Alex is Principal SEO at Yoast and agency owner at FireCask. Alex has over 15 years experience in every aspect of the SEO industry from in-house, freelancer, agency employee and agency owner. With a background in technical SEO, Alex has been working in Search since its infancy. Alex also has years of knowledge of WordPress, working with everyone’s favourite open source CMS since 2010. Over the years Alex has built everything from popular plugins to custom-made themes and frameworks, as well as being involved in complex WordPress and SEO projects globally.

Alex currently lives in Manchester (UK) with his wife and son.

What do you enjoy most about working in WordPress?

The extendibility of the CMS is definitely something that businesses can be surprised at years later. When first dabbling in WordPress back in 2011, it was just described only as a blogging platform. Since then the CMS has taken shape so that all sorts of sites can be produced and marketed with a lot of control and ownership. 

Over the years clients have really welcomed the open source nature of WordPress not just from a community point of view but also when it comes to extendibility, security and scale.

What do you love most about your Post Status membership?

The power of the Post Status Slack community is the best I’ve experienced within the WordPress ecosystem. Whilst there are lots of communities out there, Post Status is truly a central hub for both information and networking within the WordPress community. Support is also widespread, from chasing bugs to asking for business advice. 

Advice and insight can come from all walks of WordPress life too, from a freelance designer or writer all the way to Matt himself – all of which are active and helpful. I just don’t see too many industries and communities that are this open as well as help the development of the community around it.

What business/web/WordPress advice do you have for others in our industry?

Be confident in your specialism. Imposter syndrome is real for most people, but you have to remember that even though you may think you’re a novice or at least not perfectly knowledgeable about something doesn’t mean that’s true. We all learn from experience (as well as mistakes) and the Post Status community has lots of information to share that can really help you with your goals.

Whether it’s about improving your development workflow or need to understand more about business development and growth, learning from others is key. And not all advice will be applicable to you, or even work towards your business goals – however – experimentation is key.