What do you do when you need a small news section to be updated frequently in your static website?
A headless content management system(CMS) means working without a graphical user interface.
A headless CMS might be the answer as it allows you to create, edit and manage your content whenever needed.
In this article, we will discuss headless CMS, WordPress as a headless CMS, hosting the whole setup and the benefits of using it.
What Is the Headless Content Management System(CMS)?
A headless CMS means it has no front end. It includes the API and back end that is required to store and manage content, organize data and handle the workflow.
The headless CMS approach focuses more on the back-end of content management. It also enables you to use the same bucket of content for many different outputs.
Traditional Content Management System doesn’t meet everyone’s requirements and to integrate your CMS with a different coding methodology in such cases you can use WordPress as a headless CMS.
WordPress As A Headless CMS
WordPress offers a robust back end for content creation and organization but it is still built with a front-end display. WordPress also covers display functionality into themes and plugins, so that the front and back ends can be bound together.
By using WordPress REST API, you can extend the content management that you have crafted in WordPress beyond your theme. The advantage of WordPress’s excellent content management functionality and effectively decapitate it gives you the benefits of lightweight headless CMS.
How To Host WordPress As A Headless CMS
WordPress has three major parts:
- A Database, where the content is stored.
- Admin Panel- To manage the content.
- Front end- To display the content.
Here is an overview of setting up a WordPress-based headless Content Management System.
- Get a fresh WordPress installation and set it up.
- Use a blank theme that will just redirect to your static site.
- Fetch the data from WordPress REST API endpoints.
- Add Advanced Custom Fields plugin for a well custom solution.
Benefits Of WordPress As A Headless CMS
- When you develop a headless CMS, you can build your content and scale it up very quickly. Thus it increases the scalability to respond to new user needs.
- With just a content database and API calls, it’s lightweight design makes your content delivery fast, responsive, and sleek.
- Headless WordPress CMS gives you endless control from a development standpoint and helps you in delivering and deliver an ‘outside the template’ experience.
- Headless CMS approaches to secure your content. Your content remains separated from front-end delivery and it is not exposed to the third-party application issues.
Conclusion
As a result, I have come across the outcomes that the Headless CMS offers a lot of options for developers who are concerned about designing content delivery. A headless CMS decouple traditional front and back end interfaces to create content that is not tethered to the specific platform. WordPress Headless CMS provides a stable, reliable, and flexible user experience.