My name is Benjamin Denis, founder of SEOPress, I live in Anglet, France (right next to Biarritz, which is popular among surfers). 12 years ago I started working with WordPress in my spare time as a student of Economics Management at University. Since then, I have not stopped learning and evolving with this CMS.
The Journey Began
It all started when I was 12 years old (I’m 30 now, time flies) and I made my first HTML website using FrontPage. Then I switched to Dreamweaver.
First major problem: How to quickly modify the design of dozens of pages easily? This is where I discovered the CMS Dotclear, very popular in France at that time, then Joomla and finally WordPress, which I never left.
3 reasons to stick with WordPress: Themes, Plugins, and its Community.
The Need for SEOPress
SEOPress Logo
Like most of my development work (plugins, themes…), it was above all to meet my own personal needs that I undertook the creation of the SEOPress plugin (as was the case for the previously deprecated one today: WP Cloudy and WP Admin UI).
None of the existing solutions on the market satisfied me and I imagine that the current SEOPress users felt the same way.
A simple and effective product, without advertising, without tracking: This is the basic philosophy of SEOPress.
Two French companies in the WordPress community inspired me (and they continue to do so) in the creation of this project which has now become a company: Weglot and WP-Media (WP-Rocket and Imagify).
Where I Get Work Done
Benjamin Denis Workplace
Advice for Business Owners
The key to success is Focus, focus, and focus on your product and customers.
Internationalize your product as soon as possible: English first, then add languages as you go. And call on professionals for this important job. I recommend WP Translations.
Stay in Touch
WordPress & Beyond
WordPress is like PHP: too big to fail! And it is a huge advantage to work on a CMS whose market share is increasing year by year. I am very optimistic about its future.
My Love for the WordPress Community
My first WordCamp was WordCamp Paris quite a few years ago (2014 maybe). Subsequently, I organized local meetups/conferences/events around WordPress for several years. I was also part of the office of WPFR (WordPress Francophone) as secretary, the first WordPress association in France.
I attended my first WordCamp Europe in Paris in 2017, then in Berlin in 2019 where we were able to meet our customers, partners, and friends.
SEOPress Stand WCEU19
We give back to the community by sponsoring many WordCamps around the world in 2019.
Unfortunately, the current situation means that for this year it will be more complicated to meet but it is only partly postponed (we’ll be in Porto in 2021!).
How I Keep Myself Updated
Staying up to date is essential. I recommend anyone who works in the web and IT in general to read books (it’s a paper-based thing), to follow newsletters, blogs, YouTube channels, podcasters, etc. as regularly as possible. Without forgetting WordCamps of course!
I Have a Life Other Than the Work
Even if SEOPress occupies a very large part of my life, every entrepreneur must also take time for himself. For my part, concerts (Hans Zimmer, Ennio Morricone, Thomas Bergersen), sailing on the Basque coast, good restaurants with friends, and trips!
