Is WordPress a bad choice for SEO?

Can a WordPress website be successful for organic SEO, or is the code too complex to scale with? At what point is a custom-built website preferred over WordPress with a well-designed theme?

I’ve worked on multiple WordPress sites with great SEO rankings. It’s a solid platform for SEO.

Ahrefs’ blog runs on WordPress. If they trust it for SEO, that says a lot.

Luca said:
Ahrefs’ blog runs on WordPress. If they trust it for SEO, that says a lot.

Are you sure? I checked their tools and didn’t see WordPress in their tech stack.

EvanderJames said:

Luca said:
Ahrefs’ blog runs on WordPress. If they trust it for SEO, that says a lot.

Are you sure? I checked their tools and didn’t see WordPress in their tech stack.

Use Wappalyzer, it will confirm it.

EvanderJames said:

Luca said:
Ahrefs’ blog runs on WordPress. If they trust it for SEO, that says a lot.

Are you sure? I checked their tools and didn’t see WordPress in their tech stack.

Check this URL: https://ahrefs.com/blog/wp-admin.

WordPress is one of the best platforms for SEO. The main problem comes when people overload their sites with plugins and heavy themes.

Quinn said:
WordPress is one of the best platforms for SEO. The main problem comes when people overload their sites with plugins and heavy themes.

The number of plugins doesn’t automatically hurt SEO. I manage sites with 50+ plugins that rank well.

@David
That’s assuming they’re optimized and running on solid hosting.

WordPress is fantastic for SEO if you choose a lightweight, SEO-friendly theme. I use Astra, but I build from the ground up rather than using templates. Also, WP Rocket helps a lot with performance.

Just make sure you can set up XML sitemaps, edit URLs, and manage 301 redirects. Also, register with Google Search Console and Bing—Bing tends to index faster.

I’ve built WordPress sites for over 10 years, some with 40M+ monthly traffic. It scales well if you optimize properly.

Who told you WordPress isn’t good for SEO?

Lachlan said:
Who told you WordPress isn’t good for SEO?

An SEO agency I spoke to said they only build custom-coded sites to control the structure better. They claimed WordPress sites don’t scale well.

@Raymond
That sounds like marketing speak. Google doesn’t care about the backend—it cares about speed, user experience, and relevance.

WordPress can be resource-intensive, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad for SEO. If optimized correctly, it performs just fine.

Darryl said:
WordPress can be resource-intensive, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad for SEO. If optimized correctly, it performs just fine.

Out of the box, WordPress is pretty fast. Performance issues usually come from bloated themes and too many plugins.

SEO is about content and structure. WordPress makes content management easy, which is why it’s a great choice for SEO.

It’s one of the best CMS options for SEO. Maybe not as customizable as a fully custom-coded site, but way ahead of competitors like Joomla.

Some argue that using WordPress creates a footprint that could make it more susceptible to Google updates, but I don’t see much evidence of that.