Is a Headless CMS as Scary as it Sounds?
TechnologyWe know you’ve probably already heard of headless CMS but you may not know how we use it with WordPress.
In this blog post we will answer all of your questions and reveal the ins and outs of a WordPress website with a headless CMS. Our aim is to help you decide whether this is something suitable for your needs, we promise you it isn’t as scary as it may sound.
Using a headless CMS with WordPress
Although WordPress is an amazingly powerful CMS, the “vanilla” configuration doesn’t always meet people’s needs and requirements. Some users find that they need it to be more flexible and adjustable. Although it was not intended to be a headless CMS, its development has moved that way in recent years. This allows you to keep your current WordPress site and still take advantage of the latest advances in technology.
To make things easier, WordPress already has REST API built in, meaning this is one thing you don’t need to worry about. As WordPress is already a “go to” choice when it comes to building websites, when using it as a headless CMS it can perform well with a variety of hardware and software. Another added bonus is that since it has been around for some time now, it only requires MySQL and PHP stack to run it.
The advantages of having a headless CMS
The best advantage of having a headless CMS is the flexibility and control it provides developers. It allows you to control almost everything as you can decide how data is managed, how content is stored in the back end and decide on the best front-end solution for your needs.
Having a headless CMS means it’s easier to fix bugs, push updates and reuse already existing models. On top of this, it tends to be compatible with most platforms and the chance of DDoS attacks are reduced due to the fact that there is no content publishing solution native to a headless CMS. This is exactly the reason why we rolled this out for our client Racing Post as they were wanting to put a stop to DDoS attacks. We are happy to say that doing this has worked an absolute treat and the client has not experienced any attacks since.
WordPress also rolls out its own security checks and undertakes regular maintenance. This is also a great option if you’re looking to cut down on overhead costs and your cloud storage bills as it doesn’t have a bulky set of requirements, like other content management systems do.
Why you should use a headless WordPress
One of the main advantages of using a headless WordPress is that it will most likely improve the speed of your website, which is a great advantage. This is because a website’s performance is important for SEO and the experience of those visiting the website.
Did you know that approximately 40 percent of people will leave a site that takes more than three seconds to load? This is why it is vital that your website is up to speed. This is another reason that we used a headless WordPress for Racing Post. Unfortunately their original website was losing visitors due to how long it took to load. Luckily since the change they no longer face this problem.
Having a headless CMS is an ideal fit for those who need greater control over the back end and wish to employ API calls to push your content to various platforms. The benefit of using WordPress for this is that it requires just a simple MySQL and PHP stack to run. You can also cut down on overhead costs and cloud storage bills by making use of WordPress over other headless CMSs that may otherwise have a bulkier set of requirements.
