AI & Automation
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
OK, so after 7 years building websites as a freelancer, I've sat through countless meetings where marketing teams desperately needed faster deployment but CTOs insisted on keeping WordPress. The breakthrough moment came when I helped a B2B SaaS startup cut their website update time from 2 weeks to 2 hours by shifting from design-first to SEO-first thinking.
The uncomfortable truth? I was essentially training world-class sales reps to do door-to-door sales in an empty neighborhood. Beautiful websites, perfect conversion optimization, pixel-perfect designs - but nobody was finding them.
That's when I realized most businesses treat their website like a digital brochure when it should be treated as a marketing laboratory. Here's what you'll learn from my journey:
Why "design-first" WordPress development creates beautiful failures
The mindset shift that transformed my entire approach to client projects
A proven framework to build websites that actually get discovered
When SEO plugins aren't enough (and what works instead)
How to avoid the "redesign trap" that kills momentum
This isn't about choosing between design and SEO - it's about building websites people actually find. Read more about website strategy here.
Industry Reality
What every web designer has already heard
The WordPress ecosystem has created a massive industry around "best practices" that sound logical but miss the fundamental point. Here's what everyone recommends:
The Design-First Approach (What I Used to Do):
Start with features and product pages
Assume the homepage is the main entry point
Build navigation around company structure
Optimize for the perfect pitch
"Bolt on" SEO afterward using plugins
Every web design agency follows this playbook. They'll show you mockups, discuss user journeys, debate color schemes, and obsess over conversion elements. Then, as an afterthought, they'll say "Don't worry, we'll install Yoast SEO to handle the technical stuff."
The problem? This treats SEO like a plugin you can install rather than a foundational architecture decision. Yoast, Rank Math, and AIOSEO are excellent tools, but they can't fix fundamental structural problems. As Rank Math themselves note, even the best SEO plugin can't overcome poor theme choices or site architecture.
Why does this conventional wisdom exist? Because it's easier to sell visual mockups than invisible SEO architecture. Clients can see designs, but they can't see search strategy. The result? Beautiful websites that nobody finds.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
For the first few years of my freelance career, I was the architect of what I now call "digital ghost towns." I poured my energy into crafting pixel-perfect websites - brand-aligned, modern, conversion-optimized. Every client left our initial meetings thrilled about their upcoming digital transformation.
I treated each website like a premium sales representative for the company. The messaging was sharp. The user journey was seamless. The design made competitors look outdated. I was proud of my work, and clients were initially thrilled.
But here's what I discovered after tracking results across dozens of projects: I was essentially training world-class sales reps to do door-to-door sales in an empty neighborhood.
The pattern was brutal and consistent:
Beautiful websites? Check.
Professional brand presence? Check.
Actual visitors coming to see it? Crickets.
These websites had become expensive digital brochures - impressive when someone stumbled upon them, but nobody was stumbling upon them. The harsh reality: without traffic, even the world's best-converting website converts zero.
One client project really drove this home. A SaaS startup had paid for a complete website redesign - modern, fast-loading, conversion-optimized. Six months later, they were getting less than 500 organic visitors monthly. All that design work, all that optimization, and they couldn't even fill a small conference room with their monthly web traffic.
That's when I realized I needed to completely restructure my approach. The fundamental shift? Stop thinking of your website as having one front door (the homepage). In an SEO-focused approach, every piece of content is a potential first impression.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
This realization forced me to completely restructure my approach. I shifted from "design-first" to "SEO-first" thinking, and it transformed everything about how I build websites.
The SEO-First Approach (What Actually Drives Results):
Start with keyword research - always
Build content around what people actually search for
Create multiple entry points through targeted pages
Structure the site around search intent, not company org charts
Design supports SEO, not the other way around
Step 1: Content Architecture Before Visual Design
Instead of starting with wireframes, I now begin every project with keyword research and content mapping. What are people actually searching for in this industry? What problems are they trying to solve? This becomes the foundation of site architecture.
Step 2: Every Page is a Front Door
The biggest mindset shift is understanding that in SEO, every page is a potential first impression. Blog posts, product pages, category pages - they all need to work as standalone landing pages. This changes everything about navigation, internal linking, and content structure.
Step 3: WordPress Theme Selection Based on SEO, Not Aesthetics
I now choose themes based on technical SEO factors: clean code, fast loading times, proper heading structure, mobile responsiveness, and semantic HTML. Visual customization comes after the technical foundation is solid.
Step 4: Plugin Strategy Beyond SEO
While I use Rank Math for technical SEO, the real power comes from treating WordPress as a content management system optimized for discovery. This means strategic use of categories, tags, custom post types, and internal linking structures.
Step 5: Content-First, Design-Second
Instead of designing empty layouts and filling them with content later, I now plan content strategy first. What topics will drive organic traffic? How will users navigate between related content? Design serves this content strategy.
The result? Websites that get discovered organically, build audiences over time, and actually serve the business goals they were built for.
Mindset Shift
Every page is a potential first impression, not just the homepage
Content Strategy
Plan content around search intent, not company structure
Technical Foundation
Choose themes for SEO performance, customize for brand after
Plugin Philosophy
SEO plugins handle technical details, strategy comes first
The transformation was dramatic once I started applying this approach consistently. Instead of building beautiful websites that struggled to reach 1,000 monthly visitors, I was creating digital assets that scaled organically.
Typical Results with SEO-First Approach:
Organic traffic growth from launch, not years later
Multiple entry points driving qualified traffic
Content that compounds over time
Websites that marketing teams can actually manage
More importantly, clients stopped needing constant redesigns because their websites were built for long-term discovery, not short-term visual trends. The focus shifted from "Does this look modern?" to "Are we reaching our audience?"
One SaaS client went from 500 monthly organic visitors to over 5,000 in six months using this approach. Learn more about scaling content with AI here.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
The Top 7 Lessons Learned:
Distribution beats design quality every time: A basic website with strong SEO outperforms a beautiful site with poor discoverability
WordPress themes are starting points, not endpoints: Technical SEO comes from theme choice, but strategy drives results
SEO plugins can't fix fundamental problems: Rank Math and Yoast are excellent, but they can't overcome poor site architecture
Content strategy before visual design: Plan what people will search for, then design around that content
Every page needs to work as a landing page: Users enter your site from multiple points, not just the homepage
Marketing teams need website autonomy: If marketers can't update content quickly, SEO strategies fail
Build for discovery, not just conversion: The best-converting website means nothing if nobody finds it
When This Approach Works Best: Businesses that need organic growth, content-driven marketing, and long-term audience building. When It Doesn't: Companies with huge advertising budgets who only need landing pages for paid campaigns.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
SaaS Implementation:
Start with use-case content around customer problems
Build integration pages for common workflow tools
Create comparison content for competitive searches
Optimize for bottom-funnel keywords that drive trials
For your Ecommerce store
Ecommerce Implementation:
Optimize category pages for product discovery searches
Create buying guides and comparison content
Build topical clusters around product categories
Focus on long-tail product and solution keywords