The internet is going through unprecedented change, and we want our clients to know what that means for their websites.
First, there is no emergency. Your WordPress or traditional CMS website isn't suddenly going to stop working, and we're not suggesting that everyone needs to replace their website right away.
However, websites are expected to do a great deal more than they were just a few years ago. Keeping up with all of these changes is becoming more difficult and more expensive. What used to be the best-practice playbook — build a good site, keep it secure, optimize it for Google — is becoming a much larger technical, financial, and legal challenge.
The changes we're watching
These are the shifts putting the most pressure on WordPress and traditional CMS websites right now.
Privacy and cookies
We all know cookie banners, but having one doesn't solve the vulnerabilities around it. Privacy laws are becoming stricter, and there have been more gray-area lawsuits involving the way websites collect and share visitor information. Owners increasingly need to be careful about what their site collects and which outside services receive it. That complexity and risk can be mitigated, not remedied — and mitigating it is getting harder.
Website accessibility
Businesses are now expected to make their websites usable by people with disabilities, including people who may have difficulty seeing, hearing, or using a mouse or keyboard. Lawsuits over inaccessible websites have become a real concern.
The difficult part is that accessibility isn't something you fix once and forget. It has to be maintained across complex, constantly changing components — close to an impossible task without an expensive auditor on retainer. Expensive to implement partially at best, and expensive in legal exposure if you don't.
Security
WordPress websites are built from many separate pieces of software called plugins. Think of them like apps on your phone. They add useful features, but each one needs to be updated and kept secure. The more pieces a website depends on, the more things there are that can go out of date, conflict with one another, or open a security hole. Security has always mattered; AI has made hacking faster, cheaper, and more aggressive.
Google is changing because of AI
For years, businesses have worked to make sure they show up in Google. That's still important, but people are now also asking ChatGPT and other AI tools the questions they once asked Google. The way people find businesses online is beginning to change.
Websites will increasingly need to make sense not just to people and to Google, but to AI as well. That isn't a switch you flip. It's a different technical language a website needs to speak.
The rules keep changing
Privacy, accessibility, security, Google, browsers, mobile requirements, and AI are all moving at the same time. A website that followed every best practice a year ago may not follow today's — and today's rules will keep changing. Keeping up grows in complexity and cost, and a traditional website can't check all the boxes anymore. Google's shifting landscape on all these fronts also means those who don't keep up quietly lose ranking.
And it's all happening quickly
This may be the most important point. The internet has always changed, but AI is dramatically speeding things up. New ways of searching, new tools, new rules, and new expectations are appearing faster than ever — and each one is a significant technical era of its own.
The frustrating fact is that satisfying all of the above ranges from semi-impossible to very expensive. Yet compliance is becoming more paramount, and riskier to omit.
So what does this mean for your WordPress website?
For now, it may mean very little. WordPress is still a good platform, and millions of websites use it.
The concern is what happens over the next year. WordPress was designed for a different generation of the web — and that generation ended rather suddenly.
“Think of it like owning a slightly older car. You can absolutely keep it running. But as requirements change and new technology becomes standard, you keep adding, replacing, and maintaining more and more to keep up. And as the world starts to penalize gas cars and replace gas stations with charging stations, you'll eventually need to go electric.”
The shift to next-generation websites
The next generation of websites is different. Instead of constantly updating and auditing a site to keep up with a changing internet, much of that work is increasingly handled automatically.
As privacy rules change, search changes, accessibility standards change, security threats change, and new AI systems emerge, next-gen platforms adapt — vastly reducing legal risk, plugin sprawl, and time-intensive maintenance. That's what we've been preparing for and building this year.
Realistically, only a next-gen website checks all of the boxes above and stays future-proof. The upside is that these platforms also unlock genuinely remarkable capabilities for you and your audience along the way.
The web is changing quickly. Our job is to make sure your website can change with it.