The SEO Research report

1. 7,554 empty category pages are burying 192 articles Impact: high Effort: medium

What we saw

The sitemaps list 7,554 category pages, 192 articles (17 of them listed twice) and 4 other pages. Most categories were created one per plugin, company or topic (for example /category/10up/, /category/2020-euros/, /category/404-plugin/). Our crawler checks a site the way Google does: it hit its 1,500-page limit while still inside the category pages, after reaching only 28 of the 192 articles. 1,460 of the pages it read have fewer than 150 words, 1,468 have no links pointing to them, and 1,472 have no main heading.

What Search Console shows

Google last read the sitemap on April 7, 2025, 18 months ago, so it has not been told about anything published since. We asked Google about the 4 main pages and the first 60 articles in the sitemap: it has 9 of the 64 in its index, 2 more it crawled but left out, and 53 it has never heard of, including the Contact page. Over the last 16 months the site showed up in Google 25,260 times and got 19 clicks. The biggest drop came with the May 2026 core update, when Google showed the site less than half as often. Core updates judge the quality of the whole site, which is what thousands of thin category pages pull down.

Why it matters

Google gives every site a limited amount of attention. Thousands of thin pages use it up, and they drag down how Google judges the whole site, articles included.

What to do

Cut to about 10 real topic categories, keep the rest out of Google, and remove them from the sitemap. Work order 1

2. Every search shows a Google AI Overview Impact: high Effort: medium

What we saw

We checked all 32 searches the site should win, plus the new ones below. Google shows an AI-written answer above the results for every single one. None of them shows a map pack or shopping results, so the AI Overview and the regular results are the only places to be seen.

Why it matters

When an AI Overview shows, many readers get their answer without clicking. The sites that still win are the ones Google quotes inside the AI Overview. Ranking alone is not enough here: each page needs a short, direct answer near the top, clear lists and tables, a named expert author, and a visible date.

What to do

Every page plan and work order in this report is written for AI Overview searches. Work order 5 covers the article format.

3. The searches people make most have no matching page Impact: high Effort: high

What we saw

We researched 2,200 related searches and picked the 32 that fit what the site covers. The biggest are guides and comparisons, like "wordpress security plugin" and "wordpress vs wix". The site writes news about these topics but has no guide or comparison page for most of them.

What to do

Build the guides and comparisons in order of demand. Growth includes 5 detailed plans: 2 new pages and 3 existing articles to improve.

4. Articles are not connected to each other Impact: high Effort: medium

What we saw

Pages scored 3.7 of 10 for how well they link to each other. Many articles have no links from other articles. Once a story scrolls off the latest-posts list, little points to it.

What to do

Link each news story to the matching guide, and link related stories together. Work order 2

5. No named expert behind the articles Impact: high Effort: low

What we saw

Every article is credited to the site's own name, not a person, and the site has no About page. Even the article schema lists the author as a "person" whose name is the site's name. Trust signals scored 0 of 10: no named author, no credentials, no editorial policy. Schema and dates are in decent shape (5.6 of 10).

Why it matters

For security and how-to advice, Google and AI tools favor content from a named, experienced person. It is one of the clearest differences between the pages AI quotes and this site.

What to do

Add a real author with a bio and credentials, an About page, and a short editorial policy. Work order 4

6. AI tools quote other sites Impact: medium Effort: medium

What we saw

We asked ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Mode 8 questions readers ask, like "What is the best security plugin for WordPress in 2026?" and "Should I use WordPress or Wix for a small business website?". None of the 32 answers named the site. These are the sites they cited most (times cited, out of 32 answers):

What to do

Write for the way AI quotes, and be present where AI looks (Reddit and the WordPress.org forums). The 5 AI breakdowns show exactly what the cited pages do. Work order 5

7. Fewer trusted links than similar sites Impact: medium Effort: high

What we saw

Authority is how much search engines trust a site, on a scale of 0 to 1,000. Similar WordPress sites sit between 255 and 542; this site is at 175. (Raw link counts look similar across all of them, because the same spam networks link to every WordPress site, so authority is the number to watch.)

What to do

Earn links with things other sites want to cite: a running WordPress vulnerability tracker, original data, and expert quotes for journalists. Work order 6

8. A slow homepage, partly from the categories Impact: medium Effort: low

What we saw

We ran Google's own speed test (Lighthouse, phone). Google only publishes speed data from real visitors once a site has enough traffic, and this site does not have enough yet, so these are lab results. Google's target is to show the main content within 2.5 seconds. The homepage takes 13.5 seconds. One reason: a category drop-down in the sidebar lists all 7,554 categories, adding about 600 KB of code. The site does not get enough visitors for Google's real-visitor speed data, so these are lab tests.

What to do

Remove the category drop-down and compress the homepage images. Work order 7