While attending WordCamp Porto, I had the opportunity to attend Ivan Popov’s presentation on Headless WordPress. This is one of the lesser-understood areas for SEO, and I want to share some insights with readers.
Headless WordPress allows you to distribute data from your WordPress installation to multiple channels. You can push data from WordPress into:
- Mobile apps.
- Websites.
- Third-party applications.
Headless WordPress transforms the platform into more than just a CMS; it integrates into a broader ecosystem of web and mobile apps, enabling users to continue leveraging the WordPress admin panel.
This approach also attracts developers familiar with modern technologies like React.js or Node.js, appealing particularly to younger programmers who prefer contemporary programming languages.
The main question for SEOs is, “What does Headless WordPress mean for SEO?”
To find out more, I conducted a short interview with Ivan Popov, CEO of Vipe Studio, and a speaker at WordCamp Europe 2022.
Headless WordPress is one of the obscure areas for SEOs. Many SEOs don’t understand its purpose or application. When should it be used, and when should it not be used?
Ivan Popov: “The real value of Headless WordPress comes into play with high-traffic websites, ones with millions of users. It’s not a technology suited for small businesses; it’s more expensive and should be used only if your website has significant traffic and value.”
Can SEO problems related to headless configurations be resolved?
Ivan Popov: “Absolutely. Even though Headless WordPress is not as plug-and-play as traditional WordPress SEO plugins, SEO issues are resolvable with a skilled technical team. It requires developers to manage even the simplest SEO tasks.”
Is Headless WordPress suitable for simple business websites or small online shops?
Ivan Popov: “No, it’s not suitable for simple websites. It should be used for highly visited websites with thousands of visitors every second. Headless WordPress is ideal for dynamic websites with personalized content, job postings, or large listings.”
Have you seen any SEO issues with Headless WordPress, such as indexing problems?
Ivan Popov: “On the contrary, I’ve seen benefits. Headless WordPress sites often achieve excellent Core Web Vitals scores, which help rather than harm SEO. Correctly configured Headless WordPress sites do not suffer from indexing issues.”
What advice do you have for those who want to learn Headless WordPress?
Ivan Popov: “Since it’s open-sourced, you can learn about it as you would any new technology: by reading extensively and starting projects. The first project is usually the hardest, but with continuous efforts and tackling complex tasks, you’ll learn naturally.”
In your presentation, you mentioned that Headless WordPress based on NextJS is more SEO-friendly than ReactJS. Can you explain why?
Ivan Popov: “Using ReactJS involves real-time communication between the REST API on WordPress and the ReactJS website, which can be unreliable for SEO. In contrast, NextJS pre-renders everything server-side, offering no issues with meta, SEO titles, and descriptions.”
For e-commerce, when would you recommend Headless WordPress?
Ivan Popov: “Headless WordPress is suitable for large e-commerce stores requiring scalability. However, it involves substantial investment because every functionality, including payments and shipping provider integrations, needs to be coded from scratch.”
Should an e-commerce site consider other platforms instead of Headless WordPress?
Ivan Popov: “I am a die-hard WordPress fan, but you need to ensure that the investment provides a worthwhile return.”
Conclusion
Headless WordPress is a complex technology, and its use should be justified by specific business goals. It is unnecessary and wasteful for basic websites or blogs. This approach should be considered when cross-platform capabilities or highly dynamic, large-scale websites are needed. Regardless of the setup, always use Google Search Console’s URL inspection tool to monitor how Google crawls your webpages.
Featured Image: Primakov/Shutterstock
