A headless CMS offers flexibility, omnichannel content delivery, and numerous other benefits. However, it also comes with unique challenges during custom development and implementation that can leave enterprises wondering if they made the right investment. 

Navigating the complexities of creating a bespoke headless content management solution demands a keen understanding of the unique obstacles often accompanying such projects. In this article, we explore the challenges organizations face venturing into custom headless CMS development and shed some light on solutions to overcome those challenges.

The Promise of Going Headless

Headless CMSs continue gaining momentum as enterprises uncover the multiple benefits they can bring in place of traditional or legacy CMS options. The allure of going headless promises to deliver several benefits including unparalleled flexibility and adaptability, faster time to market and omnichannel content delivery.

• Flexibility and Adaptability: A headless CMS offers more flexibility in adapting to different channels, market conditions, and customer requirements by separating the frontend from the backend. Developers can adopt technologies and frameworks to suit new use cases or fine-tune the user experience.
• Omnichannel Content Delivery: A headless CMS doesn’t limit businesses to just a desktop or mobile device. Instead, teams can build immersive experiences that span multiple channels and connect them seamlessly using omnichannel content delivery capabilities.
• Reduction in Server Management: Many headless CMSs are cloud-based platforms, enabling companies to reduce the expenditure in maintaining on-premises servers and providing increased scalability for high-traffic periods.
• Faster Time to Market: Through its decoupled architecture, a headless CMS enables teams to work in parallel on the frontend and backend. This separation facilitates increased independence and enables teams to go to market faster with new campaigns and digital experiences.
• Future Proof Stack: Headless architecture allows the CMS to easily integrate with other platforms like eCommerce or marketing automation tools via APIs. Content can also be published to new and emerging channels without issues, essentially future-proofing the MarTech stack.

The Challenges of Custom Headless CMS Development

While a headless CMS offers many advantages, an incorrect implementation or the general learning curve may make things challenging for developers.

Frontend Development Complexity

Headless CMSs separate the frontend or ‘head’ from the backend content management and storage database. While this enables freedom to choose different frameworks and libraries and create frontends on any device, it also places the onus on developers to create custom templates and layouts to present that content correctly. This can lead to an inconsistent experience on different frontends when done incorrectly.

API Management

APIs are the most important component of a headless CMS as they retrieve data from the CMS and other connected platforms and send it to different frontends. As such, developers need to handle API requests efficiently to ensure optimal performance.  

Building Content Models

Unlike a traditional CMS that relies on page-based templates to display content correctly, headless CMS developers need to build content models that offer flexibility for various presentation formats. It can be challenging to strike a balance between a content model that provides the required structure and one that can be easily edited and customized for different use cases.

Content Editing Processes

Not every headless CMS comes with built-in content editing features such as WYSIWYG editing and content previews that companies are accustomed to with a traditional CMS. So, developers must ensure that the content editing experience is intuitive for non-technical users. However, implementing these features may be difficult, often leading to pushback from marketing teams who now have increased IT dependency and reduced productivity for everyone involved.

Workflow Management

Marketers rely on streamlined workflows to quickly create and publish content and ensure effective collaboration. However, implementing such workflows can be harder for developers in a headless CMS, as use cases and customization requirements will differ for each business.

Search Functionality and SEO

Search functionality isn’t automatically embedded into every headless CMS. In some cases, it may require the integration of additional tools. Moreover, due to content modeling differences and a lack of plugins, SEO isn’t as straightforward as in a traditional CMS. Developers need to handle metadata, canonical URLs, and other build elements from scratch to give marketers the features they need for effective SEO campaigns.

Integrations

Generally, integrations are easier to do in a headless CMS due to the presence of APIs. However, that only becomes easier if all the systems in question are modern and flexible. On the other hand, customizing and maintaining these integrations, especially when dealing with legacy systems with different data structures, may require additional development resources and custom code. 

Code Reusability

While one of the advantages of headless CMS is code reusability, managing and organizing components can be a challenge. Developers need to design and structure their codebase to promote reusability without sacrificing flexibility; otherwise, they risk having to do double the work.

Migration From Previous CMS

Migrating content to a headless CMS requires restructuring data to fit the new content models. This can be complex if the old CMS had a different data structure or if there’s a large volume of content to be migrated. Marketers may also be concerned about the potential disruption to SEO and the user experience post-migration.

Solutions For Solving Headless CMS Development Challenges

To overcome these challenges, developers need to follow specific best practices.

Design structured future-proof frontend: Proper implementation of structured components and content models can provide developers with repeatable patterns and reusable code to adapt to different frontend interfaces, enabling them to build frontend interfaces faster. This also enables them to handle future design changes far more easily.

Introduce training and change management programs early: Teams familiar with the workings of a traditional CMS often resist the changes in workflows and learning curves associated with a headless CMS. However, companies can make things easier for these employees by introducing change management programs and required training early in the process of migrating to or implementing a new headless CMS.

Document APIs: Following best practices for API design and documenting APIs correctly and frequently updating as required can improve the developer experience and make onboarding new developers easier.

Create well-defined information architecture: Information architecture provides structure and organization for content. This enables content teams to define the hierarchy, taxonomies, and relationships between different content types. A well-defined information architecture improves content discoverability, usability, and consistency across channels and the user experience. 

Map out content workflows: Mapping out content workflows enables content teams to define the steps that content goes through from creation to publication. It also ensures that non-technical users aren’t entering the CMS unsure about what to do to create content and get it in front of end users. This helps streamline content creation processes, reduce bottlenecks, and ensure that the right stakeholders are involved at each stage.

Integrate CDN to ensure scalability: Integrating a content delivery network (CDN) can improve content delivery speed and enhance the user experience by enhancing the scalability and performance of the headless CMS. For enterprises with high traffic volumes, integrating a CDN early can ensure a consistent user experience and prevent downtime once all content has been migrated and the new website receives an influx of traffic.

Implement testing and quality assurance: Automated testing processes ensure the reliability and functionality of the headless CMS throughout its lifetime. Regular quality assurance checks, security assessments, and performance testing will ensure businesses can continue meeting their customers’ content experience demands.

Choose the right implementation partner: Selecting the right development agency with expertise in working with a headless CMS is essential to overcoming potential challenges. The right digital agency should offer a proven track record and the ability to understand and address the business’s unique requirements.

How Content Bloom Ensures Headless CMS Implementations

In order to realize the benefits of flexibility, adaptability, omnichannel content delivery, and faster time to market that a headless CMS can offer, it’s essential to have the right partner supporting you.

Content Bloom is an enterprise digital agency with decades of experience working with headless CMSs and providing custom development services for industry-leading businesses. We work with clients to get to the bottom of their business needs and provide CMS implementation and custom software solutions to help them reach their objectives.

Contact us today to get the support you need to overcome headless CMS implementation challenges.