I woke up before my alarm, stared at my slides, and did that pre-talk ritual we all pretend isn’t a ritual: coffee, pacing, one more tweak to a heading that nobody but me would notice. Then I stepped into WordCamp Praha and felt it immediately—the friendly hum of the WordPress community. Lanyards. Stickers. “Hey, I think I use your theme.” The kind of event where you learn three things in the hallway before you’ve even found the first session.
Getting picked, getting ready
A few weeks earlier I’d been selected to speak on SEO optimization for WordPress. I trimmed my deck ruthlessly. No fluff, no SEO mysticism. Just the stuff that moves the needle when you’re wrestling with real sites, real deadlines, and real clients.
My goal was simple: give people a playbook they could use on Monday morning without rewriting their entire website or buying a new plugin zoo.
Why I Was Chosen to Speak
I didn’t pitch “secret hacks.” I pitched a practical, WordPress-native SEO session people could apply on Monday—click paths, checklists, and proofs. That’s what got me the nod.
What set my proposal apart:
- Local relevance: I work in Prague and promised CZ/EN-specific examples (hreflang, hosting latency, local SERPs).
- Track record, not theory: I submitted anonymized before/after snapshots—HTTPS migrations, crawl cleanups, speed wins—with the exact steps taken in WordPress.
- Show > tell: Live admin demos and a one-page checklist instead of vague “best practices.”
- Community presence: I’d been active in meetups and forums, helping ship solutions—not just opinions.
- Clear scope & outcomes: A tight agenda (HTTPS done right, mobile-first, canonical sanity, sitemaps/robots hygiene, schema basics) plus time for Q&A and a mini live audit.
What I promised in the abstract (and delivered):
| Item | What I pitched | Why organizers cared |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | “WordPress SEO You Can Deploy Today” | Actionable, tool-agnostic, zero fluff |
| Format | Step-by-step wp-admin demos + handout | Attendees leave with a repeatable process |
| Localization | CZ/EN hreflang and market nuances | Directly useful to the Prague audience |
| Proof | Real case snapshots with metrics | Credibility over buzzwords |
| Engagement | Live audit if time allowed | High value, high learning density |
In short: concrete, local, verifiable, and immediately useful—the exact mix WordCamp audiences (and organizers) appreciate.
The room, the vibe
Prague showed up. Developers, content folks, freelancers, agency teams—the full WordPress mix. The volunteers ran things like clockwork. Questions were sharp but kind. That’s the thing about WordCamps: you’re never talking at the crowd; you’re talking with people who ship.
I cracked a small joke about sliders (controversial!) and we were off.
What I shared (the short version)
I focused on fundamentals that are boring to talk about and beautiful in the analytics:
- Migrate to HTTPS correctly. No half measures, clean 301s, fix mixed content the same day.
- Think mobile-first. Responsive, readable, tappable. Check real phones, not just dev tools.
- Tidy permalinks and canonicals. Fewer crawl headaches, clearer signals.
- Speed as a ranking proxy. Cache smart, compress images, defer the shiny stuff.
- Sitemaps, robots, schema. Help crawlers help you.
- International sites. Hreflang that actually works—no language cannibalization.
- Prune thin content. Redirect, consolidate, or kill it with kindness.
To make it concrete, I did a mini live audit: cut a heavy hero, resized images, moved a third-party script below the fold. Instant improvement. Eyes lit up. That’s my favorite part.
The questions that mattered
- Do we need two SEO plugins? No. Pick a reputable one and configure it properly.
- Is AMP mandatory? Not for most sites. Fix fundamentals first.
- How many plugins is “too many”? Wrong question. Ask which ones actually ship code on the front end.
- Can we switch to HTTPS without losing rankings? Yes—if your redirects are perfect and you clean up everything on day one.
The community bit (the best bit)
Between sessions, people traded real war stories: multilingual snafus, caching that worked too well, the plugin that broke right before a client meeting. Someone shared a snippet that fixed a breadcrumb loop. Someone else offered to translate documentation. That generosity is why I love WordPress—people build in public, then hand you the blueprint.
What I learned as a speaker
- Show your clicks. A 10-second on-screen click path beats a 10-minute theory.
- Local nuance wins. Czech/English hreflang, hosting latency, searcher intent by market—worth the time.
- Cut 20% of your slides. Use the time for Q&A. That’s where the magic happens.
- Give a takeaway. I handed out a one-pager. People still email me about it.
My 2017 SEO checklist that still holds up
| Task | Why it still matters | Quick tip |
|---|---|---|
| HTTPS + perfect 301s ???? | Trust, speed, consolidated signals | Test every legacy URL path |
| Mobile UX first ???? | Most traffic is mobile | Big tap targets, readable fonts, no tiny modals |
| Image discipline ????️ | Largest files, biggest wins | WebP/AVIF + proper dimensions + srcset |
| Lean home page ???? | Faster LCP = happier users | Kill a carousel, gain a second |
| Single SEO plugin ⚙️ | Reduce conflicts | Configure once, audit yearly |
| Sitemap + robots ???? | Better discovery | Keep junk out of the index |
| Canonicals & archives ???? | Prevent duplicates | Noindex thin taxonomies |
| Hreflang that works ???? | Stops language cannibalization | Validate with real SERP checks |
| Content pruning ✂️ | Lift sitewide quality | Redirect to the best equivalent |
The afterglow
After my session, I found myself in the hallway for nearly an hour answering follow-ups, swapping site audits, and collecting notebook scribbles I still use. Later, over coffee, a developer told me the live audit convinced his client to ditch a heavy slider. That alone was worth the prep.
If you’re speaking at a WordCamp soon
- Rehearse out loud. Not just in your head.
- Bring examples from real sites. People can smell theory.
- Time-box everything. Leave room for questions.
- Stick around. The hallway track is half the conference.
I left WordCamp Praha tired, caffeinated, and genuinely energized. The talks were great, sure—but the real story was the people. Smart. Helpful. Curious. The kind of community that will debate taxonomy archives, then help you fix yours on the spot.
Would I do it again? In a heartbeat. Same city, same crowd, same mission: keep WordPress fast, findable, and friendly—one less carousel at a time.
