Joost de Valk, the visionary behind the Yoast SEO plugin, ignited a spirited dialogue and stirred some contention with his recent blog entry, which asserted that the necessity of a content management system (CMS) for website publication is becoming increasingly antiquated.
This revelation arose following his migration to a static website powered by Astro, aided by artificial intelligence.
De Valk articulated that, in the contemporary digital landscape, numerous enterprises and individuals require nothing beyond a fundamental static website, rendering CMS solutions superfluous for such rudimentary needs.
While acknowledging that CMS platforms are indispensable for crafting intricate websites, he contended that the complexity that a CMS addresses does not reflect the demands of the majority of online presences:
“Let me be clear: there are real use cases where a CMS earns its complexity. …These aren’t edge cases. They represent a lot of websites.
But they don’t represent most websites. Most websites are a handful of pages and maybe a blog.”
His article presents eight pivotal insights:
- The discourse surrounding website creation has never been confined solely to CMS.
- Yet, the proliferation of CMS options surpasses that of website alternatives.
- A current trend is emerging, favoring a move away from CMS.
- De Valk has aligned himself with this trend, transitioning to Astro.
- Static HTML websites exhibit SEO capabilities comparable to their CMS counterparts.
- Simplicity often surpasses complexity in addressing various needs.
- For complex requirements, CMS remains the optimal choice.
- The relevance of CMS will diminish as AI facilitates content publishing through conversational interfaces.
De Valk elaborated on this final point:
“I built this entire Astro site with AI assistance. The next step, editing content through conversation, is not a big leap. It’s a small one.
…When editing a static site becomes as easy as sending a message, the CMS’s core advantage for the majority of websites disappears.”
For some, envisioning the publication of a website devoid of a CMS may seem daunting, while others argue that WordPress SEO plugins confer a distinct advantage over alternative platforms. However, those seasoned in the SEO arena recognize that static HTML sites often outperform CMS-based counterparts in speed.
Prior to the emergence and viability of WordPress, I utilized bespoke static HTML setups, hand-crafting components, including PHP-based websites. These sites achieved remarkable rankings and effectively managed DDoS-level traffic.
Although I lacked the means to engage with schema-structured data at the time, automating essential elements such as title tags and meta descriptions across a website was a manageable endeavor.
Static HTML websites require no additional plugins for SEO, a notable epiphany that de Valk experienced upon diverting his blog from WordPress.
He remarked:
“I built Yoast SEO, so you’d think this is where a static site falls short. It doesn’t. Everything Yoast SEO does on WordPress, I can do in Astro. XML sitemaps, meta tags, canonical URLs, Open Graph tags, structured data with full JSON-LD schema graphs, auto-generated social share images: it’s all there.
In fact, it’s easier to get right on a static site because you control the entire HTML output. There’s no theme or plugin conflict messing with your head tags. No render-blocking resources injected by something you forgot you installed. What you build is what gets served.
The SEO features that a CMS plugin provides aren’t magic. They’re HTML output. And any modern static site generator can produce that same HTML, often cleaner.”
Indeed, the web pages hosted on de Valk’s blog today occupy a fraction of the size they did when operated through WordPress.
One specific URL analyzed (/healthy-doubt) transitioned from over 1,400 lines of code to a mere 180 lines.
Furthermore, while de Valk did not mention it, the HTML produced by Astro exhibited only eight minor validation issues, starkly contrasting with WordPress, which often reveals hundreds of invalid HTML discrepancies.
Although Google possesses the capability to crawl and index the underlying code of an average WordPress site, invalid HTML contradicts the primary objective of SEO: facilitating effortless crawling, parsing, and comprehension of content by search engines.
Article Provoked Controversy
Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress, offered an intriguing retort:
Glad you’re finally off @WordPress, which was inevitable after your and @karimmarucchi ‘s failed coup attempt. Seems FAIR!
— Matt Mullenweg (@photomatt) March 22, 2026
A myriad of developers offered their rebuttal to Joost’s assertions, while many others concurred with his insights.
Dipak Gajjar (@dipakcgajjar) tweeted:
“A properly configured WordPress site with object cache and a CDN in front is already near-static in terms of delivery. You just get the CMS on top for free.
Good luck @jdevalk convincing a non-technical client to push markdown files to Git just to publish a blog post. WordPress exists because content management is a real problem. Static tools solve the developer experience, not the client experience.”
@cameronjonesweb inquired:
“Hands up who thinks it’s a great idea to make their clients update their website content by committing markdown files to GitHub…”
@andrewhoyer challenged Joost’s stance:
“Blogs would never have become popular without software. Only a tiny fraction of people can edit HTML and CSS by hand. Just because a few of us can doesn’t make static sites a good option.”
However, the backlash was not unilateral; numerous supporters also emerged, lauding Joost’s perspective.
Alex Schneider (@Aslex) concurred, asserting that AI is diminishing barriers to creating and maintaining static websites.
Schneider tweeted:
“Static sites aren’t just for people who know HTML anymore. AI tools already let anyone generate and publish content to static sites with zero coding. And let’s be honest, traditional blogs are dying anyway.”
@LusciousPotate expressed their viewpoint that WordPress is obsolete:
“Constant WordPress updates, constant plug-in updates, constant security issues. It’s old, the tech stack is outdated; it needs to be put out to pasture.”
Is WordPress Still Relevant?
Creating a static site using Astro still necessitates a degree of technical acumen, and at this juncture, it remains far less straightforward than employing WordPress for online publication.
Many hosting platforms facilitate the website creation process with WordPress, incorporating AI features. Upcoming WordPress 7.0 is poised to herald significant transformations, potentially making it even more accessible for anyone to launch a website.
Thus, a compelling argument can be advanced for the persistent relevance of content management systems, particularly WordPress. Nevertheless, it is conceivable that static website generator platforms may usher in a new era in the near future.
Source link: Searchenginejournal.com.
