Speaker Spotlight: Neil Pursey

 Tell us a bit about yourself

When I’m not working I enjoy a round of golf, it definitely keeps me sane. I am the owner of WebGrowth, co-partner in ThinkSEO and co-partner in the GROW Academy.

I discovered SEO by chance in a previous business of mine, and realising the need for SEO skills in South Africa I founded WebGrowth in 2006.

I have a deep desire for helping businesses succeed through search marketing as well as education & social development. I came across WordPress in 2008 and have never personally built a website in anything else besides it since then.

Why WordPress?

In 2008 I was choosing between various CMS platforms and WordPress stuck out as the easiest and most effective way to build a website. I still feel that way 3 years later. I’m probably even more passionate now than I was then about WordPress because of the developments that have happened over the past few years, which have been ground breaking in website management & design.

What are your thoughts on the WordPress community as a whole? And the South African WP community?

The WordPress community is great. It’s probably the main reason why WordPress has become so popular. The support in forums is amazing. There are many South African WordPress users but the contributing community is still very small in comparison to international counterparts. Hence the reason why I really like the WordCamp Cape Town initiative. It’s a step in the right direction.

Why did you decide to speak at WordCamp Cape Town?

From an SEO perspective I see many WordPress blogs and websites built in South Africa that have basic SEO errors. My goal is to educate publishers (and web developers) of the simplicities of SEO and how effective it can be.

What is your talk going to be about?

I’m going to be talking about a very popular SEO plugin, Yoast’s SEO plugin. I will be going through some fundamental settings that all webmasters should think about when setting up a website. I’ll also be educating the listeners on the best techniques for on-site optimisation within WordPress.

What are you most looking forward to at WordCamp Cape Town?

It will definitely be to see how big the Cape Town WordPress community is and to learn from other peoples experiences of WordPress.

What is the one thing you want people to walk away with from your talk?

I would want them to leave with an action plan/to do list for SEO on their website and if I can add one more.. hopefully to demystify SEO for many publishers.

What is your favourite WordPress theme and/or plugin, and why?

My favourite theme would be the Canvas theme by Woothemes. It’s very powerful! My favourite plugin is Yoast’s SEO plugin and you’ll see why in my presentation

Share one WP tip

A basic tip is to ensure that you’ve added a .htaccess file to the root folder and rewrite the url structure to ‘custom’ and insert /%postname%/ into the field.

Who in the WordPress community inspires you? Who do you u follow?

Our local boys from Woothemes are definitely doing good work for the community. They are constantly adding more value to the platform from a global perspective.

What is the most exciting feature/addition/improvement to WordPress that you have noticed in the last year?

The addition of drag and drop custom menus has definitely been the most exciting development within WordPress for me.

Where do you see WordPress 2 years from now?

I would hope to see a more drag and drop functionalities within WordPress for the newbs and a more scalable WordPress (manage large amounts of content in page format) for the more complex websites. I have seen certain themes starting to do this but there is definitely room for more development over the next 2 years.