We’re absolutely thrilled to announce the release of our new headless service for WordPress, allowing enterprise organisations to take advantage of progressive front-end technologies combined with the WordPress content management system.
Alongside this, we’re also introducing our own development framework for client projects, which makes creating powerful headless websites more effective using WordPress.
Developing a headless front-end to WordPress allows us to build websites using modern front-end technologies like React, Next.js, and Gatsby, while still leveraging the power and flexibility of the WordPress platform.
This approach is perfect for brands that want to stay up-to-date on the latest web trends, while preserving their commitment to creating first-rate content in WordPress.
On the launch of the new headless service, Scott Jones, CEO at Illustrate Digital, said, “As of 2022, headless only accounts for roughly 0.3% of the world’s top 1 million websites*, yet WordPress itself accounts for more than 60% of the entire CMS market share**. While many are yet to take advantage of the benefits headless offers, we predict the market will expand rapidly as businesses get to grips with the benefits that this progressive architecture has to offer.”
“Headless is a hot topic in the industry, and understandably so – our research has shown that a headless setup can have a number of advantages.
“Decoupling the front and back end of a website or application can increase performance and speed, and taking a headless approach can also significantly reduce the chances of a security breach, as headless websites are not combined with the platform that powers them.
“Additionally, headless setups allow you to streamline content management by making changes centrally. Scalability and innovation can also increase with headless, versus traditional website architectures, as you’re not tied down to a single front-end development framework, or a single server setup.”
“Implementing headless effectively takes skill, and so to ensure we operate at what we consider to be the gold standard, launching our new headless service has come after an extended period of research and development carried out by our in-house experts. Having invested time and expertise, we’re in a strong position to offer an extensive package – including a host of headless-compatible plugins developed in-house – plus guidance for those unsure whether a headless setup is the right choice.”
Our research and development into headless WordPress
In our pursuit to be one of the world’s leading digital agencies for creating user-centred experiences, we’re privileged to have gained an inside view into some of the world’s biggest and most successful brands in their respective industries.
What we have consistently found is the battle for marketing and digital teams to create high-end content for their audiences to consume, whilst being highly switched on to how Google perceives site speed, as well as balancing the need for solid and secure technology infrastructures.
It’s through this lens, using our expertise as one of Europe’s leading WordPress agencies, that in 2021 we embarked on a significant project to research how the world’s number one CMS platform could play a part in powering the websites of the future.
This research took us down some deep rabbit holes of progressive web frameworks, as well as exploring various integration methods and a heap of trial and error development, to more thoroughly understand both the potential and the drawbacks of WordPress in a headless scenario.
Emerging from this exciting research and development, we’re not only armed with a deep understanding of headless and its impact on the future of website technology, but have developed our very own framework to accelerate how our clients can benefit from a headless WordPress architecture.
What is headless and how does it benefit brands?
Headless is an approach with the potential to revolutionise how we build and interact with websites. One of the most critical parts to developing any website is making sure it’s fast and secure. When you combine progressive front-end development with a highly flexible content management tool, your chances for creating successful, engaging content and user experiences improve dramatically.
Not only will this help keep visitors on site longer by providing them premium content at lightning speeds, security risks are seriously diminished because headless websites don’t rely on their CMS to be attached and readily available – in fact they don’t even need to be hosted on the same server!
WordPress, which accounts for more than 40% of all websites in existence today**, should be considered the most obvious candidate for headless. Its flexibility as a world-class content publishing system makes it a brilliant framework for populating dynamic web applications, e-commerce stores or and websites with complex user interfaces.
If you’d like to learn more about headless and how it integrates with WordPress, we’ve written an in depth article about it in our Insights section here: Headless WordPress – What It Is, Whether You Need It and How to Get Started
Find out more about our approach to headless WordPress
We’re seriously excited about the possibilities that headless is already unlocking alongside WordPress, and it’s a huge milestone for Illustrate Digital to be making this officially available to brands and businesses worldwide.
You can find out more about our headless service on our dedicated page here: Headless WordPress Development
* Data Source: https://trends.builtwith.com/cms
** Data Source: https://w3techs.com/technologies/overview/content_management
