SEO
Will ChatGPT Take Your Job?
ChatGPT has all the signs of being a technological game-changer. But will ChatGPT take your job?
A chatbot powered by machine learning and vast amounts of data, it interacts with users in an incredibly realistic way.
But this OpenAI-created model does much more than just carry on virtual conversations. It can generate content like poems or term papers, debug code, answer queries, and more.
This is an exciting development. But on a personal level, it’s more than a little worrying – particularly regarding its impact on job security.
If technology reaches a level where it can perform your job as well or better than you can, what are you going to do for a living?
Most people have spent their entire careers working in one field. Are they all supposed to become carpenters or massage therapists? And if so, won’t the competition for those roles be intense? How will we survive?
The thought alone is enough to induce a full-on panic attack.
But relax. Breathe into a paper bag if you need to.
Things are not as desperate as all that.
You’re going to be fine. Airplanes have a complex system of autopilot and, during a flight, are controlled mostly by computers, but pilots are there sitting and tuning the computer’s controls whenever needed.
Yes, on a long enough timescale, technology will eventually assume your current role. However, this is unlikely to happen anytime soon.
Machine learning and artificial intelligence are still in their infancy, and you’ll (hopefully) be long since retired before the machines come for your job.
And before that happens, the power of tools like ChatGPT will allow you to perform your role with much greater efficiency and effectiveness.
In this piece, we’ll take a look at some of the jobs most likely to be impacted by ChatGPT and rate their security on a scale of 1-10, with one meaning no chance of replacement by machines and ten meaning polish up your resume, because you’re about to get your walking papers.
Is Your Job Safe From ChatGPT?
Search Engine Optimization Professionals
Considering this is Search Engine Journal, our very first area of concern is about the future of SEO jobs.
There is no question ChatGPT and similar programs will change how SEO professionals work. But this is search engine optimization – change is the only constant.
And it’s already being employed by some professionals in the industry. From keyword research and strategy to content creation and reporting, ChatGPT shows great potential. But that doesn’t mean it’s coming for your job.
For one thing, no matter how powerful AI-powered programs become, they’ll never be human, which means they’ll never have our creative ability or mental quirks (although ChatGPT is producing some impressive creative work). Current AI systems need both guided training from humans and human input to train on, which limits their knowledge of current and recent events and makes work produced by humans a core part of how they function. It also needs human fact-checkers.
And let’s not forget that now, Google considers AI-generated content to be against its guidelines. Although, the use of anti-AI-detection algorithms isn’t fail-safe.
Most businesses serious enough to employ an SEO professional (which should be all of them) shouldn’t be willing to risk the negative impact of getting flagged as spam.
Machine-driven SEO will also struggle to reconcile conflicting information and determine what is accurate.
For the foreseeable future, it seems there will be a need for humans to oversee any AI-driven SEO efforts, offering creative input, providing strategic direction, and making adjustments based on shifting search tides.
- Risk of replacement: 2/10.
Programmers
Programming is a common and often lucrative career path.
But one of the key features that keep coming up in discussions about ChatGPT is its ability to write code. Imagine it – code writing new code, never forgetting a decimal or closing bracket. It sounds like a home run.
Additionally, ChatGPT has shown an ability to pass certification exams, which could raise the bar for entry-level jobs and make it harder for junior developers to find positions.
OpenAI ChatGPT is now an AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner!
This is crazy🤯
It attempted 20 questions of my AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner practice exams.
The results are bluffing!!!
Final score: 800/1000; a pass is 720 pic.twitter.com/G7ECxIwC8j
— Stephane Maarek 👨🏫 (@StephaneMaarek) December 8, 2022
There’s just one little problem: the OpenAI chatbot is still far from being able to write complex code. Sure, it can manage “Hello, World!” in HTML, but according to industry experts, figuring out more difficult applications is still quite a ways off.
There’s also the fact that Stack Overflow banned ChatGPT after it was used to answer questions — incorrectly.
That’s not to say it won’t impact the work programmers are doing.
As the chatbot and others like it learns and improves, they’ll increasingly take over the need for creating boilerplate code like generic functions, performing quality assessments, and debugging existing code. This, in turn, will free human developers up to focus on more complicated architecture.
In addition to streamlining coding and reducing waste, AI coders could also give rise to new jobs in the field, including code prompt executers and developer advocates (go-betweens between technical workers and non-techies).
And all this additional programming power will likely give rise to new programming jobs no one has even thought of yet.
If we’ve learned one thing from Moore’s Law, it’s that the growth of technology is exponential. And for every career door that closes, multiple new ones will open.
Keep an open mind and keep learning.
- Risk of replacement: 4/10.
Pay-Per-Click Specialists
In general, PPC specialists don’t seem to be nearly as concerned with the impact of ChatGPT and other AI technologies on their job security. If you were to hazard a guess as to why it could be because they’ve already made peace with it.
If you’ve ever set up a PPC campaign, you’ve used the power of artificial intelligence, or something very similar to it, at least. Automated Rules could be viewed as a rudimentary type of AI, where you create rules for common use cases.
Using several of these rules together in a process known as automation layering, is an important step to ensuring your PPC account doesn’t drain itself in the face of a bug or other unusual event.
The possibilities ChatGPT offers to the field of PPC are just a continuation of this same philosophy. AI will automate the bidding process based on statistical learning methods driven by real-time information. It will likely also take much of the manual work out of campaign management.
And just like with SEO, it seems extremely unlikely that ChatGPT or any of its competitors will take human workers out of the equation soon. In addition to the creative aspect, human PPC specialists perform one task no program currently can: Steering the ship.
Humans understand their customers, brand, and values. And this means, for the foreseeable future, a person will need to chart a logical course for every business.
Likewise, a human will be required to teach AI which decisions it should be making, as well as diagnose what went wrong when things get off track.
Read this for a thorough analysis of AI and PPC.
- Risk of replacement: 2/10.
Writers
As you can probably imagine, this is one area of particular personal concern. What are people like me, who depend on creating the written word going to do when ChatGPT and the like can come up with a better, snappier, more effective headline in less time?
This wasn’t much of a concern when computers were spitting out incomprehensible dialogue, ala “Sunspring,” the 2016 short film written entirely by AI. And then we got ChatGPT.
A query for the plot of a horror film about a haunted pocketwatch returned an incredibly coherent (and interesting) synopsis. This means even creative writing work could be at risk.
Screenshot from ChatGPT, January 2023Until you run a second query for a horror film about a haunted cemetery. Which prompts ChatGPT to give you a similar synopsis with slightly different plot points.
Screenshot from ChatGPT, January 2023Is it different enough to pass copyright laws? Yes. But that’s not to say it’s not formulaic and uninspired.
So, creativity does provide some sort of shield for writers (for now), but what about non-creative writing, journalism, whitepapers, etc.? Surely ChatGPT is a worry in those fields, considering it has become convincing enough to inspire concerns about academic cheating?
At the moment, the way AI systems are trained means they don’t have access to the latest events, which makes them unsuitable for breaking news and new developments.
Furthermore, using AI to build the connection and empathy of copy written by a living person might be quite difficult, especially in journalism and creative work where voice, nuance, emotion, and style matter.
There are several more routine writing tasks that AI can do very effectively, such as creating product descriptions, ad copy, video synopses, and other time-consuming and repetitive jobs.
While it does seem likely that automated intelligence will subsume some of the roles of professional writers, the day it will replace them entirely is far off. And even then, humans’ desire to create will still likely keep writing a popular activity.
- Risk of replacement: 4/10.
Sales Professionals
There is no question that big data and AI can be used to revolutionize the sales process. From more accurate targeting to behavior prediction, there is little question it can be used to make sales easier and more efficient.
You’ve probably already seen the effect in your own life as retailers collect and analyze your buying habits to make predictions. Those store reward cards and discount key fobs exist for just one reason: to collect your data for analysis.
It’s been going on for quite some time now, too. Way back in 2012, Target data-mining identified a teen girl’s pregnancy before her father even knew about it. And it has only gotten better since then.
Surely, this means the sales occupation is headed out the door, right? Not even close.
Legislators, especially those in Europe, are coming down hard on many of the biggest tech companies that use algorithms and AI with laws focused on privacy and consumer protection. Google is reducing user tracking; third-party cookies are going away. The technological leaps forward in AI may be limited in their application in sales and marketing for a long time.
Plus, ask any salesperson worth their salt about the most important thing to closing deals, and nine out of ten of them will tell you the same thing: Trust. And trust begins with personal relationships, something even the most convincing AI may never be able to replicate.
Of course, that’s not to say there will be no use for ChatGPT and the like in sales. Most sales departments already use a CRM tool to help them go after hot prospects and automate marketing. And chatbots embedded in websites have made information collection easier than ever.
Like virtually every other field discussed, ChatGPT promises to reshape the face of the sales process and automate administrative work, but it will never replace actual human interaction.
- Risk of replacement: 1/10.
Educators
If people were cold, uncaring machines, there would be no better way to educate them than by rote input. But humans are not computers, and education is about much more than transferring knowledge.
And no amount of programming, algorithm tweaking, and data processing can ever replace human intangibles like patience, discipline skills, friendliness, and genuine concern for students’ well-being.
Much like with sales, regardless of the advances in technology, it seems inconceivable that ChatGPT or another AI tool will ever be able to replace human educators.
But again, this is not to say it won’t change how things are done. From grading to progress tracking, developing personalized learning plans to improving accessibility, there are many opportunities to use this exciting new technology in the field.
- Risk of Replacement: 1/10
Attorneys
At first glance, the law seems like one field where AI is sure to make big strides. What is the law, after all, besides a codified set of instructions?
Why couldn’t ChatGPT be used to analyze legal documents, decisions, and precedents, then apply that knowledge to real-world cases?
There’s the human factor to consider.
One of the main arguments against mandatory minimum sentences in criminal trials is that every situation is unique.
This is no less true for civil trials, divorce proceedings, bankruptcy, or other legal issues. And because the legal field deals with people, not absolutes, there will always be possibilities that even the deepest AI cannot account for.
Due to the way ChatGPT was trained, basing a legal argument on its research alone wouldn’t consider at least last 12 months of cases and decisions. That could be catastrophic in some situations. Add to that its tendency to sometimes just get things wrong, and the tool might become more trouble than its worth in a legal profession.
While ChatGPT-like technology could prove beneficial to the legal field in roles like research and scholarship, automated contracts and forms, and even accelerating the judicial process, machines are not capable of rendering judgments.
Nor are they guaranteed to be free from biases, which at first glance seems to be their primary advantage over humans. Depending on how they were trained, ChatGPT and other chatbots are susceptible to dataset bias and less than 100% accuracy.
And this means the role of the judge, not to mention the power of a passionate and skilled attorney to sway opinions, is in no danger of replacement by computers.
- Risk of replacement: 1/10.
AI Isn’t Coming For These Jobs Yet
ChatGPT and other programs employing machine learning and big data in pursuing artificial intelligence can be wonderful tools. They show great promise in reducing or even eliminating a lot of the mundane day-to-day tasks you have to perform.
And we have already embraced this technology in other aspects of our lives – simply look at the popularity of Alexa and Siri or any of the brands of robot vacuums thousands of people readily adopted into their lives.
Why shouldn’t we hope that smarter machines will make our work lives easier as well? Because they will.
With that said, some industries are more likely to be replaced by machines in the next few years or decades. These include positions like receptionist, many customer service jobs, driving jobs including taxi drivers and truckers, and soldiers.
There are also rightful concerns about how AI tools like ChatGPT can be used by unscrupulous individuals or companies. From students cheating in college to fake scientific abstracts, whether AI tools cause damage depends a lot on how we use them. Some employers may be quicker to try and cut costs with AI than others. But it’s likely to also see resistance due to accuracy, ethics, and political issues.
One thing is certain – for every position they replace, they will pay for it in other ways, creating new opportunities and industries as they go.
Don’t fear what ChatGPT could mean for your career just yet.
More resources:
Featured Image: Sergey Nivens/Shutterstock
SEO
Google’s John Mueller On Website Recovery After Core Updates
John Mueller, a Google Search Advocate, provided guidance this week regarding the path forward for websites impacted by recent search algorithm updates.
The discussion started on X (formerly Twitter) by SEO professional Thomas Jepsen.
Jepsen tagged Mueller, asking:
“Google has previously said Google doesn’t hold a grudge and sites will recover once issues have been solved. Is that still the case after HCU?”
Mueller’s response offered hope to site owners while being realistic about the challenges ahead.
Addressing Recovery Timelines
Mueller affirmed Google’s stance on not holding grudges, stating, “That’s still the case.”
However, he acknowledged the complexity of rankings, saying:
“…some things take much longer to be reassessed (sometimes months, at the moment), and some bigger effects require another update cycle.”
That’s still the case. That said, some things take much longer to be reassessed (sometimes months, at the moment), and some bigger effects require another update cycle. https://t.co/WDy7Q4dpzb has some more.
— John 🧀 … 🧀 (@JohnMu) April 29, 2024
Mueller pointed to a Google help document explaining the nuances. The document reads:
“Broad core updates tend to happen every few months. Content that was impacted in Search or Discover by one might not recover—assuming improvements have been made—until the next broad core update is released.
Do keep in mind that improvements made by site owners aren’t a guarantee of recovery, nor do pages have any static or guaranteed position in our search results. If there’s more deserving content, that will continue to rank well with our systems.”
The Comments Sparking Debate
Jepsen probed further, asking, “Is a core update what’s needed for HCU-affected sites to recover (assuming they’ve fixed their issues)?”
Mueller’s response highlighted how situations can differ:
“It depends on the situation… I realize there’s a big space between the situations, but generalizing doesn’t help. Sometimes it takes a lot of work on the site, a long time, and an update.”
It depends on the situation. https://t.co/F9s3Hli9t7 and https://t.co/pLdm29PjPD has some on that. I realize there’s a big space between the situations, but generalizing doesn’t help. Sometimes it takes a lot of work on the site, a long time, and an update.
— John 🧀 … 🧀 (@JohnMu) April 29, 2024
The thread grew as user @selectgame raised concerns about Google Discover traffic, to which Mueller replied:
“Google Discover is affected by core updates as well as other parts of Search (and there are more policies that apply to Discover).”
Google Discover is affected by core updates as well as other parts of Search (and there are more policies that apply to Discover). If you’re seeing these changes when a core update rolled out, that might be what you’re seeing.
— John 🧀 … 🧀 (@JohnMu) April 29, 2024
Growing Frustrations
Prominent industry figure Lily Ray voiced mounting frustrations, stating,
“…many HCU-affected websites – which have been making all kinds of improvements over the last 7 months – have only seen further declines with the March Core Update.
I have seen some sites lose 90% or more of their SEO visibility since the HCU, with the last few weeks being the nail in the coffin, despite making significant improvements.”
Ray continued:
“And in my professional opinion, many of these sites did not deserve anywhere near that level of impact, especially the further declines over the past month.”
Mueller hasn’t responded to Ray’s tweet at this time.
John, any chance you can comment on the fact that many HCU-affected websites – which have been making all kinds of improvements over the last 7 months – have only seen further declines with the March Core Update?
I have seen some sites lose 90% or more of their SEO visibility… https://t.co/lvYRAScRQQ
— Lily Ray 😏 (@lilyraynyc) April 29, 2024
Looking Ahead
As the search community awaits Google’s next moves, the path to recovery appears arduous for many impacted by recent algorithm reassessments of “Helpful Content.”
Site improvements don’t guarantee immediate recovery, so publishers face an uphill battle guided only by Google’s ambiguous public advice.
Why SEJ Cares
The March 2024 core update has proven disastrous for many websites, with severe traffic losses persisting even after sites try to improve low-quality content, address technical issues, and realign with Google’s guidelines.
Having clear, actionable guidance from Google on recovering from core update updates is invaluable.
As evidenced by the frustrations expressed, the current communications leave much to be desired regarding transparency and defining a straightforward recovery path.
How This Can Help You
While Mueller’s comments provide some insights, the key takeaways are:
- Regaining previous rankings after an algorithm hit is possible if sufficient content/site quality improvements are made.
- Recovery timelines can vary significantly and may require a future core algorithm update.
- Even with enhancements, recovery isn’t guaranteed as rankings depend on the overall pool of competing content.
The path is undoubtedly challenging, but Mueller’s comments underscore that perseverance with substantial site improvements can eventually pay off.
FAQ
Can SEO professionals predict recovery time for a website hit by core updates?
SEO professionals can’t pinpoint when a site will recover after a core Google algorithm update.
Reasons for this include:
- Google releases core updates every few months, so sites may need to wait for the next one.
- It can take months for Google to reassess and adjust rankings.
- How competitive the query is also impacts if and when a site recovers.
Does making site improvements after a core update ensure recovery in rankings and visibility?
After making improvements following a Google algorithm update, regaining your previous rankings isn’t guaranteed.
Reasons why include:
- Your impacted content may not recover until the next core update, provided you’ve implemented enough site improvements.
- Google’s search results are dynamic, and rankings can fluctuate based on the quality of competitor content.
- There’s no fixed or guaranteed position in Google’s search results.
What is the relationship between Google Discover traffic and core search updates?
Google’s core algorithm updates that impact regular search results also affect Google Discover.
However, Google Discover has additional specific policies that determine what content appears there.
This means:
- Improving your content and website quality can boost your visibility on Google Discover, just like regular searches.
- You may see changes in your Discover traffic when Google rolls out core updates.
- Your SEO and content strategy should account for potential impacts on regular searches and Google Discover.
Featured Image: eamesBot/Shutterstock
SEO
5 Things To Consider Before A Site Migration
One of the scariest SEO tasks is a site migration because the stakes are so high and the pitfalls at every step . Here are five tips that will help keep a site migration on track to a successful outcome.
Site Migrations Are Not One Thing
Site Migrations are not one thing, they are actually different scenarios and the only thing they have in common is that there is always something that can go wrong.
Here are examples of some of the different kinds of site migrations:
- Migration to a new template
- Migrating to a new web host
- Merging two different websites
- Migrating to a new domain name
- Migrating to a new site architecture
- Migrating to a new content management system (CMS)
- Migrating to a new WordPress site builder
There are many ways a site can change and more ways for those changes to result in a negative outcome.
The following is not a site migration checklist. It’s five suggestions for things to consider.
1. Prepare For Migration: Download Everything
Rule number one is to prepare for the site migration. One of my big concerns is that the old version of the website is properly documented.
These are some of the ways to document a website:
- Download the database and save it in at least two places. I like to have a backup of the backup stored on a second device.
- Download all the website files. Again, I prefer to save a backup of the backup stored on a second device.
- Crawl the site, save the crawl and export it as a CSV or an XML site map. I prefer to have redundant backups just in case something goes wrong.
An important thing to remember about downloading files by FTP is that there are two formats for downloading files: ASCII and Binary.
- Use ASCII for downloading files that contain code, like CSS, JS, PHP and HTML.
- Use Binary for media like images, videos and zip files.
Fortunately, most modern FTP software have an automatic setting that should be able to distinguish between the two kinds of files. A sad thing that can happen is to download image files using the ASCII format which results in corrupted images.
So always check that your files are all properly downloaded and not in a corrupted state. Always consider downloading a copy for yourself if you have hired a third party to handle the migration or a client is doing it and they’re downloading files. That way if they fail with their download you’ll have an uncorrupted copy backed up.
The most important rule about backups: You can never have too many backups!
2. Crawl The Website
Do a complete crawl of the website. Create a backup of the crawl. Then create a backup of the backup and store it on a separate hard drive.
After the site migration, this crawl data can be used to generate a new list for crawling the old URLs to identify any URLs that are missing (404), are failing to redirect, or are redirecting to the wrong webpage. Screaming Frog also has a list mode that can crawl a list of URLs saved in different formats, including as an XML sitemap, and directly input into a text field. This is a way to crawl a specific batch of URLs as opposed to crawling a site from link to to link.
3. Tips For Migrating To A New Template
Website redesigns can be can be a major source of anguish when they go wrong. On paper, migrating a site to a new template should be a one-to-one change with minimal issues. In practice that’s not always the case. For one, no template can be used off the shelf, it has to be modified to conform to what’s needed, which can mean removing and/or altering the code.
Search marketing expert Nigel Mordaunt (LinkedIn), who recently sold his search marketing agency, has experience migrating over a hundred sites and has important considerations for migrating to a new WordPress template.
This is Nigel’s advice:
“Check that all images have the same URL, alt text and image titles, especially if you’re using new images.
Templates sometimes have hard-coded heading elements, especially in the footer and sidebars. Those should be styled with CSS, not with H tags. I had this problem with a template once where the ranks had moved unexpectedly, then found that the Contact Us and other navigation links were all marked up to H2. I think that was more of a problem a few years ago. But still, some themes have H tags hard coded in places that aren’t ideal.
Make sure that all URLs are the exact same, a common mistake. Also, if planning to change content then check that the staging environment has been noindexed then after the site goes live make sure that the newly uploaded live site no longer contains the noindex robots meta tag.
If changing content then be prepared the site to perhaps be re-evaluated by Google. Depending on the size of the site, even if the changes are positive it may take several weeks to be rewarded, and in some cases several months. The client needs to be informed of this before the migration.
Also, check that analytics and tracking codes have been inserted into the new site, review all image sizes to make sure there are no new images that are huge and haven’t been scaled down. You can easily check the image sizes and heading tags with a post-migration Screaming Frog crawl. I can’t imagine doing any kind of site migration without Screaming Frog.”
4. Advice For Migrating To A New Web Host
Mark Barrera (LinkedIn), VP SEO, Newfold Digital (parent company of Bluehost), had this to say about crawling before a site migration in preparation for a migration to a new web host:
“Thoroughly crawl your existing site to identify any indexing or technical SEO issues prior to the move.
Maintain URL Structure (If Possible): Changing URL structures can confuse search engines and damage your link equity. If possible, keep your URLs the same.
301 Redirects: 301 Redirects are your friend. Search engines need to be informed that your old content now lives at a new address. Implementing 301 redirects from any old URLs to their new counterparts preserves link equity and avoids 404 errors for both users and search engine crawlers.
Performance Optimization: Ensure your new host provides a fast and reliable experience. Site speed is important for user experience.
Be sure to do a final walkthrough of your new site before doing your actual cutover. Visually double-check your homepage, any landing pages, and your most popular search hits. Review any checkout/cart flows, comment/review chains, images, and any outbound links to your other sites or your partners.
SSL Certificate: A critical but sometimes neglected aspect of hosting migrations is the SSL certificate setup. Ensuring that your new host supports and correctly implements your existing SSL certificate—or provides a new one without causing errors is vital. SSL/TLS not only secures your site but also impacts SEO. Any misconfiguration during migration can lead to warnings in browsers, which deter visitors and can temporarily impact rankings.
Post migration, it’s crucial to benchmark server response times not just from one location, but regionally or globally, especially if your audience is international. Sometimes, a new hosting platform might show great performance in one area but lag in other parts of the world. Such discrepancies can affect page load times, influencing bounce rates and search rankings. “
5. Accept Limitations
Ethan Lazuk, SEO Strategist & Consultant, Ethan Lazuk Consulting, LLC, (LinkedIn, Twitter) offers an interesting perspective on site migrations on the point about anticipating client limitations imposed upon what you are able to do. It can be frustrating when a client pushes back on advice and it’s important to listen to their reasons for doing it.
I have consulted over Zoom with companies whose SEO departments had concerns about what an external SEO wanted to do. Seeking a third party confirmation about a site migration plan is a reasonable thing to do. So if the internal SEO department has concerns about the plan, it’s not a bad idea to have a trustworthy third party take a look at it.
Ethan shared his experience:
“The most memorable and challenging site migrations I’ve been a part of involved business decisions that I had no control over.
As SEOs, we can create a smart migration plan. We can follow pre- and post-launch checklists, but sometimes, there are legal restrictions or other business realities behind the scenes that we have to work around.
Not having access to a DNS, being restricted from using a brand’s name or certain content, having to use an intermediate domain, and having to work days, weeks, or months afterward to resolve any issues once the internal business situations have changed are just a few of the tricky migration issues I’ve encountered.
The best way to handle these situations require working around client restrictions is to button up the SEO tasks you can control, set honest expectations for how the business issues could impact performance after the migration, and stay vigilant with monitoring post-launch data and using it to advocate for resources you need to finish the job.”
Different Ways To Migrate A Website
Site migrations are a pain and should be approached with caution. I’ve done many different kinds of migrations for myself and have assisted them with clients. I’m currently moving thousands of webpages from a folder to the root and it’s complicated by multiple redirects that have to be reconfigured, not looking forward to it. But migrations are sometimes unavoidable so it’s best to step up to it after careful consideration.
Featured Image by Shutterstock/Krakenimages.com
SEO
Studio By WordPress & Other Free Tools
WordPress announced the rollout of Studio by WordPress, a new local development tool that makes it easy for publishers to not just develop and update websites locally on their desktop or laptop but is also useful for learning how to use WordPress. Learn about Studio and other platforms that are make it easy to develop websites with WordPress right on your desktop.
Local Development Environments
Local Environments are like web hosting spaces on the desktop that can be used to set up a WordPress site. They’re a fantastic way to try out new WordPress themes and plugins to learn how they work without messing up a live website or publishing something to the web that might get accidentally indexed by Google. They are also useful for testing if an updated plugin causes a conflict with other plugins on a website, which is useful for testing updated plugins offline before committing to updating the plugins on a live website.
Studio joins a list of popular local development environments that are specific for WordPress and more advanced platforms that are that can be used for WordPress on the desktop but have greater flexibility and options but may be harder to use for non-developers.
Desktop WordPress Development Environments
There are currently a few local environments that are specific to WordPress. The advantages of using a dedicated WordPress environment is that they make it easy to start creating with WordPress for those who only need to work with WordPress sites and nothing more complicated than that.
Studio By WordPress.com
Studio is an open source project that allows developers and publishers to set up a WordPress site on their desktop in order to design, test or learn how to use WordPress.
According to the WordPress announcement:
“Say goodbye to manual tool configuration, slow site setup, and clunky local development workflows, and say hello to Studio by WordPress.com, our new, free, open source local WordPress development environment.
Once you have a local site running, you can access WP Admin, the Site Editor, global styles, and patterns, all with just one click—and without needing to remember and enter a username or password.”
The goal of Studio is to be a simple and fast way to create WordPress sites on the desktop. It’s currently available for use on a Mac and a Windows version is coming soon.
Download the Mac version here.
Other Popular WordPress Local Development Environments
DevKinsta
DevKinsta, developed by Kinsta managed web host, is another development environment that’s specifically dedicated for quickly designing and testing WordPress sites on the desktop. It’s a popular choice that many developers endorse.
That makes it a great tool for publishers, SEOs and developers who just want a tool to do one thing, create WordPress sites. This makes DevKinsta a solid consideration for anyone who is serious about developing WordPress sites or just wants to learn how to use WordPress, especially the latest Gutenberg Blocks environment.
Download DevKinsta for free here.
Local WP
Local WP is a popular desktop development environment specifically made for WordPress users by WP Engine, a managed WordPress hosting provider.
Useful Features of Local WP
Local WP has multiple features that make it useful beyond simply developing and testing WordPress websites.
- Image Optimizer
It features a free image optimizer add-on that optimizes images on your desktop which should be popular for those who are unable to optimize images on their own. - Upload Backups
Another handy feature is the ability to upload backups to Dropbox and Google Drive. - Link Checker
The tool has a built-in link checker that scans your local version of the website to identify broken links. This is a great way to check a site offline without using server resources and potentially slowing down your live site. - Import & Export Sites
This has the super-handy ability to import WordPress website files and export them so that you can work on your current WordPress site on your desktop, test out new plugins or themes and if you’re ready you can upload the files to your website.
Advanced Local Development Environments
There are other local development environments that are not specific for WordPress but are nonetheless useful for designing and testing WordPress sites on the desktop. These tools are more advanced and are popular with developers who appreciate the freedom and options available in these platforms.
DDEV with Docker
An open source app that makes it easy to use the Docker software containerization to quickly install a content management system and start working, without having to deal with the Docker learning curve.
Download DDEV With Docker here.
Laragon
Laragon is a free local development environment that was recommended to me by someone who is an advanced coder because they said that it’s easy to use and fairly intuitive. They were right. I’ve used it and have had good experiences with it. It’s not a WordPress-specific tool so that must be kept in mind.
Laragon describes itself as an easy to use alternative to XXAMPP and WAMP.
Mamp
Mamp is a local development platform that’s popular with advanced coders and is available for Mac and Windows.
David McCan (Facebook profile), a WordPress trainer who writes about advanced WordPress topics on WebTNG shared his experience with MAMP.
“MAMP is pretty easy to setup and it provides a full range of features. I currently have 51 local sites which are development versions of my production sites, that I use for testing plugins, and periodically use for new beta versions of WordPress core. It is easy to clone sites also. I haven’t noticed any system slowdown or lag.”
WAMP And XAMPP
WAMP is a Windows only development environment that’s popular with developers and WordPress theme and plugin publishers.
XAMPP is a PHP development platform that can be used on Linux, Mac, and Windows desktops.
So Many Local Development Platforms
Studio by WordPress.com is an exciting new local development platform and I’m looking forward to trying it out. But it’s not the only one so it may be useful to try out different solutions to see which one works best for you.
Read more about Studio by WordPress:
Meet Studio by WordPress.com—a fast, free way to develop locally with WordPress
Featured Image by Shutterstock/Wpadington
10 Most Effective Franchise Marketing Strategies
Effective Communication in Business as a Crisis Management Strategy
Google Won’t Change The 301 Signals For Ranking & SEO
Google Again Says Ignore Link Spam Especially To 404 Pages
brightonSEO Live Blog
9 Ecommerce Trends to Boost Your Business in 2024
Measuring Content Impact Across The Customer Journey
How To Write ChatGPT Prompts To Get The Best Results
How to Find and Use Competitor Keywords
Google March 2024 Core Update Officially Completed A Week Ago
-
PPC7 days ago10 Most Effective Franchise Marketing Strategies
-
MARKETING5 days agoEffective Communication in Business as a Crisis Management Strategy
-
SEARCHENGINES6 days agoGoogle Won’t Change The 301 Signals For Ranking & SEO
-
SEARCHENGINES7 days agoGoogle Again Says Ignore Link Spam Especially To 404 Pages
-
SEO5 days agobrightonSEO Live Blog
-
PPC6 days ago9 Ecommerce Trends to Boost Your Business in 2024
-
SEO7 days agoMeasuring Content Impact Across The Customer Journey
-
SEO6 days agoHow To Write ChatGPT Prompts To Get The Best Results
You must be logged in to post a comment Login