Sep 12 2025
3 Different Ways To Do Bulk Updates On WordPress

One of the strengths of WordPress is its extensibility. You can run everything from e-shops and booking systems to massive WordPress multisites from one instance of WordPress.

Another is that it’s a database and robust PHP-based programming language, which means that running a bunch of updates on a site is remarkably straightforward.

In this post, I’m going to present three different ways to bulk update WordPress.

A quick word of caution before starting to look at this: Things like misaligned fields or plugin conflicts could result in unintended results, so if you’re doing any large-scale updates, be sure to back up beforehand.

Also, for the content updates, it’s worth running a small test. Ten or so posts as a tester is a good way to start, before running it through the entire site.

1. How To Bulk Update Content On A WordPress Website

Simple Changes To Existing Content

If you want to make simple changes to existing content, such as bulk change the author, status, or taxonomies on a number of pieces of content, one thing you can do is use WordPress’ pre-existing bulk editing component.

From the edit posts/pages page, you can tick individual posts and pages and select “Edit.”

From there, you can set all posts’ categories, tags, statuses, and other information quickly and easily. Once done, click the “Update” button.

The WordPress bulk category and tag editorScreenshot from WordPress, August 2025

Please note: This will replace all categories, but tags will be added. This is probably the most common way of editing content, which you probably already know about!

Importing And Exporting Content

Let’s say you want to bulk add WordPress content on a WordPress website.

The most common version is that you want to import a set of blog posts, or indeed, you have a list of products within a spreadsheet that you want to import into a system like WooCommerce; it depends on where you’re importing from.

If you’re combining a WordPress export and importing it into another blog, the best way is to use the default WordPress Importer plugin.

If you’re moving content between WordPress sites, use the default WordPress Importer. It reads WXR (.xml) export files and can optionally download and import file attachments.

If you are using WooCommerce, then the best course of action would be to use the default WooCommerce product importer.

It’s pretty robust and can take a standard CSV, XML file, or spreadsheet and import it. You can map these fields to WooCommerce fields, which is a bit more work.

A screenshot of the WooCommerce Importer, the mapping fields page.Screenshot from WordPress, August 2025

For WooCommerce products, use the built-in Product CSV Importer/Exporter and map your columns to product fields.

Should you be importing content from a non-standard source (like a CSV or a feed), a great plugin to use is WP All Import.

For non-standard sources (CSV, XML, Excel, Google Sheets), WP All Import can map fields to any post type and even run custom PHP during import. Add-ons cover ACF, Yoast, and WooCommerce.

It’s a freemium plugin, with the premium version allowing integrations with ACF, Yoast & WooCommerce. To talk through the power of WP All Import is a blog post in itself. However, I can share a common usage.

Say you wish to update all blog posts with new standardised title tags, you can use the companion plugin WP All Export to export all post data.

Then, within Excel or Google Sheets, you can change individual values, and then use WP All Import to import the blog posts back in.

2. How To Handle Bulk Plugin Updates On A WordPress Website

Of course, behind the scenes – and one of the most common tasks with WordPress blogs – is making sure that plugins are all up to date.

Keeping plugins up to date is a crucial task in keeping your site secure and running smoothly. Thankfully, if you only have one site, it’s very easy to do a bulk update.

Log in to your WordPress site as an administrator, and under Dashboard, there’s a heading entitled “Updates.” Click it to take you to the updates screen.

The WordPress plugin updates with 18 plugins that need updating.Screenshot from WordPress, August 2025

Scroll down a bit, and you should have a list of plugins towards the bottom that need an update. Similarly to the bulk editing, there will be a checkbox next to each element.

Select all checkboxes for the plugins you wish to update (and – in all reality – you’d want to make sure you select all plugins).

Click “Update Plugins,” and then all plugins will be brought up to date!

Your site is unlikely to break even with a large number of backups. However, in the extremely unlikely event the site breaks after updating a bunch of plugins, there are ways to recover, which you can read in the article “How Do You Resolve A Plugin Conflict.” Go to the log files and deactivate the plugin via FTP.

Alternatively, here are a few other techniques to do bulk updates successfully:

  • Update in small batches (e.g. split by functionality, or by letter). Update, reload key pages, then move on.
  • Back up and test on staging before production.
  • If you use a maintenance dashboard like ManageWP, run Safe Updates (it creates a restore point, runs the updates, visually compares pages, and rolls back if something looks wrong).
  • WordPress Command Line Interface (WP-CLI) lets you preview or update plugins individually:
    • Preview: wp plugin update yoast-seo --dry-run
    • Update one: wp plugin update yoast-seo
    • Update all (use with care): wp plugin update --all

3. How To Handle Bulk Plugin Updates On Multiple WordPress Websites

That’s all fine for one WordPress site. However, if you are managing multiple WordPress sites, then it can be a bit time-consuming to handle plugin updates on multiple WordPress sites.

Thankfully, I covered this in a previous article, “How to manage multiple websites on WordPress.”

In that article, I shared a number of WordPress maintenance dashboard services that exist, which will allow you to log in and update multiple WordPress sites from one singular location.

Here are some of the most popular:

Although each of these platforms has premium offerings that vary with cost and features, they also offer plugin and theme updates for free.

I use ManageWP, so once you connect your site to ManageWP, you should see a dashboard with the number of plugin updates you need to do spread over a number of sites. Simply click “Update All” to update all plugins on all installations. Alternatively you can tick the checkboxes and “Update” to select individual plugins to install.

The ManageWP DashboardScreenshot from WordPress, August 2025.

You can also filter by sites and severity of updates within ManageWP. There is a premium option to do a “safe” update, which will allow you to run an update, check the site, and roll back if anything breaks.

There’s a good selection of ways to carry out bulk updates within WordPress. There are also command-like tools like WP CLI (mentioned above) to build scripts to run on sites. However, that is worth an article in itself.

To bulk update all plugins in WP CLI, you can use this command:

wp plugin update --all

This will update all plugins on an individual site and you can expand that to a script to run on multiple sites.

WP CLI is so powerful and really should be used for agencies to manage multiple websites quickly and easily.

Wrapping Up: Bulk Updates For A Smooth-Running WordPress Site

WordPress makes it straightforward to handle bulk updates, whether you’re tweaking content, importing products, or keeping plugins in check.

Across the built-in tools and available plugins, there’s a solution for just about every scenario. The key is to test changes in small batches and always keep a backup handy.

With a little prep, you can save hours of manual work and keep your site (or sites) running smoothly and efficiently.

More Resources:

Featured Image: GaudiLab/Shutterstock

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Sep 3 2025
Interaction To Next Paint: 9 Content Management Systems Ranked via @sejournal, @martinibuster

Interaction to Next Paint (INP) is a meaningful Core Web Vitals metric because it represents how quickly a web page responds to user input. It is so important that the HTTPArchive has a comparison of INP across content management systems. The following are the top content management systems ranked by Interaction to Next Paint.

What Is Interaction To Next Paint (INP)?

INP measures how responsive a web page is to user interactions during a visit. Specifically, it measures interaction latency, which is the time between when a user clicks, taps, or presses a key and when the page visually responds.

This is a more accurate measurement of responsiveness than the older metric it replaced, First Input Delay (FID), which only captured the first interaction. INP is more comprehensive because it evaluates all clicks, taps, and key presses on a page and then reports a representative value based on the longest meaningful latency.

The INP score is representative of the page’s responsive performance. For that reason**,** extreme outliers are filtered out of the calculation so that the score reflects typical worst-case responsiveness.

Web pages with poor INP scores create a frustrating user experience that increases the risk of page abandonment. Fast responsiveness enables a smoother experience that supports higher engagement and conversions.

INP Scores Have Three Ratings:

  • Good: Below or at 200 milliseconds
  • Needs Improvement: Above 200 milliseconds and below or at 500 milliseconds
  • Poor: Above 500 milliseconds

Content Management System INP Champions

The latest Interaction to Next Paint (INP) data shows that all major content management systems improved from June to July, but only by incremental improvements.

Joomla posted the largest gain with a 1.12% increase in sites achieving a good score. WordPress followed with a 0.88% increase in the number of sites posting a good score, while Wix and Drupal improved by 0.70% and 0.64%.

Duda and Squarespace also improved, though by smaller margins of 0.46% and 0.22%. Even small percentage changes can reflect real improvements in how users experience responsiveness on these platforms, so it’s encouraging that every publishing platform in this comparison is improving.

CMS INP Ranking By Monthly Improvement

  1. Joomla: +1.12%
  2. WordPress: +0.88%
  3. Wix: +0.70%
  4. Drupal: +0.64%
  5. Duda: +0.46%
  6. Squarespace: +0.22%

Which CMS Has The Best INP Scores?

Month-to-month improvement shows who is doing better, but that’s not the same as which CMS is doing the best. The July INP results show a different ranking order of content management systems when viewed by overall INP scores.

Squarespace leads with 96.07% of sites achieving a good INP score, followed by Duda at 93.81%. This is a big difference from the Core Web Vitals rankings, where Duda is consistently ranked number one. When it comes to arguably the most important Core Web Vital metric, Squarespace takes the lead as the number one ranked CMS for Interaction to Next Paint.

Wix and WordPress are ranked in the middle with 87.52% and 86.77% of sites showing a good INP score, while Drupal, with a score of 86.14%, is ranked in fifth place, just a fraction behind WordPress.

Ranking in sixth place in this comparison is Joomla, trailing the other five with a score of 84.47%. That score is not so bad considering that it’s only two to three percent behind Wix and WordPress.

CMS INP Rankings for July 2025

  1. Squarespace – 96.07%
  2. Duda: 93.81%
  3. Wix: 87.52%
  4. WordPress: 86.77%
  5. Drupal: 86.14%
  6. Joomla: 84.47%

These rankings show that even platforms that lag in INP performance, like Joomla, are still improving, and it could be that Joomla’s performance may best the other platforms in the future if it keeps up its improvement.

In contrast, Squarespace, which already performs well, posted the smallest gain. This indicates that performance improvement is uneven, with systems advancing at different speeds. Nevertheless, the latest Interaction to Next Paint (INP) data shows that all six content management systems in this comparison improved from June to July. That upward performance trend is a positive sign for publishers.

What About Shopify’s INP Performance?

Shopify has strong Core Web Vitals performance, but how well does it compare to these six content management systems? This might seem like an unfair comparison because shopping platforms require features, images, and videos that can slow a page down. But Duda, Squarespace, and Wix offer ecommerce solutions, so it’s actually a fair and reasonable comparison.

We see that the rankings change when Shopify is added to the INP comparison:

Shopify Versus Everyone

  1. Squarespace: 96.07%
  2. Duda: 93.81%
  3. Shopify: 89.58%
  4. Wix: 87.52%
  5. WordPress: 86.77%
  6. Drupal: 86.14%
  7. Joomla: 84.47%

Shopify is ranked number three. Now look at what happens when we compare the three shopping platforms against each other:

Top Ranked Shopping Platforms By INP

  1. BigCommerce: 95.29%
  2. Shopify: 89.58%
  3. WooCommerce: 87.99%

BigCommerce is the number-one-ranked shopping platform for the important INP metric among the three in this comparison.

Lastly, we compare the INP performance scores for all the platforms together, leading to a surprising comparison.

CMS And Shopping Platforms Comparison

  1. Squarespace: 96.07%
  2. BigCommerce: 95.29%
  3. Duda: 93.81%
  4. Shopify: 89.58%
  5. WooCommerce: 87.99%
  6. Wix: 87.52%
  7. WordPress: 86.77%
  8. Drupal: 86.14%
  9. Joomla: 84.47%

All three ecommerce platforms feature in the top five rankings of content management systems, which is remarkable because of the resource-intensive demands of ecommerce websites. WooCommerce, a WordPress-based shopping platform, ranks in position five, but it’s so close to Wix that they are virtually tied for position five.

Takeaways

INP measures the responsiveness of a web page, making it a meaningful indicator of user experience. The latest data shows that while every CMS is improving, Squarespace, BigCommerce, and Duda outperform all other content platforms in this comparison by meaningful margins.

All of the platforms in this comparison show high percentages of good INP scores. The number four-ranked Shopify is only 6.49 percentage points behind the top-ranked Squarespace, and 84.47% of the sites published with the bottom-ranked Joomla show a good INP score. These results show that all platforms are delivering a quality experience for users

View the results here (must be logged into a Google account to view).

Featured Image by Shutterstock/Roman Samborskyi

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Aug 29 2025
Why WooCommerce Slows Down (& How to Fix It With the Right Server Stack)

This post was sponsored by Cloudways. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own.

Wondering why your rankings may be declining?

Just discovered your WooCommerce site has slow load times?

A slow WooCommerce site doesn’t just cost you conversions. It affects search visibility, backend performance, and customer trust.

Whether you’re a developer running your own stack or an agency managing dozens of client stores, understanding how WooCommerce performance scales under load is now considered table stakes.

Today, many WordPress sites are far more dynamic, meaning many things are happening at the same time:

  • Stores run real-time sales.
  • LMS platforms track user progress.
  • Membership sites deliver highly personalized content.

Every action a user takes, from logging in, updating a cart, or initiating checkout, relies on live data from the server. These requests cannot be cached.

Tools like Varnish or CDNs can help with public pages such as the homepage or product listings. But once someone logs in to their account or interacts with their session, caching no longer helps. Each request must be processed in real time.

This article breaks down why that happens and what kind of server setup is helping stores stay fast, stable, and ready to grow.

Why Do WooCommerce Stores Slow Down?

WooCommerce often performs well on the surface. But as traffic grows and users start interacting with the site, speed issues begin to show. These are the most common reasons why stores slow down under pressure:

1. PHP: It Struggles With High User Activity

WooCommerce depends on PHP to process dynamic actions such as cart updates, coupon logic, and checkout steps. Traditional stacks using Apache for PHP handling are slower and less efficient.

Modern environments use PHP-FPM, which improves execution speed and handles more users at once without delays.

2. A Full Database: It Becomes A Bottleneck

Order creation, cart activity, and user actions generate a high number of database writes. During busy times like flash sales, new merchandise arrivals, or course launches, the database struggles to keep up.

Platforms that support optimized query execution and better indexing handle these spikes more smoothly.

3. Caching Issues: Object Caching Is Missing Or Poorly Configured

Without proper object caching, WooCommerce queries the database repeatedly for the same information. That includes product data, imagery, cart contents, and user sessions.

Solutions that include built-in Redis support help move this data to memory, reducing server load and improving site speed.

4. Concurrency Limits Affect Performance During Spikes

Most hosting stacks today, including Apache-based ones, perform well for a wide range of WordPress and WooCommerce sites. They handle typical traffic reliably and have powered many successful stores.

As traffic increases and more users log in and interact with the site at the same time, the load on the server begins to grow. Architecture starts to play a bigger role at that point.

Stacks built on NGINX with event-driven processing can manage higher concurrency more efficiently, especially during unanticipated traffic spikes.

Rather than replacing what already works, this approach extends the performance ceiling for stores that are becoming more dynamic and need consistent responsiveness under heavier load.

5. Your WordPress Admin Slows Down During Sales Seasons

During busy periods like seasonal sales campaigns or new stock availability, stores can often slow down for the team managing the site, too. The WordPress dashboard takes longer to load, which means publishing products, managing orders, or editing pages also becomes slower.

This slowdown happens because both shoppers and staff are using the site’s resources at the same time, and the server has to handle all those requests at once.

Modern stacks reduce this friction by balancing frontend and backend resources more effectively.

How To Architect A Scalable WordPress Setup For Dynamic Workloads?

WooCommerce stores today are built for more than stable traffic. Customers are logging in, updating their carts, taking actions to manage their subscription profile, and as a result, are interacting with your backend in real time.

The traditional WordPress setup, which is primarily designed for static content, cannot handle that kind of demand.

Here’s how a typical setup compares to one built for performance and scale:

Component Basic Setup         Scalable Setup
Web Server Apache NGINX
PHP Handler mod_php or CGI PHP-FPM
Object Caching None or database transients Redis with Object Cache Pro
Scheduled Tasks WP-Cron System cron job
Caching CDN or full-page caching only Layered caching, including object cache
.htaccess Handling Built-in with Apache Manual rewrite rules in NGINX config
Concurrency Handling Limited Event-based, memory-efficient server

How To Manually Setup A Performance-Ready & Scalable WooCommerce Stack

Don’t have bandwidth? Try the easy way.

If you’re setting up your own server or tuning an existing one, are the most important components to get right:

1) Use NGINX For Static File Performance

NGINX is often used as a high-performance web server for handling static files and managing concurrent requests efficiently. It is well suited for stores expecting high traffic or looking to fine-tune their infrastructure for speed.

Unlike Apache, NGINX does not use .htaccess files. Rewrite rules, such as permalinks, redirects, and trailing slashes, need to be added manually to the server block. For WordPress, these rules are well-documented and only need to be set once during setup.

This approach gives more control at the server level and can be helpful for teams building out their own environment or optimizing for scale.

2) Enable PHP-FPM For Faster Request Handling

PHP-FPM separates PHP processing from the web server. It gives you more control over memory and CPU usage. Tune values like pm.max_children and pm.max_requests based on your server size to prevent overload during high activity.

3) Install Redis With Object Cache Pro

Redis allows WooCommerce to store frequently used data in memory. This includes cart contents, user sessions, and product metadata.

Pair this with Object Cache Pro to compress cache objects, reduce database load, and improve site responsiveness under load.

4) Replace WP-Cron With A System-Level Cron Job

By default, WordPress checks for scheduled tasks whenever someone visits your site. That includes sending emails, clearing inventory, and syncing data. If you have steady traffic, it works. If not, things get delayed.

You can avoid that by turning off WP-Cron. Just add define(‘DISABLE_WP_CRON’, true); to your wp-config.php file. Then, set up a real cron job at the server level to run wp-cron.php every minute. This keeps those tasks running on time without depending on visitors.

5) Add Rewrite Rules Manually For NGINX

NGINX doesn’t use .htaccess. That means you’ll need to define URL rules directly in the server block.

This includes things like permalinks, redirects, and static file handling. It’s a one-time setup, and most of the rules you need are already available from trusted WordPress documentation. Once you add them, everything works just like it would on Apache.

A Few Tradeoffs To Keep In Mind

This kind of setup brings a real speed boost. But there are some technical changes to keep in mind.

  • NGINX won’t read .htaccess. All rewrites and redirects need to be added manually.
  • WordPress Multisite may need extra tweaks, especially if you’re using subdirectory mode.
  • Security settings like IP bans or rate limits should be handled at the server level, not through plugins.

Most developers won’t find these issues difficult to work with. But if you’re using a modern platform, much of it is already taken care of.

You don’t need overly complex infrastructure to make WooCommerce fast; just a stack that aligns with how modern, dynamic stores operate today.

Next, we’ll look at how that kind of stack performs under traffic, with benchmarks that show what actually changes when the server is built for dynamic sites.

What Happens When You Switch To An Optimized Stack?

Not all performance challenges come from code or plugins. As stores grow and user interactions increase, the type of workload becomes more important, especially when handling live sessions from logged-in users.

To better understand how different environments respond to this kind of activity, Koddr.io ran an independent benchmark comparing two common production setups:

  • A hybrid stack using Apache and NGINX.
  • A stack built on NGINX with PHP-FPM, Redis, and object caching.

Both setups were fully optimized and included tuned components like PHP-FPM and Redis. The purpose of the benchmark was to observe how each performs under specific, real-world conditions.

The tests focused on uncached activity from WooCommerce and LearnDash, where logged-in users trigger dynamic server responses.

In these scenarios, the optimized stack showed higher throughput and consistency during peak loads. This highlights the value of having infrastructure tailored for dynamic, high-concurrency traffic, depending on the use case.

WooCommerce Runs Faster Under Load

One test simulated 80 users checking out at the same time. The difference was clear:

Scenario Hybrid Stack Optimized Stack Gain
WooCommerce Checkout 3,035 actions 4,809 actions +58%
Screenshot from Koddr.io, August 2025

LMS Platforms Benefit Even More

For LearnDash course browsing—a write-heavy and uncached task, the optimized stack completed 85% more requests:

Scenario Hybrid Stack Optimized Stack Gain
LearnDash Course List View 13,459 actions 25,031 actions +85%

This shows how optimized stacks handle personalized or dynamic content more efficiently. These types of requests can’t be cached, so the server’s raw efficiency becomes critical.

Screenshot from Koddr.io, August 2025

Backend Speed Improves, Too

The optimized stack wasn’t just faster for customers. It also made the WordPress admin area more responsive:

  • WordPress login times improved by up to 31%.
  • Publish actions ran 20% faster, even with high traffic.

This means your team can concurrently manage products, update pages, and respond to sales in real time, without delays or timeouts.

It Handles More Without Relying On Caching

When Koddr turned off Varnish, the hybrid stack experienced a 71% drop in performance. This shows how effectively it handles cached traffic. The optimized stack dropped just 7%, which highlights its ability to maintain speed even during uncached, logged-in sessions.

Both setups have their strengths, but for stores with real-time user activity, reducing reliance on caching can make a measurable difference.

Stack Type With Caching Without Caching Drop
Hybrid Stack 654,000 actions 184,000 actions -7%
Optimized Stack 619,000 actions 572,000 actions -7%
Screenshot from Koddr.io, August 2025

Why This Matters?

Static pages are easy to optimize. But WooCommerce stores deal with real-time traffic. Cart updates, login sessions, and checkouts all require live processing. Caching cannot help once a user has signed in.

The Koddr.io results show how an optimized server stack:

  • Reduces CPU spikes during traffic surges.
  • Keeps the backend responsive for your team.
  • Delivers more stable speed for logged-in users.
  • Helps scale without complex performance workarounds.

These are the kinds of changes that power newer stacks purpose-built for dynamic workloads like Cloudways Lightning, built for real WooCommerce workloads.

Core Web Vitals Aren’t Just About The Frontend

You can optimize every image. Minify every line of code. Switch to a faster theme. But your Core Web Vitals score will still suffer if the server can’t respond quickly.

That’s what happens when logged-in users interact with WooCommerce or LMS sites.

When a customer hits “Add to Cart,” caching is out of the picture. The server has to process the request live. That’s where TTFB (Time to First Byte) becomes a real problem.

Slow server response means Google waits longer to start rendering the page. And that delay directly affects your Largest Contentful Paint and Interaction to Next Paint metrics.

Frontend tuning gets you part of the way. But if the backend is slow, your scores won’t improve. Especially for logged-in experiences.

Real optimization starts at the server.

How Agencies Are Skipping The Manual Work

Every developer has a checklist for WooCommerce performance. Use NGINX. Set up Redis. Replace WP-Cron. Add a WAF. Test under load. Keep tuning.

But not every team has the bandwidth to maintain all of it.

That’s why more agencies are using pre-optimized stacks that include these upgrades by default. Cloudways Lightning, a managed stack based on NGINX + PHP-FPM, designed for dynamic workloads is a good example of that.

It’s not just about speed. It’s also about backend stability during high traffic. Admin logins stay fast. Product updates don’t hang. Orders keep flowing.

Joe Lackner, founder of Celsius LLC, shared what changed for them:

“Moving our WordPress workloads to the new Cloudways stack has been a game-changer. The console admin experience is snappier, page load times have improved by +20%, and once again Cloudways has proven to be way ahead of the game in terms of reliability and cost-to-performance value at this price point.”

This is what agencies are looking for. A way to scale without getting dragged into infrastructure management every time traffic picks up.

Final Takeaway

WooCommerce performance is no longer just about homepage load speed.

Your site handles real-time activity from both customers and your team. Once a user logs in or reaches checkout, caching no longer applies. Each action hits the server directly.

If the infrastructure isn’t optimized, site speed drops, sales suffer, and backend work slows down.

The foundations matter. A stack that’s built for high concurrency and uncached traffic keeps things fast across the board. That includes cart updates, admin changes, and product publishing.

For teams who don’t want to manage server tuning manually, options like Cloudways Lightning deliver a faster, simpler path to performance at scale.

Use promo code “SUMMER305” and get 30% off for 5 months + 15 free migrations. Signup Now!

⚡ Power Up My WooCommerce Store

Image Credits

Featured Image: Image by Cloudways. Used with permission.

In-Post Images: Images by Cloudways. Used with permission.

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
May 22 2025
CMS Market Share Trends: Top Content Management Systems (May 2025) via @sejournal, @theshelleywalsh

WordPress has dominated the content management system (CMS) space since launching in 2003, and while it’s still the leader, the market is shifting in ways worth paying attention to.

As of May 2025, WordPress powers 43.5% of websites surveyed and holds a 61.2% share among sites that use a CMS, according to W3Techs. That’s still a commanding lead, but down nearly four percentage points from its 2022 peak.

For the first time in its 20-year reign, WordPress’s market share has shown a sustained decline, and competitors like Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify are quietly chipping away at its dominance.

At the same time, the share of websites not using any CMS has dropped from 32.3% in 2023 to 28.9% in 2025, showing continued adoption of managed platforms and hosted builders.

In this report, we’ll break down the current CMS landscape, compare major platforms, and explore what these shifts mean for SEO professionals and digital marketers.

How Large Is The CMS Market?

According to W3Techs, 71.1% of websites have a CMS, and Netcraft reports just under 200 million live websites.

From this, we can assume that the current market size for content management systems is approximately 143.5 million websites.

Top 10 CMS By Market Share (Globally), May 2025

CMS (as of May 2025) Launched Type Market Share Usage
No CMS 28.9%
1 WordPress 2003 Open source 61.2% 43.5%
2 Shopify 2006 SaaS 6.7% 4.7%
3 Wix 2006 SaaS 5.3% 3.87%
4 Squarespace 2004 SaaS 3.3% 2.3%
5 Joomla 2005 Open source 2.1% 1.5%
6 Drupal 2001 Open source 1.2% 0.8%
7 Webflow  2013 SaaS 1.2% 0.8%
8 Adobe Systems 2013 Open source 1.1% 0.8%
9 Tilda 2014 SaaS 0.9% 0.7%
10 Duda 2008 SaaS 0.9% 0.7%

Data from W3Techs, May 2025. (WooCommerce and Elementor are not listed in the table above since they’re WordPress plugins and not standalone CMS platforms.)

What Is The Most Widely Used CMS?

Other CMS

*Graphs are separated due to the dominance of the WordPress market share.

WordPress

WordPress has held the dominant market share almost since its launch in 2003.

Between 2014 and 2022, its usage across all websites grew by 105.7% – a surge that helped cement its position as the default choice for much of the web.

However, we’re seeing a market share decline by nearly five percentage points in the last three years.

This marks the first sustained dip in its growth trajectory. It’s a trend that could continue as easier-to-use platforms gain ground and some users report frustrations with plugin compatibility, core updates, and security management.

Read more: Should You Still Use WordPress?

Shopify

As the second-most popular CMS today, and a long way behind WordPress, Shopify market share currently stands at 6.7%

It is used by 4.7% of all websites surveyed.

Wix

Wix continues its slow and steady climb, powering 3.8% of all websites.

Its growth could be attributed to the work they do on branding.

Squarespace

Squarespace has shown steady growth over the past decade, with its CMS market share growing from 0.3% in 2014 to 3.3% in 2025, and usage across all websites rising to 2.3%.

Its growth could be attributed to the increasing demand for low-maintenance, design-forward platforms.

Read more: WordPress Vs. Squarespace – Which One Is Better?

Joomla And Drupal

Joomla and Drupal have seen a steady decline in market share, dropping from the top 3 to positions 5 and 6.

This shift likely reflects a broader trend where more user-friendly, SaaS-based platforms are capturing the attention of small businesses and non-technical users.

No CMS

Between 2024 and May 2025, websites operating without a CMS dropped by 8%, continuing a trend away from custom-coded solutions.

During the same period, websites using WordPress grew by just less than 1%.

The decline in “no CMS” websites signals an ongoing trend toward more structured, manageable platforms for site creation.

No CMS vs WordPress

WordPress Vs. Joomla Vs. Drupal Market Share

Screenshot from W3Techs, May 2025

Since 2024, Joomla has decreased its market share by 16%, while Drupal has declined by 25%.

Together, they once held 14.8% of the CMS market share in 2014 – now that figure sits at just 3.3%.

They’ve slipped from the No. 2 and No. 3 spots to No. 5 and No. 6, overtaken by faster-growing platforms like Wix and Squarespace in 2022.

Joomla, in particular, had strong momentum early on – briefly surpassed WordPress in search interest until around 2008, according to Google Trends – but it hasn’t kept pace with modern platform demands.

Google TrendsScreenshot from Google Trends, May 2025

Why did these popular content management systems decline so much?

It’s most likely due to the strength of third-party support for WordPress with plugins and themes, making it much more accessible.

The growth of website builders, such as Wix and Squarespace, indicates that small businesses want a more straightforward managed solution, and they have started to nibble on market share from the bottom.

Website Builders Market Share: Wix Vs. Squarespace

Screenshot from W3Techs, May 2025

From January to May this year, Wix’s market share grew by 13%, while Squarespace rose by 3.1%.

If we look at the website builders, their growth is a strong indication of where the market might go in the future.

Zooming out, between May 2024 and May 2025, the market share of:

  • Shopify grew by 6.3%.
  • Wix grew by 35.9%.
  • Squarespace grew by 10%.

When we compare the 2.7% market share contraction of WordPress over the last year to the other players, we have to ask, “What’s driving the shift?”

SaaS web builders such as Wix and Squarespace don’t require coding knowledge and offer a hosted website that makes it more accessible for a small business to get a web presence quickly.

No need to arrange a hosting solution, install a website, and set up your own email. A web builder neatly does all this for you.

WordPress is not known as a complicated platform to use, but it does require some coding knowledge and an understanding of how websites are built.

On the other hand, a website builder is a much easier route to market, without the need to understand what is happening in the back end.

Read more: Wix Changed How Websites Are Built And Why You Should Pay Attention

Elementor

Elementor is the most widely used WordPress page builder, installed on 17.3% of all websites with a known CMS and 12.3% of alls sites surveyed (not shown below) – more than Wix and Squarespace combined – though it functions as a plugin within WordPress, not a standalone CMS.

Screenshot from W3Techs, May 2025

While not a CMS on its own, it’s a major player in shaping how WordPress is used.

However, because it’s a third-party plugin and not a CMS, it isn’t listed in the top 10 CMS above.

If we compare the volume of traffic to the number of CMS, we can see that WordPress is in the golden section, up and to the right, clearly favored by sites with more traffic.

Based on usage among higher-ranked domains, Joomla fits into a niche of fewer installs but more high-traffic sites, indicating that more professional sites are using it.

Squarespace and Wix are to the left and down, highlighting that they are installed on fewer sites with less traffic. It strongly indicates that they are used more by small websites and small businesses.

Elementor bridges the gap between the two and has the weight of the WordPress market share, but is used by sites with less traffic.

The appetite is growing for drag-and-drop, plug-and-play solutions that make having a web presence accessible for anyone. This is the space to watch.

Ecommerce CMS Market Share: WooCommerce Vs. Shopify

Screenshot from W3Techs, May 2025

WooCommerce has a market share of 12.7%, while Shopify has 6.7%.

The ecommerce CMS space echoes a pattern similar to that of website builders.

WooCommerce powers 9% of all existing websites, making it the most widely adopted ecommerce plugin by far.

It doesn’t appear in W3Techs’ top CMS list because it is a WordPress plugin, but it’s a key factor in WordPress’s enduring popularity.

Looking at the distribution, we can see a clear pattern emerge. In comparison to other ecommerce CMS platforms, WooCommerce is dominant.

It has more market share than its competitors combined: Shopify (6.7%) + PrestaShop (0.9%) + OpenCart (0.6%) + Magento (0.5%) = 8.7% market share.

Screenshot from W3Techs, May 2025

Smaller sites might favor WooCommerce, but it has the WordPress platform’s weight for market access and, therefore, more installs, much like Elementor.

Shopify surged during the pandemic, with market share growing by 52.9% from 2020 to 2021 and then 26.9% from 2021 to 2022 – far more than any other platform.

It dipped in 2023 and recovered in 2024. By 2025, it held steady at 6.7%.

Why Does CMS Market Share Matter To Someone Working In SEO?

For SEO professionals, keeping a close eye on CMS market share trends is essential because they influence site architecture, plugin availability, and technical SEO flexibility.

As the market fragments, one-size-fits-all optimization strategies no longer cut it.

WordPress continues to lead, but website builders such as Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify gain traction, indicating where market growth lies, especially for small businesses.

If more SMBs are switching to website builders, understanding the limitations and intricacies of these platforms for SEO could be a competitive advantage.

Shopify now runs on 4.7% of all websites surveyed (not just sites with a CMS) – that’s a potential market of 61 million sites.

With their increasing market share, specializing in Shopify SEO could be a strategic move for an SEO professional.

Wix and Squarespace are growing, too. As more small businesses adopt these platforms, getting fluent in their ecosystems could set you apart in a crowded market.

WordPress might be dominant now, but it’s also where the most competition is. Sometimes, aligning with a more niche CMS can be a strategic move for new client opportunities.

More resources:

All data collected from W3Techs, May 2025, unless otherwise indicated. 

See the W3techs methodology page for where the data is gathered from.

Featured Image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Mar 7 2025
10 Top Converting Landing Pages That Boost Your ROI [With Examples] via @sejournal, @unbounce

This post was sponsored by Unbounce. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own.

Want to increase sign-ups, sales, or demo requests from your landing page?

How can you ensure your landing page is optimized for conversions?

Landing pages can make or break your conversions.

A well-designed landing page doesn’t just look good; it also seamlessly guides visitors toward action, such as signing up, purchasing, or booking a demo.

A high-performing landing page should align with your goals:

  • Capturing leads.
  • Driving sales.
  • Promoting an event.

The best landing page templates are designed with conversion in mind, featuring strategic layouts, persuasive copy, and clear calls to action.

So, let’s look at a few top-performing landing page examples to learn about why they work and how you should implement them.

1 & 2. FreshGoods & Radiant Yoga Studio: Great For A Clear & Compelling Unique Selling Point

The secret to beating the competition is positioning your brand so you’re the only one in your specific space.

How? By honing in on your Unique Value Proposition (UVP):

  • What is the one reason to choose you, your products, or services?
  • Where does your competition fall short?
  • How do you make your UVP stand out?

FreshGoods Landing Page

Landing pageImage by Unbounce, 2025
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Radiant Yoga Landing Page

yoga landing pageImage by Unbounce, 2025
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Why They Work

These conversion-optimized landing page templates effectively highlight a USP throughout the design.

  • A clear and bold headline that immediately communicates the core benefit.
  • The supporting subheadline allows brands to reinforce the core USP message by expanding on the offer in a way that adds clarity without overwhelming visitors.
  • The strategic use of whitespace and strong typography ensures that the USP remains the focal point, making it easy for visitors to grasp the value of the offer at a glance.

How To Recreate These Landing Pages

Step 1: Define Your Unique Selling Proposition

A strong USP makes visitors feel like they’ve found exactly what they need. Instead of blending in with competitors, it positions your brand as the only choice.

  • Ask yourself: What is the one reason customers should choose you over others?
  • Example: FreshGoods & Radiant Yoga Studio’s landing pages showcase a crystal-clear UVP in their messaging and design.

Step 2: Craft a Compelling Headline & Supporting Headline

Your headline is your first impression, so you have to make it count. The supporting headline expands on that core message.

  • Best Practices:
    • Be specific: Instead of “The Best Marketing Tool,” try “Turn Clicks into Customers with AI-Powered Marketing in Minutes.”
    • Reinforce value: “No coding, no guesswork. Just smarter campaigns that drive real revenue.”

Step 3: Address Concerns with Reinforcing & Closing Statements

  • A reinforcing statement builds trust (“Trusted by over 10,000 businesses…”).
  • A closing statement eliminates hesitation (“Every second you wait is a sale you’re losing. Start your free trial now.”)

3 & 4. Vita Health & Orbit SaaS: Great For Hero Images & Visual Storytelling

Before visitors read a single word, visuals will capture their attention and convey meaning.

A strong hero image isn’t just decoration,  it sets the tone, builds trust, and instantly reinforces your message. The right imagery makes your offer feel more tangible, relatable, and desirable.

Vita Health Landing Page

health wearables landing page exampleImage by Unbounce, 2025
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Orbit Flow Landing Page

SaaS landing page example and inspirationImage by Unbounce, 2025
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Why They Work

A landing page’s imagery is a strategic tool that helps communicate your offer, build trust, and nudge visitors toward conversion. Choose visuals that don’t just look good but work hard to sell.

A well-chosen visual:

  • Supports the UVP.
  • Evokes an emotion that drives action
  • Showcases the product, service, or outcome in action
  • Makes the page feel polished, professional, and credible

In addition to the visual, the full landing page benefits from:

  • Strong hero image placement
  • An opportunity to reinforce the messaging conveyed with the hero image throughout the page
  • White space highlights supporting visuals
  • Visual hierarchy guides site visitors down the page to the parts that matter.

How To Recreate These Landing Pages

Step 1: Choose the Right Hero Image

Before visitors read a word, visuals capture attention. A great hero image should:

  • Support the USP
  • Evoke emotion & drive action
  • Showcase the product, service, or outcome

Step 2: Guide the Visitor’s Eye

Strategic use of visuals can nudge visitors toward your CTA:

  • Eye gaze: People follow where others are looking in an image.
  • Angles & positioning: Lines or arrows subtly direct attention to the CTA.
  • Contrast & color: Key elements should stand out.

Step 3: Reinforce Messaging with Supporting Imagery

Don’t rely on just one image. Use:

  • Icons & illustrations
  • Graphs & charts
  • Customer photos & testimonials
  • Short videos or GIFs

Bonus Tip:

Use A/B testing to find the ingredients for maximum impact.

The right image can make or break conversions, so test different options. Some images resonate better with your audience, drive more engagement, or feel more aligned with your brand.

Some elements to test include:

  • People vs. product-focused visuals.
  • Static images vs. motion (GIFs or videos).
  • Close-ups vs. wider perspective shots.
  • Different background colors or lighting.

5 & 6. Serene Vista & Digital Foundry: Great For Clearly Conveying Benefits

Visitors specifically care about what it does for them.

That’s why benefits should take center stage on a conversion-optimized landing page, not just a list of features.

Serene Vista

Travel website landing page inspirationImage by Unbounce, 2025
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The Digital Foundry Landing Page

Marketing agency landing page inspirationImage by Unbounce, 2025
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Why They Work

  • The benefits are concise and audience-focused
  • Each feature section is well-spaced to garner attention
  • Benefits are integrated well into the page structure with the subheadings and images to help visitors scan

How To Recreate These Landing Pages

Step 1: Translate Features into Benefits

  • Feature: “AI-powered keyword research tool”
  • Benefit: “Find high-converting keywords in seconds—no guesswork needed.”

Step 2: Address Pressing Concerns

  • What pain points does your audience face?
  • How does your product solve them better than competitors?

Step 3: Qualify Your Audience

  • Use benefit-driven copy that attracts the right people:
  • Example: “Perfect for fast-growing teams who need to scale without the chaos.”

7 & 8. Revive Aesthetics & Smile Dental: Great For Social Proof That Builds Trust

Not all social proof is created equal.

The best reinforces your UVP, addresses concerns, and speaks directly to your audience.

See what we mean here.

Revive Landing Page

Health and spa landing page inspirationImage by Unbounce, 2025
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Smile Kids Landing Page

Dentist landing page inspirationImage by Unbounce, 2025
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Why These Landing Page Templates Work

  • The headshots paired with the social proof enhance trustworthiness and make a connection with site visitors because they can see themselves in the experiences being described.
  • The rounded shape and contrasting colors make the social proof stand out.
  • Located near the point of conversion.

How To Create This Landing Page

Step 1: Choose the Right Type of Social Proof

  • Customer testimonials & reviews
  • Case studies & success stories
  • Logos of recognizable brands
  • Ratings & review scores
  • Media mentions & awards

Step 2: Strategically Place Social Proof

  • Near the CTA: Reinforces trust before action.
  • Midway down the page: Nudges hesitant visitors.
  • In the hero section: Puts endorsements front and center.

9 & 10. Livewell Lifestyle & Inner Handyman: Great For Turning Interest Into Conversions With Calls To Action

A landing page without a strong CTA is like a roadmap without a destination.

Your CTA is the single most important element that tells visitors what to do next.

And if it’s unclear, compelling, and easy to find, you’ll lose conversions.

A compelling CTA is a combination of copy, design, and placement that removes hesitation and drives action.

Livewell Landing Page

Healthy living landing page exampleImage by Unbounce, 2025
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Inner Handyman Landing Page

Local business landing page and website inspirationImage by Unbounce, 2025
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Why They Work

  • CTAs can be customized to stand out and get attention
  • CTA sizing and positioning make them clear focal points despite having multiple elements on the page. It ensures you get the most conversion power in every pixel
  • The CTA buttons are placed where it matters throughout the page, making sure the page attempts the conversion when and where it matters most

How To Recreate These Landing Pages

Step 1: Craft a Clear, Compelling CTA

A high-converting CTA should be:

  • Action-oriented: “Start Growing Today” vs. “Submit”
  • Benefit-driven: “Unlock Exclusive Access” vs. “Sign Up”
  • Urgent (if appropriate): “Claim Your Spot Today”

Step 2: CTA Placement for Maximum Impact

  • Above the fold: First CTA visible immediately.
  • After key information: CTA follows value explanation.
  • Near social proof or benefits: Reinforces trust.
  • At the end of the page: Captures hesitant visitors.

Step 3: CTA Design That Stands Out

  • Color contrast: The CTA should pop from the background.
  • Size & positioning: Large enough to be noticeable but not overwhelming.
  • Whitespace & directional cues: Ensures the CTA is the focal point.

Bonus Tip:

A/B test your CTAs for better conversions.

CTAs aren’t one-size-fits-all. Even small tweaks can make a huge impact on conversions, so A/B testing different variations is essential:

  • Wording – Try “Get Started” vs. “Try It Free”
  • Color – A bold button color vs. a softer, branded one
  • Placement – Above the fold vs. midway down the page
  • Size and shape – Larger buttons vs. compact ones
  • Personalization – “Start My Free Trial” vs. “Start Your Free Trial”

Build High-Converting Landing Pages Faster

A great landing page isn’t just about design.

It’s about strategy.

Every element, from your USP and hero images to your social proof and CTAs, is critical in guiding visitors toward conversion. When these elements work together, your landing page drives action.

But building a high-converting landing page from scratch can be time-consuming and complex. That’s why using proven, conversion-optimized templates can give you a head start.

With Unbounce, you get access to 100+ professionally designed landing page templates built for maximum conversions. Whether capturing leads, promoting a product, or running a campaign, these templates help you launch faster, test smarter, and convert better—without needing a developer.

Ready to build an optimized landing page that converts?

Explore Unbounce’s best-performing templates and start optimizing today!

Get  25% Off The 1st 3 Months!

Image Credits

Featured Image: Image by Shutterstock. Used with permission.

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Feb 19 2025
How To Create a Certified Fast Website To Compete In 2025

This post was sponsored by Bluehost. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own.

Imagine clicking on a website only to wait several seconds for it to load.

Frustrating, right?

Your prospective customers think so, too.

In a world where attention spans are shrinking, even a one-second delay can lead to lost visitors, lower rankings, and missed revenue opportunities.

Research finds that B2C websites that load in one second or less have conversion rates three times higher than those that load in five seconds or more.

Conversion rates are 2.5 times higher for B2C websites that load in one second or less.

In other words, speed is no longer a luxury.

Speed is a necessity.

A fast-loading website enhances user experience, boosts SEO rankings, and drives higher conversions.

And with search engines and consumer expectations continuing to evolve, businesses must prioritize performance to stay ahead of the competition.

Implementing the right strategies ensures that websites remain fast, competitive, and ready for the demands of 2025.

A trusted partner like Bluehost provides the robust infrastructure, advanced caching mechanisms, and built-in performance enhancements needed to help websites reach peak efficiency.

GET STARTED

1. How To Select The Right Hosting Plan

A website’s performance starts with selecting the right hosting plan. The plan should align with the site’s current and future needs to effectively accommodate growth and traffic fluctuations.

Assess Your Website’s Needs

Before settling on a hosting plan, it’s crucial to evaluate key factors like traffic expectations, content types, and scalability.

For example, websites with heavy multimedia content require more resources than text-based sites, and anticipated visitor numbers influence server capacity needs.

Additionally, selecting a plan that supports future growth ensures smooth scaling without performance bottlenecks.

Match Your Website’s Needs To What The Host Provides

Different hosting solutions cater to different website requirements, ranging from budget-friendly shared hosting to more robust, performance-driven plans. Bluehost offers multiple hosting options tailored to various business needs.

Shared Hosting can work well for smaller websites with moderate traffic, offering a cost-effective way to get started.

Bluehost’s VPS hosting offers more power and flexibility by providing dedicated resources, making it an excellent choice for growing websites that need additional performance.

For large-scale websites demanding maximum speed and control, our dedicated hosting plans deliver exclusive server access with top-tier performance for optimal speed and scalability.

2. Implement Caching Mechanisms

Caching is an essential tool for optimizing website speed by reducing the need to load the same data repeatedly. By storing frequently accessed files, caching decreases server load, enhances response times, and ensures visitors experience faster page loads.

Websites that effectively utilize caching experience better performance, lower bounce rates, and improved search rankings.

Use Built-In Caching Features

For instance, Bluehost provides multiple caching mechanisms to enhance website performance, such as PHP APC (Alternative PHP Cache). A powerful opcode caching system, PHP APC improves database query speed and optimizes PHP script execution, ensuring that frequently accessed data is retrieved faster.

On the other hand, edge caching minimizes latency by delivering content from servers closest to the user, reducing server response times and improving load speeds.

Bluehost makes it easy to use caching to enhance website speed. Caching can be enabled directly through the Bluehost control panel, ensuring seamless implementation.

Additionally, Bluehost is powered by Dell rack-mount servers, which use AMD EPYC chips, DDR5 RAM, and ultrafast NVMe storage. With caching plugins like W3 Total Cache or WP Rocket, your web pages will load faster, improving the user experience, SEO, traffic, and conversion rates.

3. Absolutely Leverage Content Delivery Networks (CDNs)

Another way to speed up websites is to examine how content is delivered to users. A Content Delivery Network (CDN) enhances website performance by distributing content across multiple servers worldwide. This reduces latency and ensures visitors load pages faster, regardless of location.

CDNs minimize the physical distance between the server and the user by caching static assets like images, stylesheets, and scripts at various data centers worldwide. This results in load times and reduced bandwidth usage.

Beyond speed improvements, CDNs also enhance website security by protecting against DDoS attacks, traffic spikes, and malicious bots. Some CDNs offer additional features, such as image optimization, automated compression, and firewall rules, that further improve performance and security.

CDNs & Bluehost

Bluehost offers built-in CDN solutions, including Cloudflare integration, to help websites achieve optimal performance and security.

Activating a CDN through Bluehost’s dashboard is straightforward, and configuring settings that best suit a website’s needs significantly improves speed and reliability.

4. Optimize Images & Media

Impact of Media Files on Load Times

Large images and unoptimized videos can significantly slow down a website. Why? High-resolution media files require more bandwidth and processing power, leading to slower page loads and a poorer user experience.

This is particularly problematic for mobile users and those with slower internet connections since heavy media files can take significantly longer to load, frustrating visitors and increasing bounce rates.

Additionally, media files that are not optimized can consume excessive server resources, potentially affecting overall website performance. If too many large files are loaded simultaneously, the hosting environment can strain, causing slowdowns for all users.

Image- and media-based slowdowns are widespread on websites that rely heavily on visual content, such as e-commerce platforms, portfolios, and media-heavy blogs.

Reducing file sizes, choosing appropriate formats, and leveraging compression techniques can greatly enhance website speed while maintaining visual quality.

How To Size Images The Right Way

First, while it may be common and easy to do, avoid using the width and height attributes in HTML to resize images since this forces the browser to scale the image, increasing load times and decreasing performance.

Instead, resize images before uploading them using graphic editing tools such as Photoshop, GIMP, or online compression services. Scaling images improperly can lead to pixelation and a stretched appearance, negatively impacting user experience.

By resizing images to their intended display size before uploading, websites can significantly reduce the amount of data a browser needs to process, resulting in faster page loads and a more visually appealing layout.

Appropriately resized images will also have a higher visual quality because they are sized for the right display dimensions.

How To Compress Images For Better Website Performance

Compressing images using tools like Squoosh, TinyPNG, or plugins like Smush helps reduce file sizes without sacrificing quality.

Implementing lazy loading ensures that off-screen images and videos only load when needed, reducing initial load times and enhancing overall site performance.

5. Minimize Plugins & External Scripts

How To Discover Your Plugins’ Usage

Overloading a website with excessive plugins and external scripts can severely impact performance. Therefore, it’s essential to regularly assess installed plugins and remove outdated, redundant, or unnecessary ones.

Limiting the number of external scripts running on a page can also help reduce loading times and improve efficiency.

How To Choose Efficient Plugins

Selecting the right plugins is crucial for maintaining website performance. First, look for lightweight, well-coded plugins that prioritize speed and efficiency.

Then, regularly auditing your plugins and removing outdated or redundant ones can prevent conflicts and minimize resource usage.

Bluehost provides hosting environments tailored for WordPress users, ensuring compatibility with essential caching, security, and SEO plugins.

By hosting your website on a reliable platform like Bluehost, you can benefit from a stable infrastructure that complements the best WordPress plugins. This will help you enhance functionality without compromising speed.

6. Tips For Compression, Minification & Technical Tweaks

Additional technical optimizations, in addition to caching and CDNs, can further improve site speed and performance. Compression and minification techniques help reduce file sizes, while other backend optimizations ensure web pages load efficiently.

Implementing these strategies can significantly improve desktop and mobile user experiences.

Benefits Of Compression

Reducing the size of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files significantly improves page speed. Compressed files require less bandwidth and load faster, creating a smoother user experience.

Effortless Compression & Technical Optimization With Bluehost

Bluehost makes compression easy. GZIP compression can be enabled via Bluehost’s control panel or by modifying the .htaccess file.

Plugins like Autoptimize help minify code by removing unnecessary characters, ensuring that files remain lightweight and optimized for performance.

Utilizing ETags & Expires Headers

Another important aspect of page speed optimization involves using ETags and expired headers, which help streamline browser requests and improve overall efficiency.

These settings instruct a visitor’s browser on how to handle cached content, preventing unnecessary reloads and reducing the number of requests made to the server.

ETags (Entity Tags) are used by browsers to determine whether cached resources have been modified since the last visit. If the content remains unchanged, the browser loads the local copy instead of downloading it again, minimizing bandwidth usage and speeding up load times.

On the other hand, expired headers specify a timeframe for when specific resources should be refreshed.

By setting an appropriate expiration date for static files like images, CSS, and JavaScript, web developers can ensure that repeat visitors are not unnecessarily reloading content that has not changed.

For example, a website logo that remains consistent across pages can be cached efficiently so that users do not have to download it every time they navigate the site.

Properly configuring these settings enhances website performance, particularly for sites with recurring visitors. It prevents redundant data transfers and reduces the workload on the browser and server.

Many hosting providers, including Bluehost, offer tools and support to help website owners implement these optimizations effectively. This ensures a faster and more seamless user experience.

7. Regularly Monitor & Execute Maintenance

Practice Continuous Performance Assessment

Technology changes and slows down. Websites are no exception.

Therefore, websites should undergo regular performance assessments to ensure they’re continually optimized for the best user experience.

Routine speed testing helps identify areas where performance can be improved, whether by addressing slow-loading elements, optimizing server response times, or refining backend processes.

Various tools can assist in performance evaluation. Google PageSpeed Insights, for example, provides detailed reports on website speed and offers specific recommendations for improvements.

Lighthouse, a Google open-source tool, analyzes performance, accessibility, and SEO, helping site owners fine-tune their pages.

Beyond automated tools, ongoing monitoring through website analytics platforms, such as Google Analytics, can offer valuable insights into user behavior.

High bounce rates and low engagement metrics may indicate slow performance, guiding further refinements.

Businesses running ecommerce platforms or large applications should consider integrating application performance monitoring (APM) tools to track performance bottlenecks in real time.

Maintenance Tips

Regular updates to website software, regardless of the platform used, are essential for security and performance.

Content management systems (CMS) like WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal require frequent updates to core files, themes, and plugins to prevent compatibility issues and vulnerabilities. Similarly, frameworks and libraries for custom-built sites must be kept up to date to ensure efficiency and security.

Database optimization is another crucial maintenance task. Over time, databases accumulate redundant data, slowing down query execution.

Periodic optimizations, such as removing unused tables, cleaning up post revisions, and properly indexing databases, can enhance efficiency.

Server maintenance is equally important. Websites hosted on dedicated or VPS servers should have automated backups, uptime monitoring, and log analysis configured.

Cloud-based hosting solutions like Bluehost Cloud provide performance-tracking tools that can help identify and mitigate slowdowns at the infrastructure level, a 100% uptime SLA, and more to ensure websites run smoothly.

Lastly, implementing a proactive security strategy ensures ongoing performance stability. Regular malware scans, security patches, and SSL certificate renewals help prevent vulnerabilities that could slow down or compromise a website.

Security plugins and firewalls, such as Cloudflare, add an extra layer of protection while minimizing unwanted traffic that could strain server resources.

That’s what makes Bluehost the superior choice. We offer automated backups, performance monitoring tools, and dedicated 24/7 support professionals who can help keep your website running at peak efficiency.

And with a range of hosting plans tailored to different needs, Bluehost ensures that your website will remain fast, secure, and scalable as it grows.

Building a certified fast website in 2025 requires strategic hosting, caching, content delivery, and ongoing maintenance.

Leveraging Bluehost’s robust hosting plans, integrated CDN, and performance optimization tools ensures your website remains fast, competitive, and ready for the evolving digital landscape.

Bluehost’s hosting solutions provide an easy and reliable way to optimize performance.

GET STARTED WITH BLUEHOST TODAY

Image Credits

Featured Image: Image by Bluehost. Used with permission.

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Jan 27 2025
Should You Still Use WordPress? via @sejournal, @alexmoss

The last year has been quite eventful within the WordPress ecosystem, marked by discussions and disputes that have prompted some to question the long-term sustainability of the platform and consider exploring alternative solutions.

However, when you dive deeper into these concerns, they pale in comparison to WordPress’s enduring strengths as a product and its unmatched versatility in the CMS space.

Market Share Is Sustained

The first version of WordPress was released on May 27, 2003. Its unique architecture, combined with it being open source, saw a surge in popularity – now dominating (as of December 2024) 43.7% of the CMS market share.

This growth has also been steady despite the emergence of other CMSs including Shopify, Wix and Squarespace. But none of these are open-source.

Not “Just Another” CMS

WordPress’ unique architecture, which allows plugin and theme extendibility, combined with the power of open-source, means it can scale far beyond the blogging platform it was originally.

This means themes could be built for end-users without them having to necessarily understand HTML or CSS and plugins made by third-party developers that could extend and scale the core platform in limitless ways.

Over the years, I’ve built so much with WordPress, including forums, job boards, educational and learning-based portals, ecommerce sites, communities, comparison engines, and scaled themes.

Our clients have ranged from people performing small side hustles and launching startups to managing hundreds of installs on a custom-built server for scaling sites for different global regions and building custom APIs using WordPress to scale activity.

No other CMS provides this flexibility – with any alternatives only doing so with a huge cost and technical debt.

Extendibility [Mostly] Without Limits

While I’ve been involved in building many things with WordPress, the concept of third-party plugins paved the way for trusted extendability within the CMS.

The emergence of free and premium plugins in the WordPress ecosystem has created its own niche, with over 59,000 free plugins available within the official directory – and this does not include the thousands of plugins available away from the repo.

When I discovered WordPress in 2009, I realized it wasn’t just a blogging platform – and, more importantly, it was the most cooperative to SEO best standards. I published my first of numerous plugins in October 2010.

In 2013, I co-founded an agency with WordPress development as one of its core offerings where we have worked on thousands of WordPress sites. Whenever we received an inquiry or pitched for anything to build, WordPress was always the CMS that provided the best solution.

It’s also so easy to get started with WordPress, and I advise anyone who wants to extend their knowledge to do so through experimentation (I talked about it at BrightonSEO a couple of months ago)

A Truly Passionate Community

Another reason I loved WordPress was when I discovered that the community’s massive support helped the CMS progress.

Like the SEO community, the WordPress community is extremely engaging and supportive, not just to help solve issues and help develop the CMS overall, but also there’s a lot of support for people’s professional and personal development.

Away from the extensive resources that WordPress provides through its documentation and forums, the WordPress community thrives all year round through its WordCamp meetups worldwide and participates in other communities, including WordPress chat and PostStatus. There are also numerous podcast series to follow, including Do the Woo, WP Product Talk, and WP Builds.

This community is extremely supportive and resilient to changes, which in turn helps the development of WordPress core, which has been instrumental in shaping the future of website creation, production, and improvement.

The community also gives back in ways I haven’t seen in other verticals.

You Own Your Site And Data

You’d think this would be obvious, but it isn’t. Remember, WordPress is open source. Not only does this mean that the core product is completely free and supported by the community, as already mentioned, but it is also your property.

To now compare this to Shopify, Wix, and Squarespace – these other CMS platforms own your site!

While people may believe there are inherent risks with WordPress, I’d ask you what would happen to your site if, for example, Shopify were to close business tomorrow.

The answer is simple – your site would cease to exist. Then what? If WordPress were to stop development forever from today, you’d still be in the same position and still have your website, content, and data – all of it. What do the other CMSs offer?

As another layer of freedom and risk mitigation, the choice of using WordPress as a CMS is also independent of where you choose to host it.

If for whatever reason you want to migrate your site from one host to another you have the freedom to do so whereas closed source platforms not only own the website you produce with them, but also the server where it resides.

Do The Recent WP ‘Disagreements’ Present A Risk To WordPress?

TLDR – no. The situation does not affect the functionality of WordPress as a CMS. WordPress remains a stable, reliable, and widely used platform, with no indication that its long-term sustainability is at risk. The CMS itself is unaffected and continues to thrive. If you want to read more about the current discussions and disagreements impacting WP leadership, you can read articles such as this and this to gain more insight.

Other Options?

Still skeptical about WordPress? OK, what are your other options?

While other CMS platforms can perhaps be a good alternative to a “standard informational site”, or a site that has no customization requirements at all from the normal out-of-the-box functionality (which eventually happens for every site that starts to scale in any way), you have to make very informed decisions about whether it’s actually worth it – and what the problem is that you believe you’re solving.

Some questions I’d ask myself:

  • Is the CMS open source? If not, what do I own?
  • Is there a strong form of community and support?
  • Does it play nicely with third-party connections and APIs you intend to use?
  • Can you scale the site in the way you want?
  • Can you truly control output on the front end?
  • Does it adhere to SEO best practices?

If any of the answers above are a “no” then you need to understand the risks of those issues before considering any migration, as you may find that the risks of the alternative outweigh anything that WordPress would.

A couple of months ago, I decided to research several open-source CMSs to see if any other platform could compete with WordPress and its capabilities. Unsurprisingly, nothing came close.

TL;DR

WordPress is here to stay and is still the CMS I’d advise in 99% of cases.

It’s safe, supported, robust, future-proof, and open source.

Whilst other CMS platforms can offer some solutions to smaller or simpler sites, I am yet to be truly convinced that they pose any considerable risk to their future or their role in the future of websites.

More resources: 

Featured Image: Krakenimages.com/Shutterstock

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Jan 7 2025
Wix Vs. WordPress: Which Is Better For SEO? via @sejournal, @AdamHeitzman

Wix and WordPress are both solid options for building a website that ranks on Google – but which one is actually better for SEO and why?

According to BuiltWith, WordPress dominates the market with over 34 million websites and controls 44% of the content management system (CMS) market. Wix runs just over 8 million sites with an 11% market share.

But here’s the thing: These platforms aren’t as different as you might think.

Wix is built as an all-in-one solution. You get your hosting, build your website, and manage everything in one place.

You can connect all your SEO tools like Google Analytics and Search Console, link your social media, and handle email lists right from one dashboard.

For small business owners, especially those who aren’t super technical, this setup makes a lot of sense.

WordPress works differently. As an open-source CMS, it lets you build your site exactly how you want. You get complete control over your site structure, theme, and content – but you’ll need to find your own hosting provider.

While WordPress isn’t going anywhere as the market leader, Wix keeps getting better.

In this guide, we’ll break down the pros and cons of both platforms for SEO, and help you figure out which one makes the most sense for your website.

Why Wix Deserves A Second Look

Remember when WordPress was the only real choice for SEO? Those days are gone. New website builders have changed the game, and Wix should be a major consideration.

Wix started out as just an easy way to build good-looking websites. Tech-savvy users usually passed it by because they wanted more control over their sites. But that’s changed in a big way over the last few years.

Wix has been rolling out serious improvements, with a lot of focus on SEO tools. Here’s what they’ve added:

  • Custom URL Control: You can now change your URL structure however you want, add or remove prefixes, and create flat URLs that look clean and professional.
  • Smart Sitemap Management: The platform automatically updates sitemaps when you set up 301 redirects or change canonical tags.
  • Real-Time Tracking: You can see how search engines interact with your site through Bot Traffic reports that show you activity over time and by page.
  • AI-Powered SEO Help: Its new assistant analyzes your pages and suggests specific improvements.
  • Built-In Structured Data: Product pages and blog posts automatically get the right markup to help you show up in rich results.
  • Server Side Rendering: This helps search engines read and index your content more effectively.
  • Developer Tools: The Velo API lets developers customize things on the technical side.
  • SEO Checklist: A built-in guide helps you optimize your site step by step.

Back in the day, you’d need a bunch of different tools to handle all this. Getting accurate reports was especially tricky. Having everything built into Wix makes life much easier.

The Drawbacks Of Wix For SEO

Of course, Wix isn’t perfect. Here are the main SEO drawbacks from customers:

  • Code bloat is still a problem, which can slow down your pages.
  • Even with recent updates, you’re still somewhat limited in how much you can customize your site’s structure. Plus, since hosting and building are tied together, moving your site elsewhere can be a headache.
  • Some developers aren’t happy with Wix Studio, its new platform for high-end projects. One Reddit user recently called it “completely unreliable.”

The Argument For WordPress

WordPress started by making it relatively easy to build a website. Its open-source nature means it’s theoretically getting better thanks to its huge community of developers.

While the basic platform is free, you’ll probably need to pay for some plugins to get modern features.

These plugins are how you’ll handle most of your SEO work. WordPress also has more users than any other platform, which means more help is available when you need it.

The WordPress SEO Challenges

WordPress isn’t without its problems:

  • Plugins don’t always play nice together. While Yoast SEO might be the most popular tool, there are tons of options – and they can conflict with each other and cause issues.
  • Like any plugin, security vulnerabilities can pop up, and updates sometimes break other parts of your site.
  • Some people think WordPress has lost touch with what publishers need, pointing to bloated code in themes and plugins that make it harder to score well on Core Web Vitals.

That said, the huge number of available plugins is still a major plus. New ones come out daily, making it possible to build highly optimized sites.

Check out Search Engine Journal’s WordPress SEO guide for more details.

Head-To-Head Comparison

Both platforms nail the SEO basics. You get:

  • Title tags and meta descriptions.
  • All the heading tags you need (H1-H6).
  • XML sitemaps.
  • Alt tags for images.
  • 301 redirects.
  • No-index options.
  • Schema markup.
  • Mobile-friendly designs.
  • Easy connection to Google Search Console, Analytics, and Bing Webmaster Tools.

The real differences show up when you need more advanced SEO features. That’s where WordPress’s flexibility gives it the edge.

But, for many small businesses that just need the basics, either platform will do the job.

Making SEO Work

Both platforms have their own way of handling SEO tasks you’ll need to tackle:

Content Management

While WordPress gives you more control over your content structure with custom post types and taxonomies, Wix makes it simple with built-in blog and product page tools that come pre-optimized.

Both platforms handle the basics well – like meta descriptions, title tags, and image optimization.

Speed And Mobile

WordPress lets you fine-tune your site’s performance through hosting choices and optimization plugins.

Wix handles this differently, with built-in mobile optimization and automatic speed improvements, though you have less control over the technical details.

Ecommerce SEO

If you’re selling online, both platforms can handle product schema and category structure.

WordPress + WooCommerce gives you more flexibility but requires more setup, while Wix’s e-commerce tools come ready to go with built-in SEO features.

Wix Vs. WordPress: The Verdict

Wix has come a long way. Many old complaints about lack of control don’t hold up anymore, and their basic SEO setup rivals WordPress.

For small businesses and online stores, Wix might be exactly what you need.

As Google’s John Mueller put it:

 “Wix is fine for SEO. A few years back, it was pretty bad, but they’ve made fantastic progress. The old reputation lingers, but don’t let that sway you. They’ve done great work recently, including making it easy to have a fast site. If Wix works for you and meets your needs, there’s no reason to switch.”

Your choice really comes down to what matters most for your business. If you need deep customization and complete control over your website’s technical setup, WordPress is your best bet.

But if you want a simpler path to getting online while still maintaining strong SEO capabilities, Wix could be perfect – especially with its all-in-one approach that handles the technical details for you.

More Resources:

Featured Image: TierneyMJ/Shutterstock

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Dec 18 2024
10 Hosting Trends Agencies Should Watch In 2025

This post was sponsored by Bluehost. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own.

Which hosting service is best for agencies?

How do I uncover what will be best for my clients in 2025?

What features should my hosting service have in 2025?

Hosting has evolved well beyond keeping websites online.

Hosting providers must align their services to meet clients’ technological needs and keep up with constantly changing technological advances.

Today, quality hosting companies must focus on speed, security, and scalability. Staying ahead of hosting trends is critical to maintaining competitive offerings, optimizing workflows, and meeting client demands.

So, what should you watch for in 2025?

The next 12 months promise significant shifts in hosting technologies, with advancements in AI, automation, security, and sustainability leading the way.

Understanding and leveraging these trends enables agencies and professionals to provide better client experiences, streamline operations, and reduce the negative effects of future industry changes.

Trend 1: Enhanced AI & Automation Implemented In Hosting

AI and automation are already transforming hosting, making it smarter and more efficient for service providers, agencies, brands, and end-point customers alike.

Hosting providers now leverage AI to optimize server performance, predict maintenance needs, and even supplement customer support with AI-driven features like chatbots.

As a result, automating routine tasks such as backups, updates, and resource scaling reduces downtime and the need for manual intervention. These innovations are game-changing for those managing multiple client sites and will become increasingly important in 2025.

It only makes sense.

Automated systems free up valuable time, allowing you more time to focus on strategic growth instead of tedious maintenance tasks. AI-powered insights can also identify performance bottlenecks, enabling you to address issues before they impact your website or those of your clients.

Agencies that adopt these technologies this year will not only deliver exceptional service but also be able to position themselves as forward-thinking.

Bluehost embraces automation with features like automated backups, one-click updates, and a centralized dashboard for easy site management. These tools streamline workflows, enabling agencies and professionals to manage multiple sites with minimal effort while ensuring optimal performance.

Trend 2: Multi-Cloud & Hybrid Cloud Solutions Are Now Essential

In 2025, as businesses demand more flexibility and reliability from their online infrastructure, multi-cloud and hybrid cloud solutions will become essential in the hosting world.

These approaches offer the best of both worlds:

  • The ability to leverage multiple cloud providers for redundancy and performance.
  • The option to combine public and private cloud environments for greater control and customization.

For agencies managing diverse client needs, multi-cloud and hybrid cloud strategies provide the scalability and adaptability required to meet modern demands. Multi-cloud solutions allow agencies to distribute their clients’ workloads across multiple cloud providers, ensuring that no single point of failure disrupts their operations.

This feature is particularly valuable for agencies with high-traffic websites, where downtime or slow performance can have a significant impact on revenue and user experience. Hybrid cloud solutions, on the other hand, let agencies blend the scalability of public clouds with the security and control of private cloud environments.

This service is ideal for clients with sensitive data or compliance requirements, such as ecommerce or healthcare businesses.

Bluehost Cloud provides scalable infrastructure and tools that enable agencies to customize hosting solutions to fit their clients’ unique requirements. Our cloud hosting solution’s elastic architecture ensures that websites can handle sudden traffic spikes without compromising speed or reliability.

Additionally, our intuitive management dashboard allows agencies to easily monitor and allocate resources across their client portfolio, making it simple to implement tailored solutions for varying workloads.

By adopting multi-cloud and hybrid cloud strategies, agencies can offer their clients enhanced performance, improved redundancy, and greater control over their hosting environments.

With our scalable solutions and robust toolset, agencies can confidently deliver hosting that grows with their clients’ businesses while maintaining consistent quality and reliability. This flexibility not only meets today’s hosting demands but also helps position your agency for long-term success in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.

Trend 3: Edge Computing & CDNs Replace AMP For Improving Website Speed

As online audiences grow, the demand for faster, more responsive websites has never been higher. Edge computing and Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) are at the forefront of this evolution, enabling websites to reduce latency significantly. For agencies managing clients with diverse and international audiences, these technologies are crucial for improving user experience and ensuring website performance remains competitive.

Edge computing brings data processing closer to the end user by leveraging servers located at the “edge” of a network, reducing the time it takes for information to travel.

Combined with CDNs that cache website content on servers worldwide, these technologies ensure faster load times, smoother navigation, and better performance metrics.

These features are especially beneficial for media-heavy or high-traffic websites, where even a slight delay can impact engagement and conversions.

Bluehost integrates with leading CDN solutions to deliver content quickly and efficiently to users across the globe. By leveraging a CDN, Bluehost ensures that websites load faster regardless of a visitor’s location, enhancing user experience and SEO performance.

This integration simplifies the optimization of site speed for agencies with multiple clients. By adopting edge computing and CDN technology, you can help your clients achieve faster load times, improved site stability, and higher customer satisfaction.

Bluehost’s seamless CDN integration enables you to deliver a hosting solution that meets the expectations of a modern, global audience while building trust and loyalty with your clients.

Trend 4: Core Web Vitals & SEO Hosting Features Make Or Break Websites

Core Web Vitals play an important role in today’s SEO, as Google is increasingly emphasizing website performance and user experience in its ranking algorithms. Today, loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability impact a site’s ability to rank well in search results and keep visitors engaged.

That means optimizing Core Web Vitals isn’t just an SEO task for agencies managing client websites. Fast load times and responsive design are critical parts of delivering a high-quality digital experience. For example, metrics like Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), which measures how quickly a page’s main content loads, depend heavily on hosting infrastructure.

Agencies need hosting solutions optimized for these metrics to ensure their clients’ sites stay competitive in the SERPs.

Bluehost offers a WordPress-optimized hosting environment with features specifically designed to improve load times and server response speeds. From advanced caching technology to robust server architecture, Bluehost ensures that sites meet Core Web Vitals standards with ease.

Additionally, our hosting solutions include tools for monitoring site performance, allowing agencies to proactively address any issues that could impact rankings or user experience.

By prioritizing Core Web Vitals and leveraging SEO-focused hosting features, agencies can enhance their clients’ visibility, engagement, and overall online success. With Bluehost’s optimized hosting solutions, you’ll have the tools and infrastructure needed to deliver fast, stable, and high-performing websites that delight users and search engines.

Trend 5: Sustainable Hosting Practices Help Reduce Energy Consumption

Sustainability is no longer just a buzzword. It’s a key consideration for businesses and agencies alike. As 2025 progresses, more clients will prioritize environmentally conscious practices, and hosting providers will step up to offer greener solutions, such as energy-efficient data centers and carbon offset programs.

Migrating to a sustainable hosting provider not only supports client values but also demonstrates a commitment to responsible business practices, which will resonate more with consumers in 2025 than ever before.

Efficient hosting practices reduce energy consumption and create a more sustainable digital ecosystem. It will also allow you to help clients meet their environmental goals without compromising on performance.

These benefits are especially valuable for clients with higher energy and performance demands, such as those in ecommerce, media-heavy, or high-traffic industries.

Bluehost has long been recognized as a trusted hosting provider that operates with efficiency in mind.

Our robust, energy-efficient infrastructure already aligns with the sustainability goals of environmentally conscious clients.

In addition, our long-standing reputation, proven history with WordPress, and demonstrable reliability enhance your clients’ sustainability objectives, ensuring they can operate responsibly and confidently.

By choosing sustainable hosting practices and partners like Bluehost, you can contribute to a greener digital future while reinforcing your clients’ environmental commitments and strengthening client relationships by aligning with their values.

Trend 6: Security Must Be A Core Offering

Security is a non-negotiable priority for any website. Cyber threats like data breaches, malware, and DDoS attacks are on the rise, and the consequences of a breach, including lost revenue, damaged reputations, and potential legal issues, can devastate clients. As a result, offering secure hosting solutions with proactive security measures is essential to safeguarding clients’ businesses and building trust.

These key features include SSL certificates, which protect sensitive data while boosting SEO rankings and user trust, and regular malware scans to prevent vulnerabilities.

They should also include automated backups that enable quick restoration in the event of a crash or attack and provide comprehensive protection and peace of mind. Essential security features are standard in Bluehost hosting plans, including SSL certificates, daily automated backups, and proactive malware scanning.

These built-in tools eliminate the need for additional solutions, added complexity, or costs. For agencies, our security features reduce risks for your clients and provide peace of mind.

By choosing a hosting provider like Bluehost, you can prioritize client security, reinforce client trust, and minimize emergencies, allowing you to avoid spending time and resources addressing threats or repairing damage.

In short, by partnering with Bluehost, security becomes a core part of your agency’s value proposition.

Trend 7: Hosting Optimized For AI & Machine Learning Is Key To High Visibility On SERPs

As artificial intelligence and machine learning become increasingly integrated with websites and applications in 2025, hosting providers must keep pace with the increasing demands these technologies place on infrastructure.

AI-driven tools like chatbots, recommendation engines, and predictive analytics require significant computational power and seamless data processing.

AI and machine learning applications often involve handling large datasets, running resource-intensive algorithms, and maintaining real-time responsiveness. Hosting optimized for these needs ensures that websites can perform reliably under heavy workloads, reducing latency and downtime and delivering consistent performance.

If you plan to be successful, you’ll also require scalable scalable hosting solutions. These solutions allow resources to expand dynamically with demand, accommodate growth, and handle traffic surges.

Bluehost’s scalable hosting is built to support advanced tools and applications, making it an ideal choice for agencies working on AI-driven projects. Our robust infrastructure delivers consistent performance, and flexibility allows you to scale easily as your client’s needs evolve. By leveraging Bluehost, agencies can confidently deliver AI-integrated websites that meet modern performance demands.

Trend 8: Managed Hosting Helps You Focus More On Profits

In 2025, websites will become increasingly complex. Businesses will require higher performance and reliability, and everyone will be looking to operate as lean and efficiently as possible. These trends mean managed hosting will become the go-to solution for agencies and their clients.

Managed hosting shifts time-intensive technical maintenance away from agencies and business owners by including features such as automatic updates, performance monitoring, and enhanced security. In short, managed hosting enables you to simplify workflows, save time, and deliver consistent quality to your clients.

These hosting services are particularly valuable for WordPress websites, where regular updates, plugin compatibility checks, and security enhancements occur frequently but are essential to maintaining optimal performance.

Managed hosting also typically includes tools like staging environments, which allow agencies to test changes and updates without risking disruptions to live sites and ensure you can deliver a seamless experience to clients.

Bluehost offers managed WordPress hosting that includes automatic updates, staging environments, and 24/7 expert support. These features allow you to handle technical details efficiently while focusing on delivering results for your clients without added stress or time.

Trend 9: The Shift Toward Decentralized Hosting Boosts Your Brand’s Longevity

In 2025, expect to see decentralized hosting gain attention as a futuristic approach to web hosting. Like Bitcoin and similar advancements, the technology leverages blockchain technology and peer-to-peer networks to create hosting environments that prioritize privacy, resilience, and independence from centralized control.

While this model appears to provide exciting new opportunities, it’s still in the early stages. It faces challenges in scalability, user-friendliness, and widespread adoption, which agencies can’t typically rely on for client sites.

Decentralized hosting may become a viable option for specific use cases, such as privacy-focused projects or highly distributed systems. However, centralized hosting providers still offer the best balance of reliability, scalability, and accessibility for most businesses and agencies today.

For these reasons, agencies managing client websites will continue to focus on proven, reliable hosting solutions that deliver consistent performance and robust support.

So, while decentralized hosting may gain traction this year, Bluehost will continue to provide a trustworthy hosting environment designed to meet the needs of modern websites. With a strong emphasis on reliability, scalability, and user-friendly management tools, we offer a proven solution agencies can depend on to deliver exceptional client results.

Trend 10: Scalable Hosting For High-Growth Websites Is Key For Growth

As businesses grow, their websites will experience increasing traffic and resource demands. High-growth websites, such as e-commerce platforms, content-heavy blogs, or viral marketing campaigns, require hosting solutions that can scale instantly. And scalable hosting is critical to delivering consistent user experiences and avoiding downtime during peak periods.

Scalable hosting like Bluehost ensures your clients’ websites can easily adjust resources like bandwidth, storage, and processing power to meet fluctuating demands. Our scalable hosting solutions are designed for high-growth websites. Our unmetered bandwidth and infrastructure were built to handle traffic surges, ensuring websites remain fast and accessible.

These features make us the ideal choice for agencies looking to future-proof their clients’ hosting needs.

As the digital landscape continues to evolve in 2025, keeping up with the latest trends in hosting is essential for agencies to provide top-tier service, drive client satisfaction, and maintain a competitive edge. From AI and automation to scalability and security, the future of hosting demands flexible, efficient solutions tailored to modern needs.

By understanding and leveraging these trends, you can position your agency as a trusted partner and deliver exceptional results to your clients, whether by adopting managed hosting or integrating CDNs.

Bluehost hosting will meet today’s demands while helping to prepare agencies like yours for tomorrow. With features like 100% uptime guaranteed through our Service Level Agreement (SLA), 24/7 priority support, and built-in tools like SSL certificates, automated backups, and advanced caching, Bluehost offers a robust and reliable hosting environment.

Additionally, Bluehost Cloud makes switching easy and cost-effective with $0 migration costs and credit for remaining contracts, giving you the flexibility to transition seamlessly without the high cost.

Take your agency’s hosting strategy to the next level with Bluehost. Discover how our comprehensive hosting solutions can support your growth, enhance client satisfaction, and keep your business ahead of the curve.

GET STARTED TODAY

Image Credits

Featured Image: Image by Bluehost. Used with permission.

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Dec 13 2024
CMS Market Share Trends: Top Content Management Systems (Nov. 2024) via @sejournal, @theshelleywalsh

WordPress has held the dominant share of the content management systems (CMS) market since it was launched in 2003.

Currently, the popular platform stands at 62.2% market share, according to W3Techs, which offers the most reputable and trustworthy data source. But in the last two years, WordPress has seen it’s market share start to reduce for the first time.

In this report, you’ll learn about the size of the CMS market, how it has evolved over the past decade, how different content management systems stack up against one another, and why this matters for someone working in SEO.

How Large Is The CMS Market?

According to W3Techs, 70.2% of websites have a CMS, and Netcraft reports 1.13 billion live websites.

From this, we can assume that the current market size for content management systems is approximately 793 million websites.

Top 10 CMS By Market Share (Globally)

CMS (as of November 2024) Launched Type Market Share Usage
No CMS 29.8%
1 WordPress 2003 Open source 62.2% 43.7%
2 Shopify 2006 SaaS 6.6% 4.6%
3 Wix 2006 SaaS 4.5% 3.2%
4 Squarespace 2004 SaaS 3.1% 2.2%
5 Joomla 2005 Open source 2.3% 1.6%
6 Drupal 2001 Open source 1.3% 0.9%
7 Adobe Systems (Adobe Experience Manager) 2013 Open source 1.2% 0.9%
8 Webflow 2013 SaaS 1.1% 0.8%
9 PrestaShop 2008 Open source 1.0% 0.7%
10 Google Systems (Google Sites) 2008 Online application 0.9% 0.6%

Data from W3Techs, November 2024

What Is The Most Widely Used CMS?

*Graphs are separated due to the dominance of the WordPress market share.

  • WordPress’s market share has reduced by nearly 5% in the last two years. This could possibly continue with the issues it has experienced this year.
  • Shopify’s market share took a dip of almost 14% in 2023, but it bounced back and gained some ground this year.
  • Wix’s market share is on the upswing, with just over 3% of all websites using its platform. This could be attributed to the work they do on branding.
  • Joomla and Drupal are seeing a downward trend lately, while Duda is gaining some momentum, which could be attributed to the efforts of leveraging influencers for their webinars.

WordPress has held the dominant market share almost since its launch in 2003.

From 2013 to 2022, it experienced strong growth of 148%. WordPress then peaked at 65.2% market share back in January 2022, but, in the last two years has started to contract by nearly 5%.

Between 2023 and 2024:

  • Websites with no CMS system have declined by nearly 8%.
  • Websites with WordPress have increased by just over 1%.

WordPress Vs. Joomla Vs. Drupal Market Share

WordPress vs. Joomla Vs. DrupalScreenshot from W3 Techs.com, November 2024
  • Since 2023, Joomla has decreased its market share by nearly 15%.
  • Since 2023, Drupal has decreased its market share by nearly 28%.

In 2013, Joomla and Drupal used to hold 15.9% of the CMS market share, but they have slumped to 3.6%.

This decline has seen them drop from positions 2 and 3 to 5 and 6, as Wix and Squarespace have risen and finally superseded them in 2022.

That’s quite a decline for Joomla, which might not have had the same market share as WordPress, but up to 2008, it had more search interest, according to Google Trends.

Screenshot from Google Trends, November 2024

Why did these popular content management systems decline so much?

It’s most likely due to the strength of third-party support for WordPress with plug-ins and themes, making it much more accessible.

The growth of website builders, such as Wix and Squarespace, indicates that small businesses want a more straightforward managed solution. And they have started to nibble on market share from the bottom.

Website Builders Market Share: Wix Vs. Squarespace

Screenshot from W3 Techs.com, November 2024
  • Wix has increased by 18.4% this year, from January to November.
  • Squarespace has increased by 3.3% this year from January to November.

If we look at the website builders, their growth is a strong indication of where the market might go in the future.

From 2023 to 2024:

  • Shopify grew by 15.8%.
  • Wix grew by 25%.
  • Squarespace grew by 3.3%.

When we compare the 5% contraction of WordPress over the last year to the other players, we have to ask, why is that happening?

SaaS web builders such as Wix and Squarespace don’t require coding knowledge and offer a hosted website that makes it more accessible for a small business to get a web presence quickly.

No need to arrange a hosting solution, install a website, and set up your own email. A web builder neatly does all this for you.

WordPress is not known as a complicated platform to use, but it does require some coding knowledge and an understanding of how websites are built.

On the other hand, a website builder is a much easier route to market, without the need to understand what is happening in the back end.

Consider that, during the pandemic, much of the population worked from home, leading to more interest and attention placed on how being online could be a source of income.

Elementor

Elementor is a WordPress-based website builder that has a market share of 16.5% and is used by 11.6% of all websites.

elementorScreenshot from W3 Techs.com, November 2024

It also has significantly more market share than Wix and Squarespace combined.

However, because it’s a third-party plug-in and not a CMS, it isn’t listed in the Top 10 CMS above.

If we compare the volume of traffic to the number of CMS, we can see that WordPress is in the golden section, up and to the right, clearly favored by sites with more traffic.

Joomla fits into a niche of fewer installs but more high-traffic sites, indicating that more professional sites are using it.

Squarespace and Wix are to the left and down, highlighting that they are installed on fewer sites with less traffic.

This is a strong indication that they are used more by small websites and small businesses.

Elementor bridges the gap between the two and has the weight of the WordPress market share, but is used by sites with less traffic.

The appetite is growing for drag-and-drop, plug-and-play solutions that make having a web presence accessible for anyone. This is the space to watch.

Ecommerce CMS Market Share: WooCommerce Vs. Shopify

Screenshot from W3Techs, November 2024
  • WooCommerce has a market share of 13.1%.
  • Shopify has a market share of 6.6%.

The ecommerce CMS space echoes a pattern similar to that of website builders.

Technically, WooCommerce is not a standalone CMS, but a WordPress plug-in – which is why it doesn’t appear in the Top 10 CMS data table.

However, it’s essential to the ecommerce space, so it’s worth considering and mentioning.

9.2% of all existing websites use WooCommerce.

Looking at the distribution, we can see a clear pattern emerge. In comparison to other ecommerce CMS platforms, WooCommere is dominant.

It has more market share than its competitors combined: Magento + OpenCart + PrestaShop + Shopify = 8.8% market share.

Screenshot from W3Techs, November 2024

Smaller sites might favor WooCommerce, but it has the WordPress platform’s weight for market access and, therefore, more installs – much like Elementor.

Shopify has more market share, but the traffic levels are similar to WordPress.

Shopify saw growth during the pandemic, by 52.9% from 2020 to 2021 and then 26.9% from 2021 to 2022 – far more than any other platform. After that, it retracted in 2023, but in 2024 has come back to the same market share as 2022.

Why Does CMS Market Share Matter To Someone Working In SEO?

WordPress retains its dominance in the CMS market share, but website builders such as Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify are on the rise, indicating where market growth lies, especially for small businesses.

If more small businesses are switching to website builders, understanding the limitations and intricacies of these platforms for SEO could be a competitive advantage.

Shopify is installed on 4.6% of all websites (not just sites with a CMS) – a total potential market of 51.98 million websites.

With their increasing market share, specializing in Shopify SEO could be a strategic move for an SEO professional.

Similarly, specializing in Wix and Squarespace is a way to differentiate yourself from the competition.

WordPress might be dominant now, but that also means that many other people are servicing that specific CMS.

Aligning with a more niche CMS can be a strategic move for new client opportunities.

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All data collected from W3Techs, November 2024, unless otherwise indicated.

W3Tech samples its data from the Alexa top 10 million and Tranco top 1 million. Websites with no content or duplicate sites are excluded. Limitations of the data source mean that hosted Tumblr and WordPress.com sites are not included, as the data collection doesn’t count subdomains as more than one site.

Featured Image: Genko Mono/Shutterstock

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