Roger Montti and Erin Sparks dive into some recent articles Montti has written regarding the Wix and WordPress smackdown. Montti expands on how the Pandemic has affected the technology community and relationships within the community. He also explains Core Web Vitals on his terms.
- [00:04:24] Roger’s Publishing History
- [00:07:03] The Effect The Loss Of Conventions Have Had On The Seo Community.
- [00:13:08] Don’t Be Afraid To Be Challenged
- [00:14:19] Core Web Vitals, Roger’s Take.
- [00:24:57] Wix and WordPress Slap Fest
A Look at Roger Montti
Roger Montti is a Site Publisher and SEO Consultant at Search Engine Journal. Founder and owner of an internet marketing consulting firm based out of San Francisco; he is a search marketer with 20 years of experience. Montti provides site audits, phone consultations, and content and link strategy assistance. He was the head judge of the 2020 US Search Awards and is the publisher of award-winning websites. Montii has presented at several search marketing conferences. His firm specializes in business, business marketing, solutions, and incorporating discreet search engine optimizations and clicks strategies.
Montti began writing for Search Engine Journal three years ago, has been publishing his writing on his blog and across social media before then. He felt he had a lot to say about the industry, so he volunteered when a writing position opened. Montti started studying HTML, building websites, and building affiliate sites in 1999. When interning at a technology company, his strict boss enabled him to internalize HTML and coding. In 2001, Montti registered for WebMaster World using the nickname Martinibuster. From there, he was able to connect with the internet marketing community at large.
After becoming a moderator, Montti got to know many people in the industry and has been involved in the search community ever since. He enjoys presentations because it is a way to be in the presence of his peers, who he mostly knows online. He enjoys sharing what he knows and his personal experience with link building and content while being among friends and colleagues.
The Pandemic’s Impact on Web Communities
According to Montti, covid has been affecting the ability to get back to normalcy. However, those that depend on ad revenue may be seeing business begin to pick up. Montti thinks that things will head towards normalcy in business, but personal lives will still be different. For Montti, he was already in a different space physically due to moving from San Francisco to western Massachusetts. Compared to the technology community in SF, his current location does not have much of a community. He joined a men’s fraternal organization to be in space physically with people and make friends.
Monti’s relationships with friends in the technology community had not changed much since those relationships already heavily thrived through online interactions. Montti does still miss going to conferences and embracing people, and having conversations face to face physically. Nonetheless, the technology community is wired to be virtual.
Montti wants to encourage web workers, especially those who work from home, to get involved with Facebook groups or online forums and participate. It gives people a chance to be a part of something, share opinions, and insights, and possibly make some friends. Montii also advises people not to be afraid of being challenged because people who avoid challenges inhibit their learning and sometimes struggle.
Core Web Vitals in The Eyes of Montti
Core web vitals are metrics that Google invented that represent three aspects of a user’s page experience. Google has always mainly considered the user’s page experience, encouraging the industry to back core web vitals. Affiliate marketers understand the value of light pages because it is essentially more profitable when there is a fast-loading website.
Google is mainly trying to push core web vitals because the search engine is referring websites, and it is unfavorable if the user has a bad experience on the website Google sent them to it. It’s in everyone’s interest (the user and publisher) for page downloads to be fast and usable in an ideal amount of time. Core web vitals allow web publishers to work together as a seamless ecosystem. It’s a way to get the optimal user experience. The problem is that issues can be inherent. The platform can make it difficult to be fast loading, but there are solutions.
Sites like WordPress have themes and additional plug-ins with the nature of it being functionality. This idea will be advantageous, and those in the industry should be paying attention to it. When core web vitals get introduced to the industry, it will not be an industry-jarring event or disruptive; it will slowly creep in like a drip.
Wix vs. WordPress: A Cloud of Negativity
Montti recently wrote an article addressing the tension between Wix and WordPress that seemed to come to a peak. These two sites have five years of history going back and forth. The SEO industry has a problem with Wix due to the inability to change the SEO on the platform, subsequently giving Wix a history of bad SEO. While there is no technical synergy between the SEO industry and Wix, Wix has been taking steps to improve this.
Wix ran ads that are being perceived as tone-deaf by taking a humorous approach in the context of someone having a mental health crisis. Some people called the ads distasteful, which resulted in Wix receiving a lot of backlashes. WordPress Founder, Matt Mullenweg, wrote a sharp and cutting open letter in response to the Wix ads. The ad essentially being dubbed a misfire. Wix CEO Avishai Abrahami came back with his open letter that is considered a very calm response with some valid points but hints of gaslighting. In his article, Montti claims that were is enough negativity today, so there is no need to add to it with nasty ads and finger-pointing.
Wix is a software and service for people who don’t want to deal with the technology aspects of things. WordPress has unlimited possibilities for what the consumer can do and how they can achieve it. The moral of the story is that they don’t need to fight, and they can coexist. Ultimately, the consumer decides which platform is best for them, so they don’t need to be subjected to negativity.
