What is WordPress Headless CMS and How to Create It

Web development is no different from the rest of the break-neck velocity and always-changing digital technologies. To stand out among mililons of competitors, web developers are always looking for ways to make web apps that are fast, efficient, scalable, and safe. This is where the WordPress Headless CMS comes in handy, as it lets you create very unique websites. What is a Headless WordPress website, though?

In this guide, we will walk you through the essentials of Headless WordPress website development. This will enable you to build headless websites on your own that leverage the power of WordPress REST API along with the flexibility of a modern frontend framework.

Headless WordPress Overview

A headless WordPress CMS decouples the front end from the back end, i.e., what users see and where the content is managed are separated. Contemporary to traditional WordPress, where the final design is dictated by the themes and templates, headless WordPress is purely a content repository. 

Focusing only on the backend, developers can create lightning-fast, scalable, and dynamic applications. While technologies like React, Gatsby, and Vue.js are used for building the modern and dynamic front end for headless WordPress.

In the headless architecture, the WordPress backend handles the content creation and management. RESTAPI or GraphQL delivers the content to the front-end framework. Finally, front-end frameworks like Reach and Next.js display the dynamic content. 

This separated development allows developers to develop fast and interactive websites as they are not restricted by WordPress’ traditional themes and templates. Overall, this architecture gives developers increased control, performance enhancement, and more scalability.

Use Cases of Headless WordPress

Headless architecture is being used by multiple modern high-traffic websites. Some of the examples include

TechCrunch: They utilize the headless CMS to ensure faster content delivery across various devices.

Harvard Gazette: They use WordPress for backend content creation and Gatsby.js for rendering the front-end.

Beachbody on demand: They combine WordPress CMS with the Reach front end. This way, they handle vast content for their users.

Headless WordPress is enabling multiple brands to achieve flexibility, performance, and customization.

Key Benefits of Headless WordPress

The following are the key benefits of headless WordPress websites.

1.       Speed and Improved Performance

As the traditional WordPress relies on PHP rendering, it eventually slows down the websites. On the other hand, a Headless WordPress website uses static site generators like Gatsby or JavaScript frameworks.

This reduces the load time of the websites. Such headless architecture achieves load times of less than a second. Such rapid content serving is vital for customer retention online, as according to Google, 53% mobile users leave a site if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load.

2.       Enhanced Security

Traditional WordPress websites have vulnerabilities like theme exploits, but in headless architecture, since the front is separated so such risks are minimized. With headless architecture, API access can be strictly controlled, which adds to the security.

Also, for headless architecture, the frontend is built using static site generators like Next.js, which is hosted on CDNs like Netlify, so the server-side logic is not exposed to attackers. This also improves security.

3.       Omni-Channel Content Delivery

With the WordPress REST API, you can use more than one platform. You can send content from one CMS to websites, mobile apps, digital kiosks, and IoT devices. This also lets you reuse content.

4.       Design and Development Flexibility

Developers can make unique, pixel-perfect, and very responsive interfaces without having to stick to a certain theme. You can make sure that users have dynamic and interactive experiences by using modern tools like Next.js, React, or Angular. It is also easier for developers to add third-party services like Stripe or Firebase.

5.       Scalability

Headless architecture is built to handle a lot of traffic without any problems. This makes it a great choice for enterprise-level apps that need to be able to grow. Scaling the static front end makes it easy to handle a sudden increase in traffic. This doesn’t put any extra stress on the backend.

How to Create a Headless WordPress Website

The following is a step-by-step guide for creating a headless WordPress site.

1.       Setting up the WordPress Backend

You can install WordPress on your own computer or on a hosting service like Google Cloud web hosting. Make sure the REST API is turned on. If you have WordPress 4.7 or higher, it is already turned on by default.

2.       Choosing a Front-End Framework

Choosing a front-end framework is the next step. For SSR, React.js with Next.js, Vue.js with Nuxt.js, and Gatsby for static sites are all popular options.

3.       Fetching the Data via WordPress REST API

With WordPress REST API, you can generate endpoints like the following:

https://yoursite.com/wp-json/wp/v2/posts (for blog posts)

While an example of fetching the posts with JavaScript looks like:

fetch('https://yoursite.com/wp-json/wp/v2/posts')
.then(response => response.json())
.then(posts => console.log(posts));

4.       Building and Deploying the Front-End

The main feature of Headless WordPress is that you can host the front-end separately with services like Vercel, which is ideal for Next.js, Netlify, and Cloudflare Pages. While your back end can be on traditional hosting or cloud services.

5.       Optimizing Performance

For optimization, use caching and implement static site generation (SSG), which will help with fast loads.

Is Headless WordPress the Right Fit for You?

Consider the following before going with the headless WordPress or sticking with the traditional WordPress.

Go With Headless WordPress:

•   If you require a blazing-fast website
•   If you or your team are familiar with a JavaScript framework
•   If your required content needs to be scalable and flexible

Go With the Traditional WordPress:

•   If you rely on or prefer multiple plugins or themes
•   If you are inexperienced or lack the resources for front-end development
•   If your top priorities are SEO and quick deployments

Challenges of Headless WordPress

There are a few challenges of going headless that need to be considered. Although headless WordPress is powerful, it is not for everyone.

•   It has a steep learning curve and requires JavaScript knowledge.
•   It has some plugin limitations, with some traditional plugins not working in headless mode.
•   With plugin limitations, you will need to manually handle the metadata data which is traditionally handled by plugins like Yoast.
•   As it is more complex than traditional WordPress, it can increase your development cost.

WordPress Headless CMS Brings Epic Flexibility

Healdess WordPress CMS has changed the way developers think about making websites. Developers can focus on making fast and scalable apps for many platforms by separating the back end from the front end. Even though the frontend is cut off, they can still use the powerful features of WordPress’s backend.

If you’re interested in professional WordPress development services, contact us today.