Headless WordPress: When It’s Time to Break Free
Let’s talk about headless WordPress for a second. If that phrase sounds like something straight out of a sci-fi thriller—don’t worry; you’re not alone. But once you get past the initial “what does that even mean?” moment, you start to see the magic. And it’s not just a trend; it’s a game-changer for anyone managing large volumes of content across multiple platforms.
Picture this: You’re juggling content across a website, mobile app, employee portal, and maybe even a third-party app or two. Content updates? They’re everywhere, like a dozen moving pieces in a game of Tetris. If you’ve ever tried to keep everything in sync, you know how easily things get messy. Enter headless WordPress, a solution for that chaos.
So, What is Headless WordPress?
Simply put, headless WordPress is like WordPress without the face. Like any headless content management system, headless WordPress is a way to decouple the management of your content from its presentation layer. A headless strategy also enables centralizing all content used by your organization, regardless of the use case or application utilizing that content.
So product descriptions, informational pages, employee biographies, case studies, etc., only need to exist within the WordPress backend. Headless WordPress, specifically the WordPress REST API, enables other applications and software frameworks to seamlessly utilize that content.
A “write once, use everywhere” strategy isn’t just catchy; it’s how headless WordPress enables you to utilize content everywhere needed without repeating the work.
When Should You Go Headless?
Now, you might ask, “Okay, but do I need this?” Well, let’s discuss when headless WordPress makes sense.
If your organization relies on multiple platforms that need to pull in the same data, here’s how utilizing headless WordPress can impact you: Your mobile app will be able to use the same product information, description, photos, SKU, pricing, etc., as your public-facing website. Your CPQ software can pull in that same product detail as well. For more general content, your employee portal or intranet can provide leadership team biographies using the same content as the public-facing website. Integration with your ERP can push pricing updates to the WordPress CMS backend and WooCommerce so that all sources using that product data reflect the latest pricing.
In the same way having a centralized repository or “source of truth” for content simplifies populating varying applications with approved content, headless WordPress greatly streamlines content updates. Imagine this: when your marketing team finishes that polished comparison guide between your SaaS company’s service levels, that content becomes instantly available on your website, mobile app, internal sales portal, and proposals. That’s the beauty of a centralized content hub.
And let’s talk scalability: As an organization’s content library grows to hundreds or even thousands of pieces of content and the software stacks span different environments, even data centers, a headless WordPress strategy begins to make more sense.
Decoupling for Better Performance
One of the most exciting parts of Headless WordPress? The decoupling.
Using headless WordPress no longer requires using WordPress’s theme engine or any part of the traditional WordPress presentation layer.
A static site generator like Gatsby could use content from the WordPress backend and serve pages and other content from a highly optimized, cached, edge CDN. This approach would increase the website’s performance, stability, and security. Alternatively, the entire front end could be built with a JavaScript framework like Next.js.
With the front and back end no longer tethered, you can use whatever technology makes sense for your business.
Is Headless WordPress for Everyone?
Of course, headless WordPress isn’t for everyone. If you’re running a small blog or a simple site, you don’t need the complexity that comes with it. But it’s worth considering for larger organizations with complex, content-heavy ecosystems.
At the end of the day, headless WordPress offers high-level flexibility and scalability. And when you have a ton of content to manage across various systems, using headless WordPress feels less like a perk and more like a necessity.
Tim Haak
Founder & VP of Innovation
Tim Haak, Mile6 Founder, is an entrepreneur and internet veteran. In the mid-’90s, Tim began creating websites for local businesses in Central Pennsylvania. This was the birth of Mile6 in 1996. Tim brings innovation and compassion to everything he does. For over 25 years, Tim has successfully navigated tech landscape changes and the evolution of the workplace. As a day-to-day leader at Mile6, Tim keeps a firm pulse on team culture and client happiness. Tim is always approachable, always friendly, and always willing to engage with friends, family, and clients. Tim lives in Elizabethtown, PA with his wife and two daughters, and two dogs.