What should I use for AEO-friendly publishing, Ghost or WordPress?

If your goal is AEO-friendly publishing (Answer Engine Optimization), both Ghost and WordPress can work well—but they fit different priorities.

Short answer

• Choose Ghost if you want clean, fast, simple publishing with less maintenance.
• Choose WordPress if you want maximum SEO/AEO control, flexibility, plugins, and schema options.

For AEO specifically, what matters most

AEO is less about the CMS itself and more about whether the platform helps you create:

• clear, concise answers
• strong heading structure
• FAQ-style content
• schema markup / structured data
• fast page loads
• clean HTML
• good internal linking

Both platforms can do this, but they differ in how easy it is.

Ghost: strengths for AEO

Pros

• Very clean, minimal output
• Fast by default
• Easier to maintain
• Good for publishing focused content with less technical overhead
• Built-in markdown/editor encourages concise, structured writing

Cons

• Less flexible than WordPress
• Fewer plugins/integrations for advanced schema or custom AEO workflows
• Smaller ecosystem
• If you need complex content structures, it can feel limited

Best for

• newsletters
• blogs
• thought leadership sites
• simple content brands that want speed and clean publishing

WordPress: strengths for AEO

Pros

• Huge ecosystem
• Best-in-class control over SEO and structured data
• Easy to add schema, FAQ blocks, content tables, breadcrumbs, and AEO plugins
• More customization for content types and internal linking strategies
• Strong support for editorial workflows and scalability

Cons

• Can become bloated if poorly built
• Performance depends heavily on theme, hosting, and plugins
• More maintenance/security overhead

Best for

• content-heavy sites
• businesses that need technical SEO
• sites needing custom schema and advanced content architecture
• teams that want lots of flexibility

My recommendation

Pick WordPress if:

• you want the best overall AEO control
• you plan to use schema, FAQs, topic clusters, and custom content types
• you want room to grow

Pick Ghost if:

• you want the simplest, fastest publishing experience
• your content strategy is straightforward
• you value speed and minimal maintenance over customization

Practical bottom line

If you’re optimizing for AEO at scale, WordPress is usually the stronger choice.

If you’re optimizing for ease, speed, and clean publishing, Ghost is excellent.

If you want, I can also give you:

1. a Ghost vs WordPress AEO feature comparison table, or
2. a recommended AEO setup for whichever platform you choose.