A Beginner’s Guide to Headless WordPress Development

A headless WordPress system can enhance the productivity of web designers and web developers when developing their websites. However, if you do not appreciate this concept, you might have a hard time coming up with how it operates. In addition, you might even wonder if it is the right approach for your project.

That is why we have created a precise headless WordPress tutorial. Hence, one can understand how such a content management system operates and even find out if such a structure works to one’s advantage in web design and development.

What is Headless WordPress?

Headless WordPress refers to any website that utilizes WordPress as its back-end software to manage data and content but displays the data using different technologies on the front end.

The phrase “backend” refers to a website’s admin section. This is where you can create articles, add plugins, and more. Meanwhile, the front end is what people view when they visit your website. Typically, this material is presented by your current WordPress theme.

There might be other developers and/or owners of web pages who are not satisfied with this configuration and will be looking for other technologies such as React, Angular, etc., to create a simple front-end for their web page.

Headless WordPress enables users to leverage such technologies by separating the front-end and the back-end while maintaining WordPress as the backend for better content management.

How Does Headless WordPress Work?

WordPress uses a REST API to present your content as data in a headless CMS environment. You may get this information by making a network request to WordPress’ built-in REST API endpoint. This allows you to show all of this material in a customized front end.

Headless WordPress Pros

If you are going to give up the comfort of standard WordPress, you must have a good cause to do so. Below are some justifications for using the headless option that may sound compelling.

• Improved performance

The front-end part of WordPress isn’t always as fast as we’d like it to be. Plugins and themes (most of which are unneeded) merely slow down the system, and you can’t expect people to wait patiently for the page to load anymore. Slow page rendering in traditional CMS negatively influences the user experience.

The REST API will allow for a significantly quicker presentation of material. And if you want to redesign or even rebuild the front-end, you may do it without modifying the coding or re-uploading previous material.

• Omnichannel support

With the headless option, you are no longer restricted to a particular website presentation, nor are users constrained to accessing material just through web pages. Going beyond WordPress enhances scalability dramatically, allowing you to swiftly distribute content to mobile applications, wearables, digital assistants, IoT devices, and other platforms.

• Multiple ‘heads’

If your business has many websites or is active on different channels, you may control your outputs using several ‘heads’ and a single back-end. Furthermore, you won’t have to worry about updating each product and service separately for multiple platforms; with a headless solution, you can update everything in one location.

• Front-end flexibility

WordPress, in its conventional form, is an excellent platform. It is flexible and configurable, with a wide range of themes and plugins available. However, it is always possible to improve, and removing templates and add-ons is one step toward that goal.

Perhaps you do not want to be bound by WordPress’s systematic solutions and would outsource the front end to another program. Now you can. The headless option allows your developer unlimited creative flexibility, which both they and your company will value.

Headless WordPress Cons

Everything in life, as we all know, has a cost. When going headless, you must give up familiar tools and technologies and suffer significant limitations as a result:

• Editing may be a challenge

In the headless mode, you do not see the front-end in the same manner that the user does. The lack of a live preview makes daily content maintenance considerably more difficult unless done by a coding expert.

• You’ll probably need assistance from a developer

WordPress offers major advantages such as ease of use, especially for clients with less technical experience. However, headless solutions require designing your own front-end, making them less suitable for technical beginners. Additionally, relying on technical help for maintenance and change implementation may cause delays in website updates, making it a less code-free environment.

• You’ll need to invest extra

We’re discussing time and money. Instead of WordPress, which is a simple system to maintain, you now have to manage many systems. You will be responsible for developing front-end and system-specific plugins. Implementing your solutions necessitates continual code maintenance, which is both time-consuming and costly.

How to build a headless WordPress site

You’ve probably made up your mind by now, and the prospect of becoming headless has piqued your interest. So what’s next? Well, there are two ways to begin working with this solution.

You can set it up manually

If you value flexibility and don’t want to leverage an existing front-end, the best alternatives are to create a Progressive Web App or code the site yourself. We believe that with so many accessible solutions, it is quicker to learn a front-end framework compatible with WordPress (such as Gatsby or React) than to create a new website from scratch.

Alternatively, you can use a plugin

WordPress is well-known for its seemingly endless range of accessible plugins, so why not utilize one of them to transform it into a Headless CMS? Plugins will undoubtedly make your job simpler, but technical expertise is still necessary to construct the front end and perform API queries.

For example, you may use WP Headless to create a Headless CMS by removing the site’s front end. If you want to establish a store on various platforms, you may use the CoCart plugin, which integrates the Headless API with the WooCommerce backend.

Takeaway

The popularity of Headless CMS is steadily increasing and will continue to climb. As more channels and devices are used, this option is becoming increasingly popular. Not to mention that it is appealing for developers who have total flexibility to experiment with other languages.

Creating your first headless WordPress project might be tough. However, with the right tools and WordPress website hosting, you can build a versatile, multi-platform headless system without doing a lot of heavy lifting.

Also Read: Integrating AI into WordPress: Practical Applications