What CMOs Want To Ask About Their WordPress Stack

WordPress continues to be the preferred open-source content material administration system (CMS) – by far – powering 43.5 % of all web sites on the net, and nonetheless for my part the most adaptable CMS to work with.

Nevertheless, WordPress isn’t only a plug-and-play CMS. In case you’re within the advertising and marketing staff or the CMO, chances are you’ll end up inheriting and utilizing a WordPress web site that can probably have a less-than-ideal stack setup.

Don’t settle for that that is simply the setup you’ve got. In case your tech stack isn’t aligned accurately, it might straight hinder a few of your individual targets.

Whereas it could appear that it’s best to delegate all technical choices to the event/IT staff, these choices could overrule wider enterprise targets.

As such, it could be time to audit your set up and setup with a view to break away of those stack limitations.

In case you’re a CMO, this publish will cowl the completely different issues when pondering of the optimum WordPress tech stack that additionally aligns with your individual targets.

What A Tech Stack Contains

From a top-level, the WordPress tech stack entails the next:

• Server infrastructure.
• Internet hosting infrastructure.
• Efficiency & caching.
• Safety.
• Dev instruments.
• WordPress layer.
• Monitoring and analytics.
• Backup and restoration.

This may be seen in additional element on this diagram:

Picture created by creator, August 2025

There’s rather a lot to contemplate. With that, let’s delve into what you, as a CMO, needs to be asking your self and others to make sure this stack is at its finest.

The Invisible Price Of Low-cost Internet hosting

Shared internet hosting may appear cost-effective, however in my expertise, it’s typically the costliest alternative in the long run.

When your web site shares sources with tons of of others, efficiency turns into unpredictable. This will have an effect on many issues, from basic velocity and efficiency, but additionally how search engines like google and enormous language fashions (LLMs) crawl/uncover your web site, in addition to how a human could expertise the positioning itself.

Devoted servers or managed WordPress internet hosting could also be a bigger funding, however in flip reduces technical overheads whereas offering the infrastructure wanted for development and scale.

For the extent up from this, WordPress-based Cloud internet hosting is essentially the most strong answer, however would require extra technical experience to handle.

What CMOs Ought to Ask:

• Are we on shared internet hosting or devoted infrastructure? If the previous, why?
• Are all server sources, reminiscent of PHP, updated?
• What occurs to web site efficiency throughout site visitors spikes?
• Who’s chargeable for server-level upkeep, optimizations, and safety?
• For potential site visitors spikes, are there options and safeguards in place, reminiscent of load balancers?
• Can we develop and scale with our present answer?

Efficiency: The Enterprise Metric Disguised As A Tech Metric

Builders and technical SEOs alike will obsess over PageSpeed/Lighthouse scores, however issues reminiscent of Core Net Vitals aren’t simply technical benchmarks but additionally conversion metrics in disguise.

A one-second delay in cellular load instances can affect cellular conversions by as much as 20%. If Largest Content material Paint (LCP) exceeds 2.5 seconds, then your subsequent sale is at excessive danger earlier than there’s an opportunity to transform them.

Efficiency optimization in WordPress isn’t easy when wanting forensically. Many “options” can create new issues. Even well-intentioned optimizations and fixes over the long term may cause conflicts or different knock-on results. Over time, this turns into a “Frankenstein” web site of many parts patched collectively in an try to preserve it ‘alive’ that turns into costly to unravel and may trigger the positioning to be a “write-off”. This observe is extra frequent than you suppose.

What CMOs Ought to Ask:

• How does our web site carry out on PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, and YSlow? What could be improved? How will we carry out towards rivals?
• Is caching correctly arrange? Are we contemplating all ranges (server, object, web page, CDN, and many others.)?
• Do we’ve got all minification instruments arrange accurately?
• Is our database structure the very best it may be? How can this be improved?
• What and the way typically is our database cleaned? Does this embody revisions?
• How are our pictures performing? Have they been optimized? Are we utilizing extra fashionable codecs reminiscent of WebP?
• Who owns the efficiency metric?

This isn’t about chasing excellent scores; it’s about guaranteeing your technical basis helps quite than doubtlessly sabotaging your advertising and marketing targets.

Deciding On A Theme Ought to Be Lengthy-Time period

There are millions of WordPress themes on the market.

In an ideal situation, the theme itself can be custom-built, incorporating WordPress’ personal Gutenberg block editor, because it’s a part of the core. In addition to this, full web site enhancing performance makes this course of even simpler.

In case your finances can’t stretch to custom-built theme improvement, it’s then extraordinarily necessary to select the precise theme.

Be certain that you analysis the theme correctly, making an knowledgeable alternative that’s performance-led to enrich the stack, not convenience-led for editors.

However keep in mind, your alternative of theme is extra long-term than putting in a plugin you discover you don’t want a month/yr later. Due to this, themes ought to have a extra thought of and knowledgeable strategy.

Bonus Consideration: Web page Builders

Typically, the individuals who find yourself utilizing WordPress on a day-to-day foundation should not the identical individuals who developed it or set it up.

Due to this, there can generally be clashes relating to what somebody in your advertising and marketing staff desires versus what needs to be applied with technical finest observe.

Web page builders reminiscent of Elementor and Divi do supply much more freedom and adaptability for web page creation and design, however include the draw back of potential code bloat and useful resource allocation.

Be certain that your choices should not influenced an excessive amount of by this request, as a result of that’s what it’s, a request.

What CMOs Ought to Ask:

• How does our present theme/builder alternative affect web site efficiency?
• Is our present theme constructed for goal? Is it a theme that caters to the plenty, or is it developed particularly for me or my area of interest?
• Are we locked into a selected web page builder? What does the builder supply that Gutenberg and FSE don’t? What are the migration implications?
• Are our decisions forming a great stability between design flexibility with technical efficiency?
• Do we’ve got the event sources to assist our chosen strategy?
• Are there conflicts between the web page builder and different sources/property?

Plugin-ception

“There’s a plugin for that.”

This can be a phrase we’ve all heard or mentioned earlier than – myself included. There will be a plugin for that, sure – however it shouldn’t be the reply each time you wish to prolong performance.

Whereas I do have a choose variety of “core” plugins that I confidently select to make use of on any web site, this doesn’t imply that I might select to put in a plugin as a result of it solved one drawback that is probably not sufficient to substantiate putting in if it warrants the technical debt the plugin will add.

Estimates counsel, the common WordPress web site runs 20-30 plugins, with many serving overlapping features or creating conflicts.

Bonus: Some Plugins Require Consideration Put up-Set up

There are some plugins which have a easy “plug and play” strategy. However at any time when I set up something, I all the time delve additional into its setup, configuration, and the way this may affect the efficiency of a web site.

One factor to know is that, generally, you shouldn’t strategy any plugin with an “set up and ignore” mindset.

Examine the settings. Undergo the first-time configuration (FTC). Audit the configuration.

Moreover, plugins not solely present precious under-the-hood optimizations and enhancements, but additionally current a possibility for the positioning to evolve alongside your small business and advertising and marketing actions.

Actively utilizing these plugins means your stack continues to learn from the most recent options, improvements, and enhancements.

What CMOs Ought to Ask:

• What number of plugins are presently energetic on our web site?
• When was our final plugin audit?
• What plugins are we depending on for our core enterprise features?
• Have all plugins been configured accurately?
• Are the plugins that require ongoing work getting used?
• Are there conflicts with different plugins?
• Are there any incumbent plugins stopping the event of the positioning as an entire?
• (Extra aggressive) What is going to occur to the broader enterprise targets if [Plugin X] is now not used?

The extra plugins which might be put in, the upper the danger of incompatibility, conflicts, and safety vulnerabilities.

Safety: Be Proactive, Not Reactive

One would suppose that safety is all the time the highest precedence to make sure the secure operation of any web site. Incorrect.

Breaches can devastate not simply the positioning, however in flip, your model fame, whereas additionally incurring giant rapid prices and probably some lack of earnings sooner or later consequently.

Whereas on the extra excessive finish of the size, earlier this yr, some hackers breached plenty of giant UK retailers, together with Marks and Spencer, inflicting £300 million in misplaced income, with no actual measurement on how this has affected them since.

It doesn’t take lengthy or value a lot (in some circumstances, the options are free) so as to add some layers of safety to your stack.

Whether or not it’s including guidelines inside Cloudflare or putting in Sucuri or Wordfence, don’t simply depart your web site unprotected when you “sit tight and assess” – take proactive steps to safe your stack.

What CMOs Ought to Ask:

• What safety measures will we presently have for the positioning?
• Are any and all vulnerabilities monitored?
• Is all the things updated? This consists of not simply WordPress core, themes, and plugins, but additionally on a server degree, reminiscent of PHP.

Upkeep: Forgotten Till Required

WordPress upkeep typically will get handled as a technical afterthought, however I think about this to be a crucial advertising and marketing perform.

Outdated plugins not solely create conflicts which have knock-on results on each the frontend and backend of the positioning but additionally expose you to safety vulnerabilities that I simply lined above.

The selection between guide and computerized updates displays deeper strategic priorities.

Handbook updates present extra management however require devoted sources and staging environments for testing previous to deployment. Automated updates could scale back upkeep overhead, however there may be all the time a danger of conflicts throughout crucial enterprise intervals.

What CMOs Ought to Ask:

• Who’s chargeable for WordPress core, plugin, and theme updates? Have they got all of the required entry in case of catastrophe situations?
• Who’s chargeable for authorized, compliance, and privateness on the positioning?
• Is all the things updated? If not, is there a motive for this?
• Do we’ve got staging environments for testing modifications earlier than something is deployed to a manufacturing surroundings?
• What’s our rollback plan if an replace breaks crucial performance?
• How will we stability safety wants with stability necessities?

“Frankenstein” Websites Solely Get You So Far For So Lengthy…

When you have a theme that’s now years outdated, maybe 5 or extra, it’s seemingly that over time the theme (except extraordinarily nicely maintained) will ultimately trigger points and conflicts, extra so while you wish to develop and scale.

Optimizing the positioning over time is clearly steered, however after a chronic period of time, this turns into more difficult and fewer potential with out conflicts arising.

What CMOs Ought to Ask:

• When was the final time a theme was chosen?
• When was it final audited? Is the theme nonetheless match for goal as we speak?
• Is a theme replace inflicting conflicts with different sources and plugins?
• Are there legacy plugins or different performance that forestall important updates to WordPress or PHP, forcing the positioning to stay on outdated variations (subsequently limiting entry to new options, improved safety, or higher efficiency)?
• Are advert hoc upkeep prices and “patchwork” over two to a few years costing greater than a possible rebuild (i.e., Is it a “write-off”)?

Key Takeaways

Beneath is a high-priority guidelines that you may act on now:

Your WordPress stack ought to by no means be thought of “set and overlook.”

Don’t anticipate one thing to interrupt, as a result of when one thing does, it can probably trigger extra loss than any proactive funding to make sure there isn’t one.

Extra Assets:

Featured Picture: Ashan Randika/Shutterstock