I'm Slobodan Manić.
Website optimisation consultant · Podcast host · Keynote speaker
Former CTO of Search Engine Journal, author of the Machine-First Architecture framework, CXL-certified CRO professional, and five-time WordPress core contributor.
Your website now has two audiences: the humans who visit it, and the AI agents - ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Claude - that browse, evaluate, and act on their behalf.
AI agents aren't just recommending sites - they're using them. They research products, compare options, and complete transactions for users. When a site loads slowly, fails WCAG, or hides critical data behind JavaScript, those agents misread the content or skip the page entirely. Large language models also select roughly 380 words from each page they cite, so pages without named entities, explicit relationships, and citable anchor sentences get passed over - regardless of how much content they contain.
I optimise websites so they work for both audiences: fast and accessible for humans, semantically structured and server-rendered for AI agents. Every engagement is grounded in the four pillars of Machine-First Architecture - Identity, Structure, Content, and Interaction - and 15 years of production engineering on projects involving Instacart, Klarna, and Search Engine Journal.
Why we'll do great work together
You get a partner who has shipped code to WordPress core five times, led engineering at Search Engine Journal, and authored a published methodology for AI-readable websites. Here is what that looks like in practice:
- I document every issue against the four pillars of Machine-First Architecture and resolve every one of them - not just the high-impact items in a Lighthouse report.
- I read the source code and the rendered DOM, not just the visual layer, so I find structural defects that automated audit tools miss.
- I ship semantic HTML, server-rendered JSON-LD, and WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility - the same standards ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews use to decide what to cite.
- Every performance fix is measured against revenue impact, not just Core Web Vitals scores - the discipline I learned through CXL CRO certification.
I have worked on projects involving teams at Instacart, Klarna, and Search Engine Journal, where I served as Chief Technology Officer. I host the No Hacks podcast and speak at conferences including WordCamp Lisboa, WordCamp Netherlands, Marketing Festival, and Conversion Hotel, with upcoming talks at Experimentation Elite (Space Academy) and WordCamp Portugal in May 2026.
Slobodan is one of the leading professionals in website optimisation. His passion and his drive for excellence is unparalleled.
When it comes to increasing efficiency online, Slobodan's opinion is one that i truly trust and respect.
Services - I provide services that pay for themselves
I audit Core Web Vitals, WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility, semantic HTML, JSON-LD structured data, and AI extractability against the four pillars of Machine-First Architecture: Identity, Structure, Content, and Interaction. Every defect is documented and resolved - not just the high-impact items.
Outcome: a website that loads fast for humans, passes every audit, and gets cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews because the content is structured to be cited.
No leaks left behind
Most websites bleed revenue through small defects nobody is monitoring - 200ms of layout shift here, a missing alt attribute there, a JSON-LD block that validates but says nothing useful to ChatGPT. Each one is invisible alone and expensive in aggregate. I audit every page template, every component, and every asset against Machine-First Architecture, then fix every defect on the list. The deliverable is a website that passes every audit and ships nothing for AI agents to misread.
Let's work together
Need a technical audit, a speaker for your event, or a guest for your podcast? Let's talk.