Welcome to the New NameHero Blog (And Goodbye WordPress)

I finally hit my last straw with WordPress.

In case you’ve missed it, given the rise of AI, we’ve seen a tremendous uptick (industry-wide) in severe CVEs and critical security vulnerabilities across the board. From kernels to PHP to WordPress, bad actors have leveraged this technology to find new ways to exploit vulnerabilities and cause massive harm.

#The update that broke everything

Several weeks ago, one of these vulnerabilities was announced in core WordPress, and I needed to update the NameHero blog (which has used WordPress since our launch in 2015). Given my position, I’ve always been one to stay on top of updates, and I am absolutely security paranoid.

Despite always using best practices (not adding sloppy coding, overloading with third-party plugins, etc.), this specific WordPress update broke everything. The editor quit working, the plugins stopped loading, etc. I spent 6 hours one day and 6 the next going back and forth with all the troubleshooting. This included restoring the site nearly 10 times from off-site backups. It was an exhausting, frustrating, and complete time drain.

In recent months, I had been leveraging an internal AI application I built that fully develops websites with a professional design, prestige code, and full SEO/AEO/GEO optimization. I had officially said my goodbyes to ever launching a new website with WordPress, but I kept the NameHero blog because of my fear of moving over all of the posts, getting external writers access, screwing up our search engine rankings, etc.

But this update was the moment I finally had enough. It was time to get off of WordPress and figure out the path to move forward and into the future.

#What the move gave us

To my surprise, the platform I had already built was able to do it all:

• It developed a design I would have paid an agency several thousand dollars for (or that would have cost an internal developer weeks).
• It mapped out all of the current posts, moved every single one over to the new design, and ran multiple in-depth audits.
• It went through and ensured every page wasn’t only optimized for SEO, but also added long-missing AEO/GEO optimizations (so we show up recommended in new AI chatbots, etc.).
• It developed a safe internal login for external writers to access and easily add new content.

I was blown away, as this all happened while I slept.

All of this was completed behind the scenes on a staging area. Once I gave my final approval, it was pushed live, and that is the new blog you’re reading right now.

Now, not only do we have a cleaner, more professional look, we’re more optimized than ever for search engines and AI chatbots, AND the entire blog loads blazing fast. No more spinning, waiting on a plugin to call/load a library. No more countless updates to deal with. No more plugin vendors to pay renewals for. No more wp-admin littered with advertisements and upsells. And no more dealing with the drama within that community.

#What I used, and what we launched

The businessman inside of me then said I need to get this out to our audience. I can’t just keep this to myself.

Today, we officially launched Lenexa.bot, a new entity from us here at NameHero. It is an AI website studio, where a crew of AI specialists designs, writes, builds, and publishes a site. In the coming days, I’m going to be blogging more about this amazing platform that was built by necessity and is now the most used piece of software I’ve ever used in my life. It has given me back countless hours and helps me sleep much better at night.

If you want the whole story of this conversion, including how the posts were moved and how the old addresses were checked, read the field guide: How NameHero moved 1,227 WordPress posts. It covers moving all 1,227 posts and checking 5,065 old addresses.

If you’re reading this, I wanted to let you know we’re releasing 50 copies on initial launch. Once they’re sold out, we’ll be transitioning to a waitlist. If you’ve read me for any length of time, you know I frequently say people above profits. I like to launch stuff of quality and not “rush to load my pockets.” So feel free to check it out while it’s still available.

Learn more at Lenexa.bot, or read how NameHero moved its blog off WordPress.

Ryan Gray
Founder, NameHero