We wanted to set the record straight and answer the question “how are WPBeginner and Awesome Motive related?” with full transparency because we value the trust our readers (YOU) place in our content recommendations. 

TLDR: WPBeginner is a blog created by our founder, Syed Balkhi, in 2009 to help non-techy users learn WordPress. Later in 2011, Syed founded Awesome Motive as a management company to oversee his various business operations. Awesome Motive is NOT WPBeginner’s parent company.

Syed and his various teams develop products based on the feedback from WPBeginner readers. That’s why we recommend these tools, because they are specifically designed for you.

Over the last 16 years, our team at WPBeginner has helped millions of people learn WordPress, choose the right business tools, and grow their website. 

In this guide, we want to share our behind-the-scenes origin story and more details on why we recommend the products that we do.

Here is a quick overview of what we will cover:

• How Did WPBeginner Start?
• Why Was Awesome Motive Created?
• What is Awesome Motive?
• How WPBeginner and Awesome Motive Work Together
• How Your Feedback Helps Create New Products
• Real Examples: Products You Asked For
• Why WPBeginner Recommends These Products
• The WPBeginner Growth Fund
• How This Relationship Helps You
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
• Additional Resources

How Did WPBeginner Start?

Let’s start at the beginning. Syed Balkhi was a college student at the University of Florida in 2009. He had been using WordPress since 2006 for his own websites and client work.

Syed noticed a big problem. There were no good WordPress guides for beginners. All the tutorials were written by developers for other developers. If you were a regular person who wanted to build a website, you were stuck.

Small business owners and bloggers wanted to use WordPress. But they couldn’t understand the deeply technical / confusing instructions.

Syed thought, “I wish there were a WordPress site that normal people could understand.” So, he decided to make one.

In July 2009, Syed launched WPBeginner from his college apartment at age 19. His goal was simple: help complete beginners succeed with WordPress. Our tagline says it all: “Beginner’s Guide to WordPress.”

People loved it right away. Within months, thousands of people were visiting WPBeginner. They needed WordPress help they could actually understand.

Syed spent hours testing WordPress plugins and themes. He wrote tutorials that explained difficult things in simple words. The site grew because happy readers told their friends about it.

Today, WPBeginner is one of the largest free WordPress resource sites for beginners. Millions of people visit every month, and we have over 3,000 tutorials written by experts.

The mission for our WPBeginner blog has remained the same: help small businesses and regular people succeed with WordPress. You don’t need to be a tech expert to build a great website.

This focus on helping beginners would later shape every product that Syed has built. Every tool, every recommendation, every tutorial comes from wanting to help WordPress beginners win.

Why Was Awesome Motive Created?

By 2011, Syed was running more than just WPBeginner. The success of the WordPress education site led to other business ideas. He was managing several different companies at once.

Here’s the problem: each business needed its own team members. But hiring people for multiple separate companies was getting messy. There was too much paperwork and too many legal hoops to jump through.

Syed needed a simple solution. He wanted one company that could make hiring and expense management simpler. At the time, he didn’t know about EORs or PEOs, so he decided to create his own management company.

The idea came from his college apartment because he knew that the same owners owned multiple properties, and they were using the same management company for those properties.

That’s when Syed created Awesome Motive in 2011. The name came from his girlfriend, Amanda (now his wife). The thought was that everything they do has an “awesome motive” behind it, so the name Awesome Motive was a perfect fit.

Awesome Motive became the management company. It handles the boring business stuff like payroll, hiring, and other administrative things. This lets each individual business focus on what they do best.

WPBeginner kept doing what it always did – creating helpful WordPress content. But now we didn’t have to worry about HR paperwork or other administrative things.

This setup allowed Syed, a 21-year-old entrepreneur, to continue growing his businesses without losing what made them special. Small teams could still move fast and focus on helping customers.

What is Awesome Motive?

Awesome Motive is a technology management company that exists to help smaller product companies created by our founder, Syed Balkhi, to be more nimble and move faster. 

From the outside looking in, it may seem like Awesome Motive is a builder and acquirer of software companies that serve the small business market, with a particular focus on the WordPress ecosystem. However, that’s not an accurate reflection of reality.

A better way to think about it would be a federation of independent companies that choose to work together because it benefits everyone involved. The only thing that’s common is that Syed Balkhi is an investor in each of the companies that are part of Awesome Motive.

This allows each individual company to benefit from economies of scale by working together when it’s mutually beneficial, but they are NOT required to do so. 

For example, WPForms has their own team that decides what features to build. OptinMonster has their own team that focuses on conversion tools. WPConsent has their own team working on a privacy compliance plugin for WordPress.

Awesome Motive helps with things like:

• HR and Finance
• Administrative Tasks

Awesome Motive doesn’t control the product roadmap, marketing strategy, etc., because these decisions are made at the individual product company level by the various co-founders and leaders across different product businesses.

If you’re curious about learning more, we recommend checking out this blog post: Awesome Motive Behind the Scenes – Origin Story and Operating Manual.

How WPBeginner and Awesome Motive Work Together

Here’s the most important thing to understand: WPBeginner came first.

WPBeginner started in 2009, and Awesome Motive started in 2011.

WPBeginner is not owned by Awesome Motive, and WPBeginner is not a division of Awesome Motive. WPBeginner was already successful before Awesome Motive existed.

When Awesome Motive was created, it didn’t change what WPBeginner does. WPBeginner kept the same mission: help WordPress beginners succeed. The same team makes the same kinds of content decisions.

WPBeginner has complete control over what it publishes. The editorial team decides what tutorials to write based on what readers need. They choose what products to recommend based on what actually helps beginners.

The connection between WPBeginner and other Awesome Motive companies is simple: they work together when it helps readers. But they don’t have to work together.

When WPBeginner recommends a tool like WPForms, it’s not because someone told us to do that. It’s because WPForms was built to solve real problems that WPBeginner readers have.

The shared mission across all of Syed’s companies is to help small businesses grow & compete with the big guys. WPBeginner does this by teaching people about WordPress. The software companies do this by building easy-to-use tools for growing your online presence.

This creates natural teamwork without forced partnerships. When WPBeginner readers succeed with WordPress, they often need the kinds of tools that Awesome Motive’s partner software companies make.

We are always transparent about the product connections, and you can see this through the Products nav menu in our website’s header, our brands section in our website’s footer, and the Reader Disclosure page that’s linked on every article.

We also recommend plenty of products from other amazing companies in the WordPress ecosystem when they’re the best choice for your needs. There are over 60,000+ WordPress plugins on the market, and our main mission is to help you succeed by choosing the right solution for your goal.

How Your Feedback Helps Create New Products

The really cool part about WPBeginner is that your comments and questions directly shape which products get built by Syed and his various teams. This is very different from how most blogs or companies work.

Most companies guess what people want. Then they build it and hope people buy it. But Syed listens to what WPBeginner readers actually need. Then he creates tools to solve those exact problems.

WPBeginner gets feedback in many ways:

• Comments on tutorials
• Support questions
• Reader surveys
• Direct emails

When the same problem comes up over and over, our team pays attention and flags it for Syed to review. If hundreds of readers struggle with the same thing, that’s a sign that existing tools aren’t working.

The next step is asking more questions. We might send out a survey to better understand the problem so that Syed can know exactly what’s not working and why.

Once he confirms that many people have the same problem, product development begins. But the focus is always on making tools that beginners can actually use.

This means:

• Simple interfaces that make sense
• Clear instructions written for regular people
• Good customer support
• Fair pricing

During development, WPBeginner readers often get to test early versions. They give feedback on what works and what doesn’t. This makes sure the final product actually solves the problem it was meant to fix.

This is a big key to our success and why over 30 million websites use the WordPress plugins created by our various teams.

As new products help the community, more people engage with WPBeginner. More engagement means more feedback. More feedback leads to even better products.

Real Examples: Products You Asked For

Let’s look at specific examples of products that exist because WPBeginner readers asked for them.

WPForms – The WordPress Form Builder You Requested

In the mid-2010s, Syed sent out a big survey to WPBeginner readers. He wanted to know what tools you needed most.

The top request was clear: an easy form builder for WordPress. At the time, form plugins were either too basic or too complicated. Basic plugins could only make simple contact forms, and advanced plugins required coding skills.

WPBeginner readers wanted something in the middle. Powerful enough for business use, but simple enough for beginners to use without getting frustrated.

Based on this feedback, Syed partnered with Jared Atchison, a well-known WordPress developer, to create WPForms. Every feature was chosen based on what survey respondents said they needed.

The result: a drag-and-drop form builder with over 2,000 templates. It connects to all the popular email and payment services that WPBeginner readers were already using.

Today, over 6 million websites use WPForms. It’s popular because it was built to solve real problems that real people told us about. Check out the free version of WPForms.

MonsterInsights – Making Analytics Simple

Google Analytics is powerful, but WPBeginner readers found it confusing. Comments on analytics tutorials showed that many beginners either found it too confusing to set up analytics in WordPress or couldn’t understand the data at all.

Our readers wanted to see their most important website stats without having to learn Google Analytics’ complicated interface. They wanted simple reports that showed what was working and what wasn’t.

In 2016, Syed agreed to purchase the Google Analytics for WordPress plugin created by Joost de Valk, founder of the popular Yoast SEO plugin, and he rebranded it to MonsterInsights.

Syed partnered with Chris Christoff, a respected WordPress developer, and they completely rebuilt MonsterInsights with our WPBeginner user feedback in mind to create the most beginner-friendly analytics solution. 

Today, over 3 million websites use MonsterInsights. It helps WordPress beginners make smart decisions about their content without needing to become analytics experts.

See MonsterInsights’ origin story for more details.

AIOSEO – WordPress SEO Made Easy

SEO is important for every WordPress site, but unfortunately, popular SEO plugins had stopped innovating. Reader feedback showed that people needed more comprehensive SEO tools that would guide them through best practices.

This is why in 2020, Syed purchased the popular All in One SEO (AIOSEO) plugin from the original developer, Michael Torbert. He then worked with his team, led by Benjamin Rojas, to completely revamp the plugin to add all the features based on our readers’ feedback.

Now, it includes amazing features like local SEO, an internal link assistant, AI tools to help boost SEO, keyword rank tracking, a broken link checker, and so much more.

Today, over 3 million websites use AIOSEO to rank higher on Google and on AI platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and more.

It’s important to highlight that while the AIOSEO plugin was being revamped in early 2020, the WPBeginner site continued to use the Yoast SEO plugin, and we ONLY started recommending AIOSEO to our audience when we felt the plugin met our very high standards.

That’s also when we switched from Yoast to AIOSEO (and we wrote about 18 reasons why).

These examples show a pattern: when you tell us what you need, Syed and our various product teams build the tools to solve those exact problems. Our business success comes from solving real problems, not from guessing what might work.

Why WPBeginner Recommends These Products

Some readers wonder why WPBeginner talks about Awesome Motive products so much. They worry that business relationships influence our recommendations.

Let’s be completely honest about this.

WPBeginner recommends Awesome Motive products for one main reason: they were built to solve problems that WPBeginner readers have. When you build products based on what your audience asks for, those products naturally become the best solutions to recommend.

When we recommend WPForms, it’s not because of business relationships between Syed and Jared. It’s because WPForms was literally built based on feedback from WPBeginner readers about what they needed in a form builder, and it’s also the WordPress form plugin that we use on the WPBeginner site itself.

Our WPBeginner editorial team tests every product we recommend. This testing happens regardless of who makes the product. If a tool doesn’t help WordPress beginners succeed, then we won’t recommend it.

Our main goal is to help you succeed with WordPress. If that means recommending a competitor’s product because it’s better for your specific needs, then that’s what we’ll do.

We also recommend lots of products from companies that have no connection to Awesome Motive or Syed Balkhi. As a matter of fact, the majority of our tutorials recommend products and tools created by other amazing developers in the WordPress community.

The WPBeginner Growth Fund 

Besides building new products, WPBeginner’s connection to the WordPress community also influences investment decisions through the WPBeginner Growth Fund.

The Growth Fund invests in early-stage companies that build tools for small businesses and WordPress users. Unlike typical investors who just want quick profits, the WPBeginner Growth Fund focuses on companies that share our mission of helping beginners succeed.

Investment decisions are heavily influenced by what the WPBeginner community thinks. When readers consistently praise a tool or show strong loyalty to a product, that feedback becomes important in evaluating potential investments.

The MemberPress Investment You Helped Us Make

Our investment in MemberPress is a perfect example. For years, WPBeginner readers consistently said that MemberPress was their favorite tool for creating membership sites and online courses.

This wasn’t based on marketing or feature lists. It was based on real experience from thousands of WordPress users who tried different membership plugins and found MemberPress to be the most beginner-friendly.

When the opportunity came to invest in MemberPress through the Growth Fund, the decision was easy. The WPBeginner community had already proven that MemberPress was valuable through years of positive feedback.

This reader-driven investment approach creates benefits for everyone:

• Successful tools get resources to keep improving.
• Companies stay focused on serving beginners well.
• The WordPress community gets better tools.

The Growth Fund also provides more than just money. Portfolio companies get insights about what WordPress beginners need and access to feedback from WPBeginner’s large audience.

For you, this investment strategy means the tools you already love are more likely to get the resources needed for continued development and improvement.

We’re transparent about these investment relationships, too. All investments are announced on our blog, our socials, as well as our email newsletter. 

To see the full list of our Growth Fund investments, please see this page.

How This Relationship Helps You

The relationship between WPBeginner and Awesome Motive creates real benefits for WordPress beginners and small business owners who use our guides and resources.

Products Made Just for Beginners

The biggest benefit is access to WordPress tools designed specifically with beginners in mind. Every product Syed helps build is based on WPBeginner reader feedback, and they solve the actual problems WordPress beginners face.

When you use recommended tools like SeedProd, Smash Balloon, or Duplicator, you’re using products built with your skill level and needs in mind.

The interfaces make sense to non-technical users. The documentation is written for beginners. And the features focus on what small businesses actually need.

Faster Fixes and New Features

The direct connection between WPBeginner readers and development teams means your feature requests and problem reports often result in faster improvements.

When you tell us about limitations or request enhancements for recommended products, that feedback goes directly to the development teams. This creates accountability for addressing community needs quickly.

Tools That Work Well Together

Because multiple tools are developed with the same audience in mind, they work smoothly together when you need multiple solutions. This integration isn’t forced. You can use individual plugins independently, but they provide extra value when you need multiple capabilities.

For example, if you use WPForms for lead generation, OptinMonster for conversion optimization, and MonsterInsights for tracking results, these tools work together seamlessly without requiring advanced technical knowledge.

Better Tutorials and Support

Last but not least, the biggest benefit is that supporting products created by Syed and our various teams helps keep the lights on for WPBeginner.

It makes it possible for us to provide 100% free training videos and tutorials for everyone.

Over the last 16 years, we have seen many WordPress tutorial sites, news sites, and resources come and go because running a high-quality niche publication is not easy. Most of those publications either failed to attract advertisers or had to completely change their editorial standards that serve advertisers over users.

At WPBeginner, we never have to make that compromise.

The relationship between WPBeginner and Awesome Motive ensures you have access to comprehensive tutorials for free, always. 

Our team also goes above and beyond to help users with free support in our Facebook group as well as through our contact form.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

If you still have some questions about the relationship between WPBeginner and Awesome Motive, we will answer them here.

Is Awesome Motive the parent company of WPBeginner?

No. WPBeginner started in 2009 and was already successful when Awesome Motive was created in 2011 as a management company. WPBeginner came first and maintains its independence.

Why does WPBeginner talk about Awesome Motive products so much?

These tools were built based on what WPBeginner readers asked for, and they were built by the founder of WPBeginner. When products are made to solve problems your audience identified, they naturally become the best solutions to recommend. We also recommend competing products when they’re better for specific needs.

How does reader feedback influence what products get built?

WPBeginner’s large audience provides constant feedback about WordPress challenges through comments, surveys, and support requests. When the same problems come up repeatedly, they inform the development of new products or improvements to existing ones.

Are WPBeginner’s recommendations biased because of business relationships?

WPBeginner puts reader success first and maintains editorial independence. Products are recommended based on their ability to help WordPress beginners succeed. 

What is the WPBeginner Growth Fund?

It’s an investment fund created by Syed Balkhi that supports companies building tools for WordPress users and small businesses. Investment decisions are influenced by community feedback, supporting companies that have already proven valuable to WordPress beginners. The MemberPress investment is an example of this approach.

Does WPBeginner ever recommend products that compete with Awesome Motive tools?

Yes. We regularly recommend products from companies with no relationship to Awesome Motive when those are the best solutions for specific needs. Our main commitment is your success, which sometimes means recommending competing products.

Additional Resources

We hope this article helped you understand the relationship between Awesome Motive and WPBeginner.

You may also want to check out these other helpful guides:

• Awesome Motive Behind the Scenes: Origin Story and Operating Manual
• How Much Money Does WPBeginner Make?
• Premium WordPress plugins created by our various teams
• More details about Syed Balkhi and his entrepreneurial journey

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How are WPBeginner and Awesome Motive Related? (Transparency Update) first appeared on WPBeginner.

You may be wondering if SEO is still worth it in 2025. It’s a valid question, especially when your time and marketing budget are at stake.

At WPBeginner, we’ve been navigating these exact changes firsthand across our own blog and partner sites. And I can tell you with confidence that SEO is far from dead; it has just evolved.

In this guide, I’ll share what’s working for us right now and provide the clear, actionable playbook you need. Let’s start with the quick answer you’re looking for.

To help you navigate this guide, here’s a quick look at all the topics we’ll cover:

• The Direct Answer: Yes, SEO Still Works in 2025 (But the Rules Have Changed)
• What's Actually Changed About SEO
• My Real-World SEO Results: What's Working Right Now
• The 2025 SEO Strategy That Actually Works
• SEO Tactics That Are Dead in 2025 (Stop Doing These)
• The Tools I Use to Stay Ahead of SEO Changes
• What Will SEO Look Like in the Next 2 Years?
• Your Next Steps: 30-60-90 Day SEO Action Plan
• Frequently Asked Questions About SEO in 2025
• Additional Resources for SEO and AI Optimization

The Direct Answer: Yes, SEO Still Works in 2025 (But the Rules Have Changed)

Let’s get this out of the way immediately: Yes, search engine optimization (SEO) is still one of the most effective ways to get traffic to your website in 2025. It is absolutely worth your time and investment.

However, the way we need to approach SEO has changed significantly.

The rise of AI in search means that the old tactics of simply matching keywords are no longer enough. Instead, the focus has shifted from just ranking to being the most helpful and authoritative answer for a user’s problem.

What’s Actually Changed About SEO

The core of SEO remains the same: create great content that people want to link to.

What’s different is how search engines like Google find, understand, and present that content to users.

1. The Rise of AI-Powered Search Results

You’ve likely seen “AI Overviews” (previously called Search Generative Experience or SGE) at the top of Google search results.

These are AI-generated summaries that try to answer a user’s question directly on the results page.

There are also new players in the business, mainly the generative AI chat platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini by Google, Claude, and many more.

All these tools answer user questions directly without sending the user to your website.

The new SEO strategy is to make your content appear in the AI answers, AI overviews, and zero-click search results.

2. User Intent Has Become Even More Important

AI is now much better at understanding the why behind every search query.

It doesn’t just match keywords. Instead, it tries to understand what the person really wants to achieve and what stage of their decision-making they’re in.

For example, if someone searches for “best contact form builder”, AI knows that they’re not just looking for a list of tools. They likely want to compare features, pricing, and ease of setup so that they can quickly choose the right one for their business.

Your content now needs to satisfy that intent deeply. A simple product list or surface-level advice isn’t enough. Instead, you need a detailed, helpful resource that answers the real question and guides users toward a confident decision.

Here are a few more examples of how intent works across different small business types:

• Local business owner: A search for “how to get more local customers” shows a need for practical marketing ideas like Google Business Profile tips, customer reviews, and local SEO checklists.
• Restaurant owner: Someone searching “how to design a restaurant menu” is likely looking for visual examples, layout inspiration, and pricing psychology, not just text-based advice.
• Online store owner: A search like “how to reduce abandoned carts” implies they want proven strategies, such as email reminders or free shipping offers, rather than a generic definition.
• Consultant or service provider: If a user searches “how to price consulting services,” they’re expecting detailed frameworks, pricing examples, and client communication tips, not vague suggestions.

When creating your content, ask yourself:

• What is the user trying to accomplish with this search?
• What details or examples would help them take the next step?
• What format best satisfies that intent — a comparison, tutorial, checklist, or visual guide?

By matching your content to the user’s intent, whether it’s informational, commercial, or action-focused, you make it easier for both AI and users to view your page as the most complete and trustworthy answer.

3. The Technical Foundation Matters More Than Ever

For AI to easily read and understand your content, your site’s technical health is more important than ever. A well-optimized website helps search engines and AI tools interpret your pages correctly and present them to the right audience.

Key technical factors that impact your visibility include:

• WordPress hosting: A reliable hosting provider is essential for building a stable, fast, always available website. Poor hosting performance has a long-term impact on your site’s SEO, credibility, and user experience.
• Site speed: A slow website leads to higher bounce rates and a poor user experience. Use caching plugins, a quality host, and image compression to keep things fast.
• Mobile-friendliness: Most searches happen on mobile devices. Make sure your site layout, fonts, and buttons work perfectly on smaller screens.
• Structured data (schema markup): This helps AI and search engines understand the content of your page. Adding schema can make your content appear in rich results and AI overviews.
• Crawlability: Check that your site’s important pages are indexed and not blocked by robots.txt or noindex tags.

I understand that this might sound a little intimidating, especially for small businesses and DIY users who manage their own websites. But the good news is that you don’t need to be a developer to get this right.

There are simple tools that make technical SEO much easier to handle:

• All in One SEO for WordPress: Helps you add schema markup, generate an llms.txt file, and fix common SEO issues automatically. See our complete All in One SEO review to learn more.
• WP Rocket: Improves site speed with caching, minification, and lazy loading. See our full WP Rocket review for more details.
• Cloudflare: Keeps your website secure and protected from attacks. Even the free plan is enough for the most common threats faced by small business websites.

By maintaining a strong technical foundation, you give your content the best chance to be understood, indexed, and cited by AI tools.

For a step-by-step approach, see our Complete Guide to WordPress SEO.

My Real-World SEO Results: What’s Working Right Now

At WPBeginner, we don’t just write about SEO theory. We are in the trenches every day, testing and adapting our strategies for our own website and our partner companies.

Like most websites, we saw a decline in our search traffic recently. During this time, we have been adapting and testing new things to figure out what works and what doesn’t.

Case Study: How We Adapted Our Content Strategy

We saw the rise of AI in search and made a big shift in our content approach.

Here are some of the major changes we made to adapt to the changing landscape.

• Instead of just writing one-off articles, we focused on improving our “topic clusters“, which are groups of interlinked articles covering a subject from every angle.
• We also revisited our top 100 articles and updated them with FAQ sections, helpful videos, and structured data.
• We proactively applied our Generative Engine Optimization strategy to the articles. This is the strategy we use to optimize content for AI platforms.

Here are the results we have noticed:

• These efforts led to a significant increase in our content being featured in AI Overviews and traditional featured snippets.
• We have also seen a steady increase in traffic coming from ChatGPT and other AI platforms.

Now, let’s get into how we applied these changes so you can try them out.

The 2025 SEO Strategy That Actually Works

Now that I have shared the tools we use, let’s talk about how we use them in our day-to-day SEO strategy.

Here is the four-step process we use that you can follow for your own WordPress site.

Step 1: Audit Your Current SEO Foundation

You can’t fix what you don’t know is broken. Start with a simple audit of your site’s technical health.

• Site Speed: Use Google PageSpeed Insights to run a speed test and check your loading times. This is important because slow sites rank poorly.
• Mobile-Friendliness: Check your site on Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool. Most users are on mobile.
• Crawl Errors: Use Google Search Console to find any pages that Google is having trouble accessing.

Many SEO plugins, including All in One SEO, include a site audit checklist that makes this process much easier.

Step 2: Optimize for AI Search Features

To get your content featured in AI Overviews, you need to make it as easy as possible for AI to understand and trust your page.

That means writing in clear, natural language and structuring your content in a way that’s easy for both humans and AI to read.

Here’s how you can make your content AI-friendly:

• Use simple, direct language: Write short sentences and answer questions clearly so that AI tools can quote or summarize your content accurately.
• Organize with headings and lists: Break your content into clear sections using H2–H4 headings, bullet points, and step-by-step instructions.
• Add schema markup: Use structured data to label your content explicitly. For example:
  • ✅ FAQ schema for question-and-answer sections
  • ✅ HowTo schema for tutorials
  • ✅ Recipe schema for food content
• Add an llms.txt file: AIOSEO makes it easy to create and manage your llms.txt file so that AI crawlers know how to access and cite your content properly.

These small steps help AI models interpret your content accurately, increasing the chances of it appearing in AI-generated answers and summaries.

Step 3: Focus on Topical Authority (E-E-A-T) Over Keyword Density

The days of stuffing a keyword into your page 10 times and ranking for that search term are long gone. Search engines now reward topical authority, which means being a comprehensive expert on a subject.

To do that, you need to apply the E-E-A-T principles to your content strategy:

• Show Real Experience: Add first-hand insights, case studies, and examples from your own use or testing.
• Highlight Expertise: Include detailed, accurate content written or reviewed by knowledgeable authors with visible bios.
• Build Authority: Earn backlinks from trusted sites, feature media mentions, and display trust signals like awards or testimonials.
• Boost Trust: Keep your site secure (HTTPS), update outdated content, and maintain clear About, Contact, and Privacy pages.

Step 4: Double Down on User Experience Signals

User experience, or UX, describes users’ feelings and opinions while using your WordPress website. It is a direct ranking factor used by search engines like Google.

A pleasant user experience means users find your website easy to use and helpful. By contrast, a poor user experience means users find your website difficult to use and can’t do what they want to do.

I have seen countless site owners testing their homepages or landing pages for user experience while completely ignoring their blog posts, contact page, product pages, and so on.

You need to double down on improving the user experience by locating and identifying those gaps and fixing them.

✅ Here are a few quick tips:

• Find Pages with the highest bounce rates: Locate pages with the highest bounce rates in Google Analytics by using MonsterInsights.
• Locate pages with mobile usability issues: Use Google Search Console’s “Mobile Usability” tab to find pages that are not optimized for mobile devices.
• Ask for user feedback: Use tools like UserFeedback to ask visitors what they are looking for or what’s missing from your content. This gives you direct insight into how you can make your site more helpful.

For more details, see our checklist on how to perform a comprehensive UX audit of your site like a pro.

SEO Tactics That Are Dead in 2025 (Stop Doing These)

Part of winning at SEO is knowing what not to do. Here are some outdated tactics that can now hurt your site more than help it.

The Tools I Use to Stay Ahead of SEO Changes

Having the right tools can make all the difference. Here are the ones we use and recommend at WPBeginner to stay competitive.

Essential SEO Toolkit for WordPress in 2025

An SEO plugin is non-negotiable for any WordPress site. It handles the technical details so you can focus on creating great content.

For a detailed comparison, see our guide on the best WordPress SEO plugins compared.

These tools ensure that your site and your content are optimized for the latest SEO strategies, and you never run out of ideas to grow your organic traffic.

Free Tools Every Website Owner Needs

• Google Search Console: Essential for monitoring your site’s health, seeing which keywords you rank for, and submitting sitemaps. See our guide on connecting WordPress to Google Search Console.
• Google Analytics 4: Tracks your website traffic and user behavior. For details, see our tutorial on how to install Google Analytics in WordPress.
• Ahrefs Webmaster Tools: A powerful free tool that audits your site for technical issues and shows you your backlinks.
• Free Keyword Generator: Free keyword research tool that shows 300+ semantically related keywords.
• Blog Post Idea Generator: Generate 100+ content ideas on any given topic to write about.

Premium Tools Worth the Investment

• Semrush: The leading premium tool for keyword research, competitor analysis, and link building.

What Will SEO Look Like in the Next 2 Years?

Looking ahead, I predict that search will become even more of a dialogue. Instead of a single query, users will have conversations with AI to find what they need.

This means your content needs to be structured to answer multiple related questions within a single page. Authority, expertise, and building a trusted brand will become the most important ranking factors of all.

Here are my tips:

• Build topical depth: Cover your niche thoroughly with interconnected articles that establish your authority.
• Focus on conversational intent: Write in a way that anticipates follow-up questions and connects related answers naturally.
• LLM Ready Content: Write logically structured content that is easy to cite.

Your Next Steps: 30-60-90 Day SEO Action Plan

Ready to get started? Here is a simple plan you can follow to improve your SEO over the next three months.

First 30 Days:

• Run a full site audit using AIOSEO and fix any critical technical issues that it finds.
• Identify your 5 most important articles and add FAQ schema to them.

Next 60 Days:

• Revamp your top 10 blog posts with an AI-friendly structure (clear answers, subheadings, lists).
• Add at least 2-4 internal links to each of those posts, connecting them to other relevant content on your site.

Next 90 Days:

• Publish 3 new, comprehensive guides that answer specific, intent-based questions from your audience to build a topic cluster.
• Review your analytics to track ranking improvements and identify what’s working.

Here is a 30-60-90 day SEO action plan in a downloadable visual format:

For more ideas, check out our complete WordPress SEO checklist for beginners.

Frequently Asked Questions About SEO in 2025

The following are the answers to some of the most commonly asked questions about SEO in 2025.

Should I stop doing keyword research?

No, but you should evolve how you do it. Instead of focusing on single, exact-match keywords, focus on the topics and questions your audience is asking. Use keyword research to understand your users’ problems, then create content that solves them completely.

Is link building still important?

Yes, but the quality of links is more important than ever. A single, relevant backlink from a highly trusted website in your industry is worth more than hundreds of links from low-quality directories. Focus on creating link-worthy content and building genuine relationships.

Can I just use AI to write all my SEO content?

While AI can be a helpful assistant for outlines and ideas, relying on it to write entire articles is a risky strategy. Search engines are getting better at detecting purely AI-generated content that lacks real expertise or unique insights. Use AI as a tool, but ensure your content is edited and enriched with your own first-hand experience.

Does SEO still matter if most people use AI search?

Absolutely. AI search tools still rely on trusted web pages to find and cite answers. The stronger your site’s authority and structure, the more likely your content will be featured or cited in AI responses and overviews.

What should I focus on more — technical SEO or content?

You need both. Technical SEO ensures your site is crawlable, fast, and well-structured. Great content builds trust and authority. Think of technical SEO as the foundation, and content as the building — one doesn’t work without the other.

How do I measure SEO success in 2025?

Go beyond rankings. Track metrics like organic traffic growth, conversions, dwell time, and visibility in AI overviews. Tools like MonsterInsights can help you monitor the KPIs that truly reflect your SEO progress.

Additional Resources for SEO and AI Optimization

As you work on improving your site’s SEO in the AI search era, here are some helpful guides that may help you along the way:

• Is AI Content Bad for WordPress SEO? (Expert Insights & Tips)
• How AI is Reshaping SEO: 30+ Trends to Watch in 2025
• How to Write Content Using AI Content Generator in WordPress
• I Tested 7 Best AI Tools for Content Marketing: Here’s What I Found

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post Does SEO Still Work in 2025? (My Expert Insights) first appeared on WPBeginner.

That led him to build WP Activity Log, which grew from a hobby project into Melapress. The company has developed some of WordPress’s most trusted security plugins, including WP Activity Log, WP2FA, and Melapress Login Security.

In this interview, Robert shares how he built his plugin business through organic marketing and community relationships. He also reveals the lessons he learned scaling from solo developer to leading a growing team.

“The difference between the best plugins out there in each category… is always maybe that 10%… we always go that extra step.”

Robert Abela – CEO & Founder of Melapress

Keep reading to learn how Robert Abela built one of the most successful WordPress security plugins on the market.

Video Interview with Robert Abela

If you’d like to check out our complete video interview with Robert Abela, then you can watch it below:

Or you can use the links below to see what we covered in the interview (and more):

• 🙋‍♂️ Meet Robert Abela: Systems Engineer Turned Security Expert
• 🔧 Building WP Activity Log: The Problem That Started Everything
• 🌱 Growing Through Community, Not Marketing Dollars
• 💡 What Makes Plugins Stand Out: Feedback & Going the Extra Mile
• 🚀 Scaling Melapress: Multiple Plugins and a Growing Team
• 🎯 Lessons Learned: What Robert Would Do Differently Today
• 💭 Final Thoughts & Where to Find Robert's Work
• 📚 Bonus: Expert Resources for WordPress Security and Plugin Development

🙋‍♂️ Meet Robert Abela: Systems Engineer Turned Security Expert

Robert Abela didn’t start as a plugin developer or WordPress entrepreneur.

For over a decade, he worked as a systems engineer at software companies, with his final role at Acunetix, a company that developed web security scanning tools.

“Around 13 years ago I quit my corporate job. I always worked for software companies, startups, most of them.”

Robert Abela

But he didn’t leave because he didn’t like the job. It was simply time for a change. His background in software security and systems engineering would prove invaluable for what came next.

When Acunetix needed a blog around 2009, they turned to WordPress. This was Robert’s introduction to the platform that would eventually change his career trajectory.

WordPress security was very different back then, and Robert’s background gave him a unique perspective on the platform’s vulnerabilities.

As a systems engineer, Robert gained exposure to every department within software companies — from marketing and sales to development and R&D.

This cross-functional experience gave him insights into how software businesses actually operate. This knowledge would become crucial when building his own company.

“You get a good understanding of the inner workings of a software company, what should be done and not.”

Robert Abela

After leaving his corporate role, Robert began freelance work cleaning hacked WordPress websites, combining his security expertise with his growing WordPress knowledge.

He didn’t realize it at the time, but this work would help him expose a gap in WordPress security. That gap would later define his entrepreneurial path and lead him to create Melapress.

🔧 Building WP Activity Log: The Problem That Started Everything

Website cleanup work in the early days of WordPress was challenging. Robert found himself constantly dealing with hacked sites, trying to understand what went wrong and how to prevent it from happening again.

That’s how he got the idea for WP Activity Log.

“There was no sort of logging… you need to see what happened before it got hacked. Was the plugin maybe updated? Maybe a user installed something? Maybe a user was created? And yeah, there was nothing like that.”

Robert Abela

This wasn’t just a minor inconvenience. It was a fundamental gap that made security work unnecessarily difficult and time-consuming.

The business side of website cleanup also presented its own challenges.

“It wasn’t very scalable and it was a very difficult job… there were prices like people were cleaning websites for $99, and sometimes it could be a job which takes a couple of days,” Robert explained.

In these early days, Robert was competing with many other cleanup services in a race to the bottom on pricing. It was clear this wasn’t a sustainable long-term business model.

But Robert saw an opportunity to solve the underlying problem rather than just treating the symptoms.

The logging capability that WordPress was missing could help both professionals and site owners understand and prevent security issues.

There was one small problem, though: Robert wasn’t really a developer.

“I’m not a developer per se. I can read and write code but something that I can do in a week and a proper developer can do it properly in one day… It took me a few months playing around and breaking things basically…”

Robert Abela

Despite the learning curve, Robert kept trying. He developed the first version of WP Activity Log as both a solution to his professional needs and a way to learn coding skills.

“It started as a hobby,” Robert said. The first year brought in around $1,000 in revenue, hardly life-changing money, but enough to suggest there was real interest in the solution.

“But yeah, then it’s like, maybe this can happen actually, you know?”

That moment of realization marked the beginning of what would become a six-year transition from hobby project to full-time business.

💥 Related Post: Tobias Bäthge turned a hobby project for his baseball team into TablePress, a WordPress plugin that now powers more than 700K sites. Read the full interview to see how he did it.

🌱 Growing Through Community, Not Marketing Dollars

For the first six years of WP Activity Log’s existence, Robert spent exactly zero dollars on marketing. Instead, he built his user base through authentic community engagement and content creation.

“I never spent a penny on marketing before six years ago. It was all organic and just connections talking to people.”

Robert Abela

His marketing strategy was refreshingly simple: write helpful blog posts, build a newsletter for people interested in WordPress security content, and attend WordPress community events.

When the newsletter went out with security tips and insights, it might include a mention of the plugin at the bottom. But the focus was always on providing value first.

The real turning point came in 2013 when Robert attended the first WordCamp Europe in Leiden. This decision would shape how he thought about building relationships in the WordPress space.

“If I send an email to someone right now who I’ve never met in person… they will ignore you but if you know them you’ve met them in person… it’s different.”

Robert Abela

WordCamps and local WordPress meetups became Robert’s main networking strategy.

The relationships he built at these events led to collaborations, cross-promotion opportunities, and genuine friendships within the WordPress community.

💡 Looking to grow your WordPress community? Check out the events page on WordPress.org.

Beyond the business benefits, these events provided something equally important during the challenging transition years: community and support.

“At meetups and at WordCamps, I met people in the same position as I was. So you could share ideas. We could help each other… It feels a bit less lonely.”

Robert Abela

Building a side business while maintaining full-time work can be isolating.

But seeing other entrepreneurs deal with similar challenges provided both practical insights and emotional support during the long period before WP Activity Log could support Robert full-time.

The organic approach worked, but it required patience. It took several years of consistent content creation, community engagement, and gradual word-of-mouth growth before the plugin gained significant traction.

But this slow build created a solid foundation of users who genuinely valued the product and became advocates for it.

Eventually, WP Activity Log grew into one of the best WordPress activity log and tracking plugins on the market.

💡 What Makes Plugins Stand Out: Feedback & Going the Extra Mile

After years of studying successful WordPress plugins, Robert developed a clear philosophy about what separates the winners from the competition in each category.

“The difference between the best plugins out there in each category and those which follow… is always maybe that 10%… Instead of stopping at 90%, they went up to 95, 96%,” he explained.

It’s not about revolutionary features or completely different approaches.

The top plugins in any category are often similar to their competitors, but they go that extra step in execution, user experience, and support quality.

This philosophy extends far beyond just the software itself. Robert believes exceptional support is often what transforms a good plugin into a market leader.

“Support is really important because you can have the best software in the world. If you don’t have support, slowly, slowly, you start losing customers.”

Robert Abela

Even today, with a team of seven people, Robert still handles support tickets himself.

It’s not because he has to. It’s because staying connected to users provides invaluable insights into how the plugins are actually being used.

“Every morning I like to try just support tickets myself… because I feel that if I don’t do that, I would be segregating myself in my own world,” he said.

This direct connection to users has revealed use cases that Robert never anticipated when first building WP Activity Log.

While he designed it mostly as a security tool for tracking potential breaches, users found creative applications he hadn’t considered.

“You designed your plugin to be used for A, B, and C, but people are using it for A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H… So you get these ideas.”

Robert Abela

For instance, Robert has learned that magazine websites use his plugin to monitor editor productivity and track how many articles writers complete each week.

Online learning platforms have even used it to see which students are completing courses and which are dropping off.

These insights help with feature development and product positioning. Robert uses a simple rule for prioritizing new features based on user feedback.

“If we think 80% of people are going to use it, then we’re going to give it priority. If it’s something that we think only 20% or less… then maybe it gets much lower priority.”

Robert Abela

The combination of exceptional support and user-driven development created strong customer loyalty that would prove very important as Robert prepared to make a major leap.

He decided to transform his side project into Melapress, which is now a full-time business with multiple plugins and a growing team.

🚀 Scaling Melapress: Multiple Plugins and a Growing Team

Once WP Activity Log gained traction, Robert began thinking beyond a single plugin.

Relying on one product for all revenue felt risky — and his security background gave him plenty of ideas for other pain points he could solve.

“I never liked the idea of relying on one plugin as an income source,” he explained. “At least if something happens… it’s good to have a few different products, a few different income streams.”

Robert Abela

The next opportunity came from an internal need.

Robert had started working with guest authors and needed them to use two-factor authentication. But the existing 2FA plugins were built by developers, for developers — not everyday WordPress users.

So, he built his own.

The first version of WP 2FA did the same core job as other 2FA plugins. But it also added a simple setup wizard and smart enforcement policies that made onboarding much easier for non-technical users.

Today, WP2FA is one of the most popular 2FA plugins in the WordPress plugin repository.

☝ Note: We can also vouch for how well the plugin works. In fact, it’s our top recommended method in our tutorial on how to add two-factor authentication in WordPress.

Melapress has since expanded to include other products like Melapress Login Security and Role Editor, with more plugins on the way.

But the approach remains the same: identify a real need, build something better, and test it out.

To support this growth, Robert also began hiring, and he was intentional about the kind of people he brought in.

Whether it’s marketing, testing, design, or development, Robert doesn’t just want execution. He wants collaboration.

“I want people who actually… with whom I can have very very good discussions… People who come in and say, ‘This could be better,’ and bring in ideas I haven’t thought of.”

Robert Abela

That philosophy has helped turn Melapress into a thriving 7-person company — one that’s continuing to grow by listening to users and focusing on quality above all else.

💥 Interested in more lessons from successful WordPress entrepreneurs? Check out our full interview with Nicolas Lecocq, the creator of the OceanWP theme and the founder of DigiHold.

🎯 Lessons Learned: What Robert Would Do Differently Today

Robert’s journey from freelancer to founder didn’t follow a straight line, and that’s exactly what makes it so relatable.

For the first several years, Melapress (originally WP White Security) evolved through experimentation, not long-term strategy.

Plugin ideas were pursued on instinct. Systems were built (and sometimes rebuilt) as the business grew.

That approach worked. But if Robert were starting over today, he says he’d be more intentional.

“I would… plan a bit more, do a bit more… be a bit less impulsive and make more informed decisions.”

Robert Abela

Without clear planning, early decisions sometimes led to technical or business debt that had to be reversed later.

“You end up two, three years later like… now we have to reverse this.”

Still, Robert doesn’t regret the organic path that got him here. In fact, he sees it as a necessary part of learning.

“I never planned it. Everything happened like… let’s try this, it’s working… It wasn’t planned that it would grow to a full-time job, but it did.”

Robert Abela

His experience is a reminder that while planning is important, progress often comes from action. This is especially true when it’s paired with curiosity, user feedback, and consistent effort over time.

💭 Final Thoughts & Where to Find Robert’s Work

Today, Robert runs a growing plugin business, but he hasn’t lost touch with the users who made it possible.

He still checks support messages personally. He still replies to plugin emails. And he still believes that direct contact with customers is what sets great companies apart from the rest.

“Some people sometimes are surprised… they say, ‘I never thought you’d reply.’ Yeah, we do check the emails.”

Robert Abela

That customer-first philosophy has helped Melapress grow from a solo side project into a trusted brand in WordPress security. It’s used by thousands of site owners and supported by a passionate team.

If you’d like to learn more about Robert’s work, you can check out the Melapress website. Or feel free to reach out via their contact page.

🌟 Want to learn more about the state of WordPress security today? Check out the results of the Melapress annual security survey — it’s full of interesting and up-to-date statistics.

📚 Bonus: Expert Resources for WordPress Security and Plugin Development

Want to follow in Robert’s footsteps and build your own successful plugin business?

Whether you’re just starting out or scaling your next product, here are some hand-picked WPBeginner resources to help you grow:

• 🔐 The Ultimate WordPress Security Guide – Learn how to harden your site and avoid common vulnerabilities.
• 🧪 How to Add Your Plugin to the WordPress Plugin Directory – Step-by-step guide for getting your plugin in front of millions.
• 📈 WordPress Career Options – How to Make a Living With WordPress – Explore different ways to turn your skills into income.
• ✍️ How to Learn WordPress for Free (in a Week or Less) – Perfect if you’re just getting started.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post From Cleaning Hacked Sites to Melapress: How Robert Abela Built Security Plugins Trusted by Thousands of Users first appeared on WPBeginner.