Content management systems (CMS) were designed to make it easier to create, manage, and publish digital content on websites, including text, photos, videos, and audio files.
The goal has always been to avoid having to make direct changes to the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (and then upload them via FTP), which is time-consuming and difficult for non-technical users.
In retrospect, CMSs rose to prominence only when dynamic server-side programming languages such as PHP and ASP were developed in the mid-1990s. These backend languages enabled content to be created dynamically based on CMS inputs.
For example, when you create a new page through the CMS, a function on the backend is called for all of the work to add the page to the server.
Back when server-side languages were in their infancy, a slew of CMSs, like Interwoven, FileNet, Vignette StoryServer, BroadVision, and FutureTense, have since been forgotten. This wave of pioneering CMSs was not very simple to use. While they were a start in the right direction, they lacked the flexibility necessary for widespread acceptance.
Who knew this would undergo a considerable shift in 2003 with the introduction of WordPress?
This new content management system was user-friendly, versatile, open-source, scalable, and specifically intended for blogging, which was gaining popularity at the time. While there were alternatives, such as Drupal, WordPress totally controlled the industry and has become synonymous with website creation.
WordPress, which accounts for more than 39% of all websites, has been rated the most debated platform for developers in 2019 and 2020. While marketers adore it for its excellent visual editing capabilities and user-friendly page-building functionality, developers do not appear to share the same enthusiasm.
But why is WordPress producing such a wide gap between marketers and developers? And are there any options that can satisfy both user groups?
Let’s discuss which CMS makes sense for your business or if you want your website migration to WordPress.
Headless Content Marketing
Let’s begin with a note.
According to research, the percentage of firms without a content marketing strategy is steadily reducing. Content marketing is consequently becoming increasingly crucial, with only 28% rating their overall level of content marketing.
On the other hand, Hubspot discovered that the majority of these firms are experiencing little to no success with their adopted content marketing approach.
So, while businesses recognize the value of content marketing, their tactics appear to fail. But why?
CMSwire investigated the condition of digital customer experience and delved deeper into the top digital customer experience concerns, polling over 400 executives.
- Limited budget and resources
- Siloed systems and fragmented customer data
- Limited cross-departmental alignment and coordination
- Outdated or limited technology, operations, or methods
- Inadequate in-house expertise or skills
When glancing through this list, something instantly stands out. The first and final points are directly related to your budget. So, if you have enough resources, these two are not particularly problematic.
Advantages of Headless CMS
Some of the advantages of adopting a headless CMS are:
1. Performance & SEO
Performance is what differentiates headless CMSs from ordinary WordPress. Headless CMSs can use a static site-generation framework like Gatsby or Next.js because the backend functionality that dynamically generates pages is separated from the frontend UI.
Without getting too technical, these platforms generate all of the assets that will be displayed in browsers. There is no need for a server to determine how the page should look because the choice has already been made. As a result, the site’s performance improves dramatically, whether it contains 1000 or 150,000 pages.
The benefit of having a quicker site is that it will rank higher in search engine results. Google has released a list of assessments known as Core Web Vitals (CWV), which websites must pass in order to avoid being penalized. Frontend frameworks combined with headless CMSs have expressly addressed CWV standards, making it easier for developers to pass.
2. Use of Current Technologies and Tools
Headless CMSs are essentially content management controllers. They are not responsible for creating the pages or driving the website’s functionality. That comes from the frontend framework (e.g., Gatsby, Next.js, Nuxt).
These frameworks were created to accommodate modern development standards and technology. They make life easier for developers and integrate well with complex frameworks and packages that may quickly add functionality to a new website.
3. Tailored for the Team’s Use Case
Headless CMSs are more adaptable than their monolithic counterparts. If your team has a unique method of doing business that does not fit into traditional CMSs, going headless can be a terrific solution.
The WordPress UI can be customized to reflect your team’s operations.
Only need a few navigation items?
Don’t worry; they can all be erased.
Do you need to set off numerous events across your systems with a single button click?
It’s not difficult.
4. Omni-channel
The benefits of omnichannel are overstated in the headless world. There aren’t many organizations that publish information simultaneously on IoT devices such as smartwatches, mobile phones, and smart refrigerators.
For businesses that are or have custom applications that require content changes in conjunction with their marketing website, headless CMSs are winners since they allow these adjustments to be made once from a single spot.
Let’s Begin With WordPress
WordPress is an open-source content management system founded in 2003.
It was initially created as a blogging platform. Still, ever since, it has expanded into a full-fledged CMS with a user-friendly interface and an extensive collection of themes and plugins, allowing users to easily personalize their websites. It also has an administration panel where you can add or remove material and control permissions.
The platform’s backend is written in PHP, while the frontend is built with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It stores material in a MySQL database and lets users generate and manage it using a visual editor or the WordPress API.
Advantages of WordPress
Here are some of the benefits of WordPress mentioned in the rundown:
1. User-friendly
WordPress is intended to be simple, especially for novices with no technical background. In case you’re forgetting, it has a straightforward initiative interface that allows content creation and editing via a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor.
This editor lets you preview changes in real time.
The platform also has built-in media management features, which enable users to upload and manage media files. You may easily add text, photographs, videos, and other media to their website with a few clicks.
Understood, this CMS is not the most user-friendly platform, but it is rather simple to understand. It’s also so general that most folks who’ve worked on the web are familiar with the WordPress interface.
2. Customizable
WordPress’s built-in themes and plugins enable extensive customization.
Since its inception, every developer under the sun has created a theme or plugin for WordPress. As a result, users have a mind-boggling number of options for customizing the appearance, feel, and functionality of their site.
To put this in context, there are over 60,000 free plugins available to extend WordPress functionality, as well as 8,000 free themes in the official WordPress theme library. Beyond themes and plugins, WordPress is open source, allowing developers to make direct changes to the content management system.
3. SEO-friendly
When it comes to built-in SEO capabilities, WordPress websites offer a lot. These include a clear permalink structure, which lets users create URLs that contain the title of their content, making it easier for search engines to comprehend what the page is about. Automatic site map development allows search engines to crawl and index all of the site’s pages.
Besides, WordPress also provides various SEO plugins, such as Yoast SEO and All in One SEO Pack, that allow users to improve their content for search engines. These plugins enable users to perform keyword analysis, produce meta tags, and create XML sitemaps. They also make recommendations for upgrading content and structure to boost search engine results.
4. Mobile-responsive
To be mobile-responsive, WordPress themes adapt to any device’s screen size. This is critical in today’s mobile-first environment when more and more people are accessing the Internet via smartphones and tablets. A mobile-responsive website not only enhances the user experience but also helps search engine rankings.
And, if you still have questions, head over to the case study to understand how Outreach Crayon’s team assisted Macmillan.
5. Multi-user Capability
Making it excellent for team collaboration, WordPress allows numerous users with varying roles and permissions. You can assign administrator, editor, or author responsibilities, each with different levels of access. This functionality is especially handy for larger websites with multiple team members managing different sections of the site.
Challenge Monolithic Bounds
Traditional CMSs are also known as monolithic, which means that the frontend and backend are almost inseparable, and your content is inextricably linked to your code – until death do them part.
To support our previous example, WordPress is classified as a monolithic content management system. Using WordPress can, therefore, be perfectly acceptable if you must administer a website with little to no dynamic content. WordPress was developed when websites were the only way to display our material online.
Mobile apps and devices are gaining popularity, accounting for 50% of all web traffic. However, if an eCommerce organization, for example, wants to push the same information from a WordPress site to a mobile app, the content must be entered twice, resulting in content silos and the risk of fragmentation.
This effort is, of course, time-consuming and prone to errors, which can have a direct influence on revenue. Given that mobile devices now account for 25% of all purchases, one might think again about whether this is a risk they are willing to take. As a result, you require the services and assistance of a reputable migration company to make the process straightforward and effective.
Mobile devices are great, but technology has already advanced far beyond them! In a Google Consumer Survey, 60% of respondents expressed interest in adopting augmented reality to make purchasing decisions.
Shopify has also shown that products that offer interactions with VR or 3D content convert up to 94% better than products without these interactions. If an eCommerce shop that uses headless decides to incorporate AR or VR into its storefront in addition to a mobile app, how does it continue to manage its content?
In a third isolated system?
Questionable.
Multiple silos are a significant problem in and of themselves and should be avoided at all costs.
The final issue is one of three identified in “The State of Content Marketing” report, and it is mostly the effect of dealing with so many silos. In most cases, one individual is in charge of a specific channel. If all of these editors use completely separate platforms, their collaboration is not helped in any manner.
We also need to fix old or constrained technology, operations, and processes. These concerns are directly tied to the fact that monolithic systems promote an all-in-one strategy rather than the more flexible approach of constructing your technological stack (best-of-breed).
When to Choose a Headless CMS vs. WordPress
Choosing between headless CMS and WordPress comes down to your business needs and the type of material you need to manage.
The following are some considerations for deciding between the two platforms.
1. Performance & SEO
If you ask most organizations why they switched to a headless CMS, they will most likely reply that it was for performance and SEO. These are businesses with thousands or tens of thousands of posts and pages. They pay fairly big hosting expenses and discover that when their traffic increases, the website’s performance suffers.
A headless CMS is ideal for high-traffic sites that want to produce advertising revenue, requiring a clear consumer experience to minimize rising bounce rates. Smaller websites can still benefit from a headless CMS, but it won’t have a substantial effect on the site’s performance until a baseline of ~20,000 visits per month.
2. Budget
This factor is straightforward. If your company does not have $20k+ to invest in a website, do not use a headless CMS. Going down this path is costly since it is a tailored solution meant to solve problems that the monolithic system cannot.
If your company wants to invest smartly and is looking for growth opportunities to improve conversion rates, traffic, and SEO performance, WordPress could be a suitable solution.
3. Experience Using Custom Software
Is your team using Divvy or Elementor? Do you like visual page builders and trying to make changes to your web design?
Then, you’re not a good fit for a headless CMS.
There are choices that mimic the visual page builder experience, like Builder.io, but you will need to rely on a developer for adjustments and additions to the site.
Headless CMSs offer a slightly different experience for content creators. There is a 5- to 10-minute delay between clicking the “publish” button in your CMS and viewing the material on the website. This is where the WordPress content management system can be impactful, rendering the lost time into much more effectiveness.
Finding the Best CMS For Your Business Needs
After looking into the fundamental issues in content marketing that arise from a monolithic setup and investigating the benefits of both headless CMS and WordPress, we must realize that going headless is not for everyone.
If you utilize your website primarily as an online business card and do not require dynamic multi-channel content, WordPress will suffice.
However, if you are dealing with content silos, dysfunctional teamwork, and antiquated technology while also trying to move your business forward, the headless method may be the best option for you.
WordPress is reasonably priced, making it an ideal choice for anyone on a tight budget. The platform is user-friendly, with a simple and easy-to-use interface does not requiring technical knowledge.
Ease of use allows you to have your site up and running quickly. In addition, WordPress has a vast talent pool for maintenance. Finding developers or companies knowledgeable about WordPress is simple and can save you time and money on support and updates.