16th February 2024
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In this article we explore what a ‘headless’ website architecture means and the reason the speed and security benefits it brings makes it essential for your website.
The 'headless' architecture is a modern development architecture that has gained popularity in recent years due to its many advantages. With 82.91% of businesses reporting that switching to this architecture improved time, budget, productivity and revenue/growth, the business case for a headless website is clear. We switched to building websites and web applications using this architecture a couple of years back, instead of building traditional bespoke WordPress websites.
The headless architecture is a concept for building websites and web applications that separates the frontend layer of your website (user interface/UI) from the backend layer of the website, for instance your content management system (CMS) that you use to add/update the content on your website. There are 6 core advantages to having this architecture which we've listed out below.
Headless websites allow for better performance optimisation and therefore much quicker page load times, something of great importance as detailed in our previous article 5 key ingredients for a performant, lead generating website.
Content can be delivered more efficiently since there's no rendering of HTML on the server-side, with the pages pre-built and served from a content delivery network (CDN). Pain points such as serving the images on your website in modern image formats, which greatly improves page load speeds, are handled automatically too.
This all means the website is delivered to users extremely quickly and efficiently, leading to an improved user experience which typically results in higher conversion rates.
Websites built with the headless architecture are optimised for search engines far more effectively, due to two main reasons:
It's often the case that your website will deal with sensitive data and keeping that data secure is of huge importance. Websites built with the headless approach are far more secure than traditional websites due to the frontend being separated from the backend. This provides far fewer opportunities for security vulnerabilities to be exploited. We build headless websites using an architecture known as Jamstack, which pre-builds the pages on your website (as noted above) and in turn makes it inherently more secure than a dynamic site.
The headless approach is providing power, flexibility and possibility to a growing number of organisations worldwide, from start-ups to leading tech companies like Netflix, Amazon and Uber.
With technology evolving rapidly, decoupling the frontend of your website from the backend system/systems allows for easier adoption of new systems without overhauling your website. For example, let's say you decide to change your chosen CRM from Salesforce to Hubspot. It's easier and therefore quicker to develop this change into a website built with the headless architecture, compared to making that change to a traditional CMS built website.
When building a headless website, content can be repurposed and displayed across various platforms such as websites, mobile apps, social media platforms and even voice assistants, without being tied to a specific frontend. This provides greater flexibility for your content, ultimately saving you time when it comes to working your content into the various platforms.
Headless websites are inherently more scalable. As traffic grows, your frontend can handle the increased load with ease compared to a website built with a traditional CMS. We recently saw a client website receive up to 4000 visitors per hour without any struggle. Backend systems can then be scaled independently of the frontend which will ultimately ensure a consistent experience for your users. With this setup, even the most established of businesses gain the manoeuvrability and scalability of a start-up business.
It's safe to say there are many reasons why the 'headless' approach will transform your website and therefore help to grow your business. Understanding terms such as 'headless', frontend, backend, content management system and so on can be tricky, but that's where we can help. We'll be happy to guide you through the various options you have based on your specific organisational needs and answer any questions you have along the way.
