NEWCASTLE-headquartered digital product design company Shout Digital has come up with some top tips to make headless CMS less scary for businesses this Hallowe’en.

While headless CMS may conjure up images from Irving’s classic, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the reality is somewhat less chilling.

Here, Gary Boon, CEO of Shout Digital has eight top tips for businesses considering the flexibility that this terrifyingly good tech offers this spooky season.

1. It might come as a shock to some, but in terms of content management, a headless CMS is a digital structure in which the content control layer is separated from the display layer or from the end user’s interface. This is in contrast to the more traditional forms of CMS familiar to us all, in which content is uploaded, managed and published, in one unbroken chain.




2. There are no scares when you upload and manage content via CMS such as WordPress or Drupal, you are working with a closed system. There is a back end, in which content is inserted and managed. There is also a front end, at which the user can access the content. Each part of the process is neatly sewn together and is repeated for each new piece of content.




3. A headless CMS is definitely no monster, it provides additional flexibility and agility to your content strategies. Within the headless structure, the content editing app and the front end of your website are not connected directly. Instead, connection is delivered via an API – the front end sends a content request through the API, and content is delivered.




4. A content management system is like a trusty pair of jeans – we’ve grown used to them, and we shudder at the thought of trading them in for a new pair. To put it simply, we love our chosen CMSs, and the benefits of a headless system are going to have to be pretty impressive to pry us away.




5. A headless CMS is also hauntingly good at giving you the opportunity to create better content. This is because you are not restricted to the general purpose tools of a traditional CMS – you can use a more suitable means of content creation and get the results you need.




6. Many traditional CMS fall into the Jack of All Trades category, and try to do too much. A headless CMS does not, and is more direct in its approach. This simplified system significantly reduces the chance of failure.




7. With a headless CMS, front-end developers can conjure up websites and apps using any programming language they desire, and the content will still be compatible thanks to the API.




8. Content producers are not bound by as many chains as with a traditional system, enabling them to work more independently and more efficiently. They’re so good, it’s scary!

Is your CMS giving you the creeps? Contact the experts at Shout to find out what you can do about it.