WordPress is forming an AI team to help with the development of AI products on the platform.

What is WordPress

WordPress is an open source content management system which allows users to create and manage websites including updating blogs, imagery, and customising UX. Users can use plug-ins which can be added to their site from WordPress extensive library which allow for enhanced customisation features and increased website functionality.

Why is WordPress forming an Open AI team

The open source nature of WordPress means that developers can create all manner of plug-ins and many have already begun to experiment with AI tools as current WordPress developers have published 660 different AI plug-ins for WordPress. 

The AI team will consist of James LePage, head of AI at Automattic, Felix Arntz and Pascal Birchel from Google, and Jeff Paul, director of Open Source at 10up and their role will be to oversee the development of AI tools. 

This is what WordPress Executive Director, Mary Hubbard, had to say in her latest blog post on why this matters, “Strategic focus: A unified team stewards AI development thoughtfully, avoids fragmentation, and ensures alignment with the long-term goals of WordPress.

Shared innovation: Contributors and companies are actively exploring AI across the ecosystem. This team provides a central place to collaborate, share ideas, and build together.

Rapid iteration: Like the Performance Team, we’ll take a plugin-first approach. Canonical plugins will allow us to move quickly, gather feedback, and deliver real value without waiting on the Core release cycle.”

Why is this important for SEOs

WordPress is the most popular CMS on the internet powering an estimated 43.4% of websites worldwide. Increased AI functionality within WordPress will be key for SEOs to enhance workflows and speed up functionality and processes of their site to increase workplace productivity. 

Choosing the right Content Management System is crucial for any business wanting to thrive online. These platforms allow users to create and adapt their websites and content for their audiences, which is the most fundamental element of having success online.

There are a variety of CMS to choose from all with different strengths and weaknesses. In this article, we will run through some of the most popular CMS and which one is the right choice for your business.

WordPress

WordPress is the most popular CMS system currently in use. It is an open-source website which means the code is made available to the public to be modified. This is important because it allows users to add customisable features (plug-ins) to their platforms which enhance functionality and diversify content, making it an ideal platform for a wide range of businesses. Websites can accommodate websites of various sizes so is not only ideal for beginners.

Wix

Wix is an easy to use CMS system that allows users to “drag and drop” elements to build their websites. Ideal for beginners who have small businesses, Wix could be your go to option. However, for larger businesses or businesses that want to scale in size Wix may not be the best option. It is not open source so you are limited to what you can change on the site outside of your content. 

HubSpot CMS

Hubspot is a customer relationship management system that also offers its own CMS. Hubspot’s CMS is available free and has loads of useful marketing features including personalised content, email marketing, automation, membership websites. On the free version the hubspot logo will appear on forms and pages and users are limited to 25 pages. So if you’re   thinking about building a comprehensive long term website, Hubspot CMS might not be the way to go unless you’re considering getting a paid subscription.

Shopify

Shopify is an e-commerce platform that has a user friendly interface, allows for scalability and has advanced features such as secure checkout, multiple payment options, customer support and international selling. However, some users find the platforms content creation and customisation can be complex with the use of apps required for any complex customisation which increases cost.

If you need help choosing the right CMS system for your business feel free to get in touch.

SEO is the process of optimising your website to rank higher on search engines, when designing websites SEO should have a critical role in your site design to avoid causing technical problems in the future that need to be addressed retroactively. In this article, we will discuss different aspects of web design that are directly impacted by SEO and considerations for users to make when building their websites.

Mobile Friendliness

Mobile is king. Searches on mobile account for 60% of web traffic in 2025, despite this, many businesses still design their websites on desktop, making an impressive website, but treating mobile optimisation as an afterthought. Websites should be designed with mobile as a number one priority due to the sheer amount of search traffic it currently generates. Having a site that is equipped to enhance the user experience on mobile and desktop devices will improve your search rankings.

Page Load Speed

Page load speed is an important ranking factor on Google and is something that should be considered when designing a new site. Content management systems, such as WordPress, have plug-ins which allow users to add custom functionality to their sites but these plug-ins can come at the cost of page speed as they are all separately loaded onto the page. It is better for sites to be designed with extra functionality written into the code and limited use of plug-ins in order to make sure page speed remains fast.

Image size can also affect page speed. If image files are too big, they can increase page speed, making sure all images are optimised for a site when designing your site is important for SEO web design.

Copy and Content Optimisation

When designing websites, people can try to limit the amount of words they have on their site to try to make it more visually appealing and engaging. While this can be good, there needs to be a balance for SEO purposes. There should still be enough scope to add copy to improve keywords rankings and optimise content for SEO. Being able to explain concepts in detail and giving a user all the information they need is precisely what makes Google value content higher up the site when it is high in rich content.

Site Structure

Having a well thought out site structure is important for SEO as it allows Google to crawl and index your site and understand your content easier. This is extremely important for appearing high on the SERP, if Google is confused by your content or site architecture it will make it difficult to rank meaningfully. Therefore having SEO in mind when designing your site architecture is important, make sure to not include unnecessary pages on your site that confuse search engines and users.

Hubspot, one of the leading CRM platforms, has seen a major decline in its organic traffic levels dropping from 13.5 million in November to 8.6 million in December. Community members have been speculating what could have caused such a dramatic decline in traffic levels, with the blog especially taking a huge traffic hit. In this article, we will dive into the different reasons why HubSpot may have seen a heavy decline in traffic.

What has happened to HubSpot?

Google released a number of updates at the back end of 2024 including the November core update, the December core update and a December spam update which affected traffic levels for a number of sites all over the internet.

These updates obviously had an impact on HubSpots SEO content, especially their well renowned blog, which has been a leading industry blog for many years. Many industry insiders are speculating that HubSpots blog is over-saturated with weak content or that much of their content lacks topical authority as it has been created outside of their area of expertise.

Many SEOs are concerned at the sudden dramatic fall in traffic levels for HubSpots blog as it has widely been considered one of the best created blogs on the Internet for a number of years.

What can HubSpot do to bounce back?

There are a number of ways HubSpot could address their drop in traffic levels. Some SEOs are calling for HubSpot to clean up their blog and delete any outdated or “weak” content that they don’t have any topical authority on. However, pruning a blog with thousands of posts and making sure it is done correctly is a huge task that requires lots of resource and time dedicated to the task. Others have suggested that HubSpot should tailor their content more towards their topical authority going forward.

What can we learn from this?

If SEOs are to be believed then making sure your content is relevant to your site is crucial to maintaining traffic levels as Google is cracking down on content that is outside of topical authority. Therefore, it is important for all SEOs to make sure that their content is highly relevant and informative to their target audience going forward, now more than ever.

The ongoing legal battle between WP Engine, a popular WordPress hosting service, and Automattic, the parent company behind WordPress.com, has taken a significant turn. On December 11th, the US District Court for the Northern District of California issued a preliminary injunction in favour of WP Engine, ordering Automattic to cease actions that disrupted WP Engine’s business operations.

This ruling adds another chapter to a conflict that has highlighted tensions within the WordPress ecosystem, affecting businesses and users alike.

The court’s order demands that Automattic stop:

“Blocking, disabling, or interfering with WP Engine’s and/or its employees’, users’, customers’, or partners’ access to WordPress.org.”

“Interfering with WP Engine’s control over, or access to, plugins or extensions.”

Furthermore, Automattic is required to restore WP Engine’s access to WordPress.org, including its resources and functionalities, to how they existed before September 20, 2024.

Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín was critical of Automattic’s actions, stating that its targeted measures specifically against WP Engine exacerbated harm to the company.

This harm was evident in a notable increase in cancellation requests from WP Engine customers during the conflict—a 14% spike between September 26 and 30 and a 17% increase between October 1 and 14.

What sparked the dispute?

The conflict began with accusations from Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg, who described WP Engine as a “cancer” on the WordPress ecosystem for allegedly taking more from the open-source community than it contributed. This led Automattic to block WP Engine’s access to WordPress.org servers and seize control of WP Engine’s Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) plugin.

In response, WP Engine filed a lawsuit alleging that Automattic’s actions caused immediate and irreparable harm. The court agreed, stating that Automattic’s actions were “designed to induce breach or disruption” of WP Engine’s business relationships.

The broader implications

For marketers and businesses relying on WordPress, the preliminary injunction brings much-needed stability. WP Engine can now resume using WordPress.org’s critical resources, ensuring functionality for its customers. Additionally, the ruling underscores the importance of fair play in the WordPress ecosystem, a community-driven platform that relies on collaboration and mutual benefit.

Automattic, however, is not backing down. A company spokesperson called the ruling a “preliminary order designed to maintain the status quo” and emphasized that it was issued without full discovery of the facts. They plan to file counterclaims against WP Engine and remain confident about prevailing at trial.

Mullenweg also expressed dissatisfaction with the decision, sharing a post on X that criticized the court’s order for forcing an open-source maintainer to provide services to a user.

A win for WP Engine

WP Engine has hailed the court’s decision as a victory, with a spokesperson stating:

“The order will bring back much-needed stability to the WordPress ecosystem. WP Engine is focused on serving our partners and customers and working with the community to find ways to ensure a vigorous, and thriving WordPress community.”

For now, the court’s decision protects WP Engine’s operations and offers reassurance to businesses relying on its services. However, marketers and website owners should stay updated on this case, as its resolution could influence how WordPress operates in the future.

Automattic CEO, Matt Mullenweg is intensifying his ongoing battle against managed hosting platform WP Engine, creating a tracking website that shows a list of all the domains that have left WP Engine since their initial fallout in September of this year.

WordPress vs WP Engine

The issues initially arose when Automaticc CEO, Matt Mullenweg, made disparaging claims about WP Engine, including that they should be paying WordPress ‘’a significant percentage of its revenue for a licence to the WordPress trademark’’ due to the use of WP in their name.

I previously wrote about the issue in September, when 159 employees left WordPress due to the ongoing turmoil. This did not manage to dissuade Matt Mullenweg however who has continued waging war against WP Engine.

WP Engine Tracker

The WPEngine tracker site gives users a list of all the domains that have left WP Engine, with the current figure standing at 26,050 as of 06/12/2024. The tracker also allows businesses to find new website hosts with current top destinations including Pressable, Bluehost and Digital Ocean.

WP Engine Response

WP Engines have responded by filing a lawsuit against Automaticc, the parent company of WordPress and mentioned the WP Engine tracker in their lawsuit stating the following 

“Just last week, in an apparent effort to brag about how successful they have been in harming WPE, Defendants created a website—www.wordpressenginetracker.com—that “list[s] . . . every domain hosted by @wpengine, which you can see decline every day. 15,080 sites have left already since September 21st. September 21 was not selected randomly. It is the day after Defendants’ self-proclaimed nuclear war began – an admission that these customer losses were caused by Defendants’ wrongful actions. In this extraordinary attack on WPE and its customers, Defendants included on their disparaging website a downloadable file of ‘all [WPE] sites ready for a new home’—that is, WPE’s customer list, literally inviting others to target and poach WPE’s clients while Defendants’ attacks on WPE continued.”

The legal battle between the two companies is set to intensify in the near future as this conflict shows no signs of slowing down for the foreseeable future.

WordPress, the most popular CMS worldwide, released its latest version 6.7 ‘’Rollins’’ on November 12, 2024 with a whole host of new features including a new default theme, more design features, faster pattern loading and 65+ accessibility fixes to improve user experience.

Twenty Twenty-Five

Twenty Twenty-Five is the new default WordPress theme replacing the previous Twenty Twenty-Four theme with the latest 6.7 update. The theme was created to allow both big and small website owners to create unique designs. Here’s what WordPress had to say about their latest theme.

“Twenty Twenty-Five is designed for bloggers of all scales—from hobbyist writers to major news sites—capturing a balance between simplicity and versatility. It allows you to intuitively create a site that feels truly personal while offering the flexibility for complex designs. With a diverse array of patterns and templates for everything from landing pages to photo blogs, the theme is tailored to enable seamless storytelling for any purpose. Natural, universal imagery and thoughtfully chosen typography bring warmth and a timeless aesthetic that resonates on a global scale.”

“Built to support multiple languages and visual styles, Twenty Twenty-Five includes a curated selection of colour palettes and font pairings, ensuring both accessibility and elegance in design. Whether you lean toward a minimalist personal blog, a striking photo gallery, or a content-rich magazine layout, the theme’s templates and design tools empower you to build a site that is uniquely yours.”

New features

• Zoom Out Feature – WordPress has also released a new zoom out feature, which allows users to see an overall view of the page while making customisations instead of editing one block at a time. This enhanced view has been added to help users have a more streamlined process when it comes to creating new layouts.

• Improved Font Management Tools – WordPress 6.7 comes with improved font management, allowing users to now delete font size presets and use their own customizable presets site wide. Also dynamic font sizing or ‘’fluid typography’’ allows users to have dynamic scaling of fonts based on screen dimensions.

• Accessibility Improvements – WordPress has announced 65 accessibility fixes without going into too much detail about each specific change heres what WordPress had to say “65+ accessibility fixes and enhancements focus on foundational aspects of the WordPress experience, from improving user interface components and keyboard navigation in the Editor, to an accessible heading on WordPress login screens and clearer labelling throughout.”

• Performance Updates – WordPress 6.7 will have faster pattern loading times but also has a new auto image sizing feature that will improve loading times for lazy load images.

WordPress 6.7 is the latest in a long line of releases aimed at improving the user experience and enhancing features for developers. If you need help with your WordPress website or want to update to the latest version of WordPress, please get in touch info@intelligencygroup.com.

An XML Sitemap is a file submitted to search engines that tells them everything about the structure of your site including what pages live where and what pages you want them to crawl and index in order to show up in search rankings. This helps search engines explore your site quicker and improve your search engine rankings more effectively.

Is an XML Sitemap important?

XML Sitemaps are important for modern websites as they allow search engines to understand and crawl your site structure. If you don’t have an XML Sitemap, search engines will have to follow internal links on your site to understand where different pages live and this can take a lot longer. Also if you have pages on your site you want to show up in search rankings that don’t have a lot of links pointing to them it may take a long time for search engines to find these pages.

How to create an XML Sitemap

Most website owners will not have to create their XML Sitemap from scratch as the majority of content management systems will already have an XML Sitemap automatically created and updated. For example, WordPress, the most used CMS in the world, automatically generates a site map for its users, if you want to view the sitemap you can simply visit URL/sitemap.xml.

If your website does not automatically generate a sitemap you can use an online sitemap generator tool to create your sitemap. Some people will choose to use a sitemap generator as it allows them to have more autonomy over what’s appearing in their sitemaps. You can also use plugins on the back end which allow you to edit the contents of your XML Sitemap. Below is an example of a WordPress sitemap generated through YOAST. The most common type of sitemap on the web.

How to submit an XML Sitemap

If you don’t submit your XML Sitemap to Google it will still crawl and index your pages but it could take months before your new pages are found and indexed into search results. Best practice when you have created new pages is to submit your sitemap to Google via Google Search Console. GSC is a free tool that allows website users to track and update their organic Google performance in order to see better search results.

In order to submit your sitemap to GSC you must first set up GSC for your site. Once you have a GSC you can go to Indexing > Sitemaps > Enter your sitemaps URL > Submit sitemap.

If you need to update your sitemap at any time, due to the creation or deletion of a number of pages, you can resubmit your sitemap in the same location and delete your old sitemap after Google has finished crawling and indexing all your new pages.

You can also request indexing of individual pages to Google if only a small number of pages have been created and you don’t want Google to recrawl your whole site.

Needing help?

If you need help with website performance and want to improve your search rankings, please don’t hesitate to get in touch info@intelligencygroup.com.

WordPress Co Founder, Matt Mullenweg has this week announced a new Executive Director for the platform, Mary Hubbard, after the previous director’s resignation due to the ongoing turmoil currently taking place at WordPress.

Who is the new director?

Mary Hubbard has already been working at WordPress for four years, taking up the role of Chief Product Officer in 2020. The Executive Director position became available after Josepha Haden Chomphosy left Automaticc, along with a whole host of employees, due to ongoing legal issues with WordPress and their competitor WPEngine.

WordPress vs WPEngine

WordPress and WPEngine are now locked in a legal battle which has been causing the current high levels of turnover within WordPress. The issues initially arose when Automaticc CEO, Matt Mullenweg, made disparaging claims about WP Engine, including that they should be paying WordPress ‘’a significant percentage of its revenue for a licence to the WordPress trademark’’ due to the use of WP in their name.

These comments caused a whole host of issues to take place. Both companies sent cease and desist letters to their respective parties and Matt Mullenweg banned WPEngine from using WordPress features such as plug-ins and themes. This caused huge controversy as WordPress runs around 40% of the Internet’s websites and broke many sites overnight.

WPEngine has since sued Automaticc for their abuse of power and breaking their promise to run WordPress as open source. 159 WordPress employees, including Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy, left the company due to the direction of the company and were given severance packages.

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Intelligency Digital Roundup.

This week, WordPress announced 100-year domain name registrations, Meta could scrap ads for paid subscribers in Europe, and Google is raising page speeds in an experimental trial.

Let’s learn some more about each.

100-year domain name registration with WordPress

WordPress has announced that businesses can pay a one-time registration fee for their domain name to last 100 years. With the fee, there would also be managed hosting and also 24/7 customer service.

The price is surprising, however, coming to a total of $38,000. It’s important to note that you can only usually register a domain name for 10 years.

WordPress is dubbing this fee the “100-year plan”.

So what comes with WordPress’ 100-year plan?

WordPress’ official announcement stated that the plan comes with the following:

• The domain being secured for 100 years
• Multiple backup locations across the world
• “Top tier” hosting
• Unlimited traffic
• Dedicated 24/7 support

The plan has been designed for individuals, families, and companies who want to cement their legacy.

“Families who wish to preserve their digital assets—the stories, photos, sounds, and videos that make up their rich family history—for generations to come.

Founders who want to protect and document their company’s past, present, and future.

Individuals seeking a stable, flexible, and customized online home that can adapt to whatever changes the future of technology will bring.”

The CEO of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg, had this to say:

“Whether it’s giving a newborn the special gift of a domain and lifetime home on the web, or something you put in your will to make sure your website and story are accessible to future generations, I hope this plan gets people and other companies thinking about building for the long term.”

If you want to sign up for the 100-year plan, WordPress has a link on the announcement.

Meta Might Offer Ad-Free Paid Versions of Facebook & Instagram in Europe

Meta is thinking about offering ad-free, paid versions of Facebook and Instagram in Europe according to the New York Times. They haven’t stated how much this might cost or when it will be available. But don’t worry, they’ll still have the free versions that come with ads, says the New York Times.

How could this affect businesses?

If many users switch to this paid version, brands might not reach as many people with their ads. For now, this ad-free idea is for Europe, but it might go to the US later. This act does apply to the UK, but it’s unclear if the ad-free option would be offered to UK users.

Marketers, keep an eye on this! You might have to think about where you want to spend your ad money. Other avenues such as LinkedIn may have to be explored instead.

Why the change?

The European Union has a new rule called the Digital Services Act. It starts on 1 January 2024. This rule asks big online companies, like Google and Meta, to make the online space safer and fairer for businesses. This might be why Meta is thinking about the paid, ad-free versions.

What has Meta said?

Meta hasn’t officially said anything about this new idea. But in 2018, the head of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, did hint at something like this. He said to the US Senate, “There will always be a version of Facebook that is free.” Sheryl Sandberg, who was a top leader at Meta, also mentioned, “If you want no ads, that might be something you’d have to pay for.”

We’ll definitely be keeping an eye on this, so stick with the roundup to keep yourself updated too.

Google Introduces a Solution to Speed Up Webpages

Google has unveiled a new method to run JavaScript, making web pages load faster. This is great news for website publishers, as it helps improve a new webpage performance measure.

About current page speeds

Web pages need to respond quickly to users. A new measure, called Interaction to Next Paint (INP), will replace the older First Input Delay (FID). To score well on INP, which starts in March 2024, web pages should be super responsive.

The issue? Some JavaScripts, known as “Long Tasks”, take too long to run, causing web pages to be sluggish. It’s like having a slow car on the fast lane – everything gets delayed.

Currently, when users click a button, they often have to wait because these long scripts block other tasks. Google aims to fix this

There are existing coding solutions to make user interactions faster, but they’re not perfect. They solve different issues and sometimes even worsen the problem. Google points out that current workarounds can delay the main task even further.

Google’s proposed solution

Google suggests a fix named scheduler.yield. Here’s how it works:

1. It pauses the long task.
2. Lets the user task run.
3. Once that’s done, the main task continues from where it paused.

This feature has been available for testing in Chrome 115 since July 13th.

Google is inviting users to test this feature in a real-world setting. This “origin trial” aims to collect feedback and understand its effectiveness. There are certain precautions, though. Websites using this should have a backup plan for browsers not using Chrome 115.

This feature is still being tested. But, with INP becoming a crucial measure in 2024, adopting this early might give publishers an edge over competitors. Just ensure you’re prepared for browsers not yet supporting this new feature.

As always, thanks for reading the Intelligency Digital Roundup!