Headless WordPress: What is it?

What are the benefits of Headless WordPress?

WordPress already has a staggering number of benefits. However, there is always room for improvement. Faster page load times, content distribution, and offline capabilities are among the top desired. In order to achieve the requirements of a business or website, you may want to introduce a Headless WordPress environment and:

• Increase overall page speed.
• Distribute selective data content to multiple publishing platforms.
• Build static sites with WordPress on a small budget.

Each one of these have a unique reasoning for adopting the headless WordPress method. Let’s take a look at each one a little closer.

Increase overall page speed

Headless WordPress developers can use an architecture tool like JAMStack to generate web pages into a prebuilt file during the time of deployment. The idea here is to pre-render WordPress pages and posts into prebuilt files that can be served from anywhere using a Content Delivery Network (CDN). In other words, we use prebuilt files served over a CDN for faster page speeds by reducing the time to first byte.

Developers can also use a PWA, or Progressive Web Application, to interact with the API. A PWA uses modern web technologies to provide web applications with some of the same functionality. A PWA can cache the content from an API and render instantly when the page changes on a user’s device. Cached content also works while the device is offline.

Distribute content to multiple publishing platforms

Before the WordPress REST API was introduced in WordPress version 4.7, the only way to get your website content from one place to another included creating an export file, CSV, XML, or other popular data format.

The problem with this approach was needing to edit the content on multiple platforms to match. If you make a change on your website, you also need to copy and paste the content into an application for a 1:1 result.

Now, with tools like the WordPress REST API and WP GraphQL, you can syndicate the same content to multiple publishing platforms by providing access to your API.

Publishers, such as newspaper organizations, can use this method once an article is written and needs to be shared with their affiliated stations. Providing access to an API allows the affiliates’ end developers to interact with a single data source and use it on their preferred platform.

Build static sites with WordPress

Static websites are a popular alternative to client rendered web applications. The content does not change frequently enough to warrant dynamic page rendering, or rendering the page on the fly.

A brochure website is a term used to describe a website only displaying content to help educate users passing by. Brochure websites are typically static files living on a Content Delivery Network that make up a website. There are thousands of websites online with the sole purpose of raising awareness for a cause.

Not meant to drive sales, these websites provide a link to help an individual get started or to make an online donation. These websites do not need to fetch the same information from a database every time a web page is requested. They simply need to display a couple paragraphs, a few pictures, and provide contact information.

Tools like Gatsby can integrate with WordPress to pull content from the backend and create static files while also providing a seemingly “in-app” user experience. In many use cases, a static website can be used as a landing page to find out more information about a company or service.

If you’re using this setup to host sensitive files, you can still keep them private by making some basic .htaccess adjustments to restrict IPs.

Search Engine Optimization

SEO requires special consideration in headless WordPress implementations.
Since traditional WordPress SEO plugins operate on the theme layer, you’ll need to ensure your frontend properly implements SEO best practices. This includes generating dynamic sitemaps, implementing proper meta tags, and ensuring semantic HTML structure.

Tools like Next.js provide built-in SEO features, while other frameworks may require additional configuration.

Performance optimization is another critical consideration – while headless architectures can offer speed improvements, you’ll need to implement proper caching strategies, image optimization, and code splitting to fully realize these benefits.