer
Not anymore, in my view. "WordPress is best for SEO" is a 2024-and-earlier belief. I build local sites on Next.js with a headless CMS: faster, better looking, cheaper, and better for SEO. With AI doing the coding, the old reason to pick WordPress is gone, and managed news hosting can start at $750 a month.
Everybody is stuck on 2024 and earlier, where the answer was "WordPress is the best for SEO." I've gone back and forth on this, and I don't think it's true anymore.
"Why would you use WordPress today? That doesn't make sense unless you just don't know, which is like 99% of people."
What do I use instead?
Next.js with a headless CMS. In 2026 I was building a local website on that stack, and I'd pick it again for any new client site.
- Faster. Pages load quickly, which helps both readers and search.
- Better looking.
- Better for SEO.
- Cheaper to build. Because AI does the coding.
How does someone non-technical build on it?
I don't write code. I describe what I want to Claude, over and over, until it's right. That's the whole process.
My rough comparison: it's something like 100 times faster and two or three times better than doing it the old way, and cheaper. A team that would have cost $10,000 to $20,000 a month is now about $200 a month in AI tools. Those are my estimates, not a formal cost study.
A designer friend built an 80-stylist directory site in two days just by talking to Claude, pulling the data from a Notion database. That build ran six Claude chats at once against one shared plan and included a CMS, a chat widget and an SEO plan.
What should the site do for SEO and AI search?
Own your content. More in publishing your newsletter archive.
What do local publishers pay to stay on WordPress?
More than most people think. One managed WordPress platform built for news publishers starts at $750 a month, minimum, and charges more as you make more money.
I did a deep dive on it with an AI model. My conclusion: the only people who stick with it long term are legacy players. Part of the draw is the community, all these legacy publishers sharing with each other, and they get real value from that.
The advanced ad tools don't matter much at small scale. The people making really good money from programmatic ads are the LA Times and the Washington Post. If you're a small-town paper, you're not making any money from Google AdSense.
Can you just use your newsletter platform's website?
I wouldn't for SEO. I had an AI analyze the pros and cons of using Beehiiv as a website. It tries to be the same thing for everyone, so there are a lot of rules and systems they don't let you touch that would help you optimize. It's just not built for SEO. More in publishing your newsletter archive.
Why does a local media brand care about SEO at all?
Because it's something to sell. The whole point is getting the site score up so you can tell a business: look, we have a great SEO score, I can write articles about you, I can do this and that for you. On a newsletter platform's page, that pitch doesn't hold up.
Other operators are seeing the same thing. A legacy media owner with about a dozen brands emailed me wanting to talk about building AI-optimized business pages, because he'd heard of a brand getting tons of inbound sales that way. His story, secondhand and unverified. My answer was that I'm already building it. See how to build a directory AI will cite.
Is there a case for WordPress?
My point is about new builds. Starting fresh in 2026, I don't see why you'd pick it.
Answered by TJ Larkin. From an AI brand-building mastermind call, builder conversations and team calls, 2026. Last updated .