The demand for Headless Content Management Systems has been rising in the digital content management space due to the plethora of benefits associated with the modern age CMS.

With the emergence of new and upcoming communication channels like IoT, Virtual Reality, Conversational AI, etc, there is a dire need in the industry to adopt an all-adaptive technology like Headless Content Management System. Although traditional Content Management Systems enable us to have content, custom codes, and editor interface under a single ecosystem, it is not enough for the businesses of this day and age.

People nowadays consume content from various viewports and devices but unfortunately, traditional Content Management Systems were never designed to cope with the fact that dynamic content delivery systems are needed for multiple mediums of consumption. Not to mention the challenge of everything being handled by diverse teams with varied responsibilities.

Drumrolls…. Here is where Headless CMS came into play!

What exactly is a “Headless CMS”? How is it different from a “Traditional CMS”?

Although Traditional Content Management Systems ruled the archetype for web design and development, it was neither “flexible” nor “scalable”.

In a headless Content Management System, the content repository, the “body,” is separated or decoupled from the presentation layer. The “head” enables you to manage content under one roof and still deploy that content anywhere you want.

Unlike traditional Content Management Systems, a “Headless” Content Management System acts as the primary content repository by decoupling from the front end and serving content through APIs which ease the backend and frontend communication. This enables cross-device and cross-platform dynamic content delivery.

This is why more and more companies in the modern day and age prefer Headless Content Management Systems due to the flexibility and scalability to get their content out in a myriad of ways.

Due to the complexities associated with Traditional Content Management Systems, Headless Content Management Systems were curated to meet the demands of brands and creators who want to empower all their tech, marketing, and content teams.

Why can’t traditional CMS be cross-platform and cross-device?

In this era of cutthroat competition, Marketers have a responsibility to quickly push out content through multiple channels without any dependency on IT.

If a brand still uses traditional CMS, this can be almost impossible to accomplish. Without the appropriate API-based architecture, it is not possible for a traditional CMS to have omnichannel functionality. Thankfully, Headless Content Management Systems comes to the rescue by decoupling the front-end presentation layer and the back-end infrastructure.

Marketers can build content plans that could facilitate the delivery process in a much easier and more efficient way and omnichannel content can be easily and quickly delivered directly from the Headless CMS.

When to choose a Headless CMS?

If you are someone who deals with a huge content volume and needs a consistent and holistic user experience with an omnichannel approach, Headless CMS would be the perfect solution for you!

Check out our 5-minute guide to headless CMS blog to know the use cases, advantages, and examples of Headless CMS.

Why should you migrate to a Headless CMS?

1) Omnichannel content delivery

Today, brands need a fast-paced way to push out content to different channels without any hindrances. Headless CMS is compatible with almost all devices and viewports enabling marketing teams to push out mass volumes of content in a way that is easy and not time-consuming.

In traditional or legacy CMS, due to the monolith structure, one needs to manage each platform separately leading to complexities.

2) API-Powered

As discussed above, Headless CMS functions exclusively on APIs. As the front-end and back-end are completely separate, businesses have the freedom to ship content as per their requirements, regardless of the device.

A headless CMS does not restrict you to only posting content for blogs or landing pages. You can leverage it for banners, newsletters, pop-up feeds, and much more.

3) Security

Traditional CMS comes with a huge risk of a security breach due to the monolith structure encompassing a huge volume of code, plugins, and built-in functionalities.

Although you can use external plugins, they can only do so much in helping with security.

The idea of keeping the front-end and back-end separate is crucial when hackers are attempting to hack your website. Headless CMS also enables you to have third-party plugins to make the system more secure.

4) Full Creative Control

Even though you do not get WYSIWYG drag-and-drop functionality, Headless CMS enables businesses to have full creative control over all types of content models.

Marketing teams do not have to build new elements every time they want to publish a new piece of marketing collateral.

5) High Performance

Adopting modern technology is key for businesses to thrive in this era of competition. Headless CMS is one such modern solution as it is curated to meet the demands of the brands of tomorrow on any possible channel.

Headless CMS ensures great performance, fast page load, Cost-effectiveness, Responsive Outputs, High-traffic support, No threat of data breach, Enhanced compatibility, etc.

5 IMPORTANT things to evaluate before migrating

Now that you know why you need to migrate to a Headless CMS, let us find out how you can migrate to a Headless CMS!

1) Study your reasoning

Before anything, ask yourself these 3 questions -

• What is lacking in my current efforts?

• What do I want to achieve with this migration?

• What impact will the migration have on my business?

Your reasoning for opting for a headless CMS will pave the way for your decision-making throughout the migration process. If you are able to answer these 3 questions logically, then you are headed in the right direction.

2) Evaluate your content strategy

Headless CMS are always content-first. Although they offer great levels of flexibility and scalability, you can’t focus on the presentation from the very start. There’s something that comes even before the presentation: “Users and Customers”

Map your customer journey, user personas, and user experience. Users First, Always.

By evaluating how your content strategy works as a whole, you will be able to leverage Headless CMS to the fullest. Check how you can repurpose and reuse your content across all your desired channels, and store it in a format that can be used even after your website has been redesigned.

3) Evaluate your frameworks and technologies

For the backend, you can choose from an array of frameworks and technologies. You need to be mindful of what kind of existing framework you are using and what specific things you need to take care of.

For the Front-end too, you might have a lot of options like Angular, React, or Vue. Although there are many modern ones in the market, these three are considered to be top-notch and widely loved in the tech community. Just ensure that you research the code maintenance requirements, availability of support in the future, flexibility, performance, and other such factors before finalizing a framework.

4) Consider your integrations and infrastructure

Although headless CMS are the easiest to integrate, Look into how things will change if you go headless!

Will your new headless platform be supported by your existing infrastructure, such as your hosting solution? If you have cloud hosting or dedicated server hosting, how will it impact your server architecture?

These are some questions that you need to discuss with your tech team and see how they would translate during the output.

Additionally, you need to sit with your marketing team and have a chat about how you will integrate them into the platform. I would suggest you create an audit of paid or free plugins, tools, and extensions used within your organization and create a comprehensive structure.

5) Lastly, Create a Plan

Once you are through with all the technical stuff, you need to create a detailed plan for migration. Identify the timeline and milestones and accommodate the plan to cause minimal disturbance to your business's functions.

Set up some key requirements and work your way up in terms of priority. This will ensure you focus on what matters the most - VALUE!

Go Headless… It’s now or never!

Stay tuned for our next blog! Ciao! 🙂