We get asked this often, so here it is.

WordPress is fine. It’s not the worst CMS. But for clients who want their content cited by AI, it’s the wrong default.

The three problems

1. Bloat. A typical WordPress install ships 500KB–2MB of theme and plugin JavaScript before the first paragraph of content. AI crawlers tolerate it; humans don’t, and Core Web Vitals scores drop.

2. Schema is an afterthought. Most WP SEO plugins emit generic Article or WebPage schema. Getting clean Organization → Service → FAQPage → HowTo nesting that AI extractors can actually use requires custom work that fights the platform.

3. Content extractability. AI crawlers parse the DOM. WordPress themes wrap headings in nested divs, inject author bios mid-article, and break paragraphs into plugin shortcodes. It works visually. It extracts poorly.

What we use instead

Astro for content-led sites. Static-by-default, near-zero JS, MDX for richer posts, and clean semantic HTML out of the box. This site is built on it.

Next.js for app-shaped sites: dashboards, gated content, marketplaces, anything with auth or dynamic personalization.

Both give us total control over the rendered HTML — which is what AI extractors read.