What is a headless CMS?
A headless CMS is a solution that disconnects the frontend and backend of a digital platform. This allows users to easily share their content across devices. A headless CMS makes content available on all desired platforms through an API, so the content automatically optimizes itself to its publishing environment.
Headless CMS benefits
If you’re familiar with traditional content management systems such as WordPress, a headless CMS is like a separated admin panel – one that’s only used for storing and organizing digital content.
So, why should you manage your blog with a headless CMS instead of a more traditional architecture? Simply put, it’s because a headless CMS offers:
- Advanced cross-platform content delivery
- Faster development
- A fully customizable front-end
- More protection against security breaches.
Let’s dive in.
Advanced cross-platform content delivery
Every headless CMS disconnects the frontend of a digital platform from the backend, meaning the presentation layer (the visual part of a website) and the database are separated. While a traditional CMS optimizes content for one specific platform at a time, a headless CMS delivers content to every platform, whether it’s a desktop website, mobile website, or even a mobile application. This saves you a lot of development time. Especially when you’re creating a blog, it’s helpful to share your content in multiple formats. Simply because your readers will consume content in various ways.
A fully customizable front-end
The fact that a headless CMS disconnects the frontend and the backend also means you gain the opportunity to fully control the layout of your blogging platform. This means you can create a consistent look and feel across touchpoints, but it also helps you shape a highly effective user experience that contributes to your goals. For example, a headless CMS offers the opportunity of integrating a personalization engine so you can easily customize blog articles for individual readers. And offering personalized content help gain more readers and subscribers.
Faster development
Development time is a scarce resource within many organizations. And spending time and budget on developing an up-and-running blog, isn’t always a top priority. So, the faster you can build and publish a blog for your organization, the better. For many developers, using a headless CMS is their preferred way of work, simply because they can use their ideal framework. Being an API-driven system also means developers can build using any code they want, and easily create integrations with other platforms if necessary. Building a blog with a headless CMS means you’ll have it up and running within no time, and you can easily scale up when needed.
More protection against security breaches
Traditional CMSs are popular as blogging platforms, but also known for their vulnerability. One of the main reasons for being prone to hacking is that traditional CMSs can use outdated plugins or themes, allowing hackers to easily break into a website. Blogs powered by headless CMSs are less prone to security breaches, mainly because they don’t use plugins and the risk of using outdated software is not applicable. Also, headless CMSs only provide access to crucial data through an API. Because of this setup, there is no direct communication between the frontend of a website and the backend – and the ‘door’ to essential information isn’t as easily opened.
Let’s build that blog
Powering your blog with a headless CMS allows you to create the front-end you want while building a fast, cross-platform consistent, and secure user experience across all touchpoints. This helps you share your organization’s story in the best way possible.