Tuesday, December 13, 2022

How to Create a Viral TikTok Giveaway in WordPress

Do you want to create a viral TikTok giveaway in WordPress?

Giveaways can help grow your TikTok channel and get you more views. They’re also a great way to engage with the people who already watch your TikToks and encourage them to watch even more of your videos.

In this article, we’ll show you how to create a viral TikTok giveaway in WordPress.

How to create a viral TikTok giveaway in WordPress

Set Your Giveaway Goals

First, you need to decide what you want to achieve with your giveaway. For TikTok, you’ll typically either want to gain more followers or get more views on a particular video.

How to create a viral TikTok giveaway

After choosing a goal, you can plan how to get the best value from your giveaway.

If you want to get more views on a particular video, then it’s important to choose the video carefully. For example, if you have a new product, then you might ask visitors to watch a TikTok promoting that product.

If a big TikTok influencer has recently praised your company, then you might ask people to watch their video.

If you’re planning to use ‘Follow us on TikTok’ as an entry method, then it’s smart to review your TikTok profile before launching the contest. New followers may watch your most recent TikToks, so you’ll want to make sure they’re interesting, entertaining, and recent.

You should also add any missing information to your TikTok bio so new followers can learn more about your company. It’s also a good idea to add a link to your website, or you might even make a special ‘link in bio’ page.

By fine-tuning your TikTok page now, your new followers will be more likely to stick around long after the contest is over.

Choose a Prize for your TikTok giveaway

The next step is choosing a prize that will make your target audience want to take part in your TikTok giveaway.

The prize doesn’t have to be expensive, but it should reflect your business niche and your target audience. This will attract relevant followers to your TikTok page, which means they’ll be more likely to engage with your company in the future.

For example, if you run a restaurant, then a discounted or free meal could be a great prize. If you run a skincare blog, then you might offer a bundle of your favorite products.

Choose a prize for your TikTok contest

Once you’ve planned your giveaway, it’s time to set it all up in WordPress.

Install a WordPress Giveaway Plugin

The easiest way to create a viral TikTok is by using RafflePress. It’s the best WordPress giveaway plugin that lets you create all kinds of contests using a simple drag-and-drop editor.

There is a free version of RafflePress that allows you to run giveaways and competitions no matter your budget. However, in this guide, we’ll be using RafflePress pro because it has a ready-made template for running a viral TikTok giveaway.

First, you’ll need to install and activate the RafflePress plugin. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you’ll see the RafflePress welcome screen in the WordPress dashboard. You can now go ahead and enter your license key.

Adding the RafflePress license key

You’ll find this information in your account on the RafflePress website. Once you’ve done that, click on the ‘Verify Key’ button.

Create a Viral TikTok Giveaway in WordPress

Now you’re ready to create a TikTok giveaway by going to RafflePress » Add New.

Creating a new giveaway in WordPress

On the next screen, give your TikTok contest a name by typing into the ‘Giveaway Name’ field.

This is just for your reference so you can use anything you want.

Naming your TikTok competition

Now you’re ready to choose the template that you want to use. RafflePress has templates for specific goals such as creating a giveaway to grow your email list and adding a Facebook giveaway to boost engagement.

We’ll be using the Grow Your TikTok template since it already comes with two TikTok entry methods. Simply hover your mouse over the template and then click on ‘Use This Template’ when it appears.

RafflePress' TikTok contest template

This opens the template in RafflePress’ drag-and-drop builder.

Since it’s so important, let’s start by adding some information about the prize. Just click to select the headline area, which shows ‘My Awesome Prize’ by default.

The RafflePress WordPress giveaway plugin

You can now go ahead and type a title into the ‘Name’ field.

To encourage visitors to enter, you may want to talk about how much the prize is worth, its benefits, and why people will want it.

Adding a prize to your TikTok giveaway

Once you’ve done that, type in a description, which will appear below the headline.

Here, you may want to add some more information about the TikTok giveaway such as why you’re running the contest, and how people can enter.

It’s also a good idea to add a photo of the prize, so visitors can see exactly what’s at stake. If the product is digital, then you can show the product’s logo instead or create a picture using web design software such as Canva.

To add a picture, simply click on ‘Select Image.’

Adding images to your WordPress giveaway

Then, either choose an image from the media library or upload a new file from your computer.

When you’re happy with how the section looks, click on ‘Done Editing.’

The RafflePress WordPress contest plugin

You can close your TikTok giveaway manually at any point, or you can set a date and time when the contest will end automatically.

If you have lots of giveaways planned, then it’s smart to schedule them in advance so your contests always start on time, no matter how busy you get. Scheduling contests in advance also gives you plenty of time to promote and market the contest.

To schedule your TikTok competition, simply enter a date and time into the ‘Giveaway starts…’ and ‘Giveaway ends…’ sections.

How to schedule a TikTok giveaway

By default, RafflePress uses the UTC timezone, but you can change this using the ‘Timezone’ dropdown menu.

Set up your TikTok Giveaway Entry Actions

Your next task is choosing how visitors will enter the giveaway.

The TikTok template already has the ‘Follow us on TikTok’ and ‘View TikTok Post/Video’ actions, so let’s start by configuring these entry methods.

Adding actions to a WordPress contest

First, click to select the ‘Follow us on TikTok’ action. In the left-hand menu, you’ll see all the settings for this action.

By default, the action uses a ‘Follow us on TikTok’ label but you can change this to anything you want by typing into the ‘Title’ field.

Editing TikTok entry methods

Next, find the ‘TikTok URL’ field and add the link to your own TikTok profile.

Every time someone clicks on this action, they’ll see a ‘Follow us on TikTok’ button and a field where they can type in their TikTok username.

Encouraging visitors to follow you on TikTok

By default, every action is worth one entry. However, you can encourage visitors to choose one entry method over all the others by changing its value. For example, if you want to get more followers, then you might make the ‘Follow us on TikTok’ action worth multiple entries.

To make this change, simply select a new number in the ‘Value’ section.

Adding multiple entry methods to a WordPress contest

You can also make the ‘Follow us on TikTok’ action mandatory so visitors can only enter the contest if they follow you on TikTok.

When you’re happy with how the ‘Follow us on TikTok’ action is set up, click to select the ‘View TikTok Post / Video’ action.

You can now change the action’s title and value, and then make it mandatory by following the same process described above.

To get as many views as possible, you may want to enable the ‘Allow Daily Entries’ toggle. This will allow users to earn extra entries by watching your TikTok video multiple times.

Allowing multiple contest entries per day

After that, it’s time to specify the TikTok video that you want visitors to watch.

RafflePress will embed this video inside the contest, as you can see in the following image.

Embedding a TikTok video in WordPress

In a new browser tab, simply visit the TikTok video that you want to add, and then click on the ‘Embed’ button.

In the popup that appears, click on ‘Copy Code.’

How to embed a TikTok video in a WordPress giveaway

After that, switch back to your WordPress dashboard.

You can now paste the code into the ‘TikTok Post Embed Code’ field.

The embed code for a TikTok video

At this point, you’ve configured both of your TikTok entry methods. However, not everyone has a TikTok account or is familiar with the TikTok platform.

Currently, these people can’t enter your competition, so you may want to add some additional entry methods that aren’t related to TikTok.

For example, visitors might enter your competition by joining your email newsletter or following you on Instagram.

Giving visitors multiple choices for entries can get you more participants. Some people may also try to improve their chances of winning by completing several actions. This allows you to achieve multiple goals with a single competition.

To add more entry methods, simply click on the ‘Add Actions’ tab. Then, just click on any action to add it to the competition.

Adding entry methods to a WordPress contest

Once you’ve done that, just click on the action in the giveaway editor and then use the settings in the left-hand menu to configure that entry method.

For example, if you add ‘Join an Email Newsletter’ as an entry method then you’ll need to select an email marketing service.

How to build your email list with RafflePress

You can add as many actions as you want. However, since our main aim is to create a viral TikTok giveaway you’ll typically want to show your TikTok actions at the top of the entry method list.

To move an action, just hover over that action in the editor and then grab the dotted button when it appears.

Changing the order of your RafflePress entry methods

You’re now ready to move the entry method using drag and drop.

How to Customize your TikTok Giveaway

When you’re happy with how the giveaway is set up, it’s time to change how it looks by clicking on the ‘Design’ tab.

Customizing your TikTok giveaway

Here, you can change the fonts, select a new button color, change the layout, add a background image, and more.

By changing these settings you can create a beautiful TikTok giveaway that perfectly compliments your WordPress theme and the rest of your website.

You can even change the TikTok template using custom CSS.

Customizing a WordPress contest

When you’re happy with how the competition looks, click on the ‘Settings’ tab.

Configure the TikTok Contest Settings

RafflePress has lots of settings that you can use to fine-tune how the giveaway runs, including showing and hiding options, setting up tracking, and more.

Most of these settings are self-explanatory, but we’ll quickly cover each section.

In ‘General’ you can set the basic options for the giveaway including showing the contest’s winners, the total number of entries, limiting signups based on IP address, and more.

You can also make money from your TikTok giveaway by joining the RafflePress affiliate marketing program.

The RafflePress contest settings

Next up, click on the ‘Giveaway rules’ tab.

RafflePress comes with a Rules Generator that you can use to quickly and easily create giveaway rules for your TikTok campaign.

Creating rules for a TikTok giveaway

Clicking the ‘Generate Rules’ button will bring up a form where you can enter information about the giveaway.

In most cases, you or your company will be the contest’s sponsor. This means you’ll need to type in the company name, business email address, country, and eligible locations.

Creating rules for an online giveaway

RafflePress will then use this information to create some basic rules for your giveaway.

Just be aware that this is a starting point. You’ll still need to make sure your giveaway is following all local laws and TikTok’s advertising guidelines. For example, you shouldn’t ask visitors to watch any videos featuring products that TikTok doesn’t allow on their platform.

If you’re also using the TikTok contest to grow your mailing list or generate leads, then you may want to verify each participant’s email address by selecting the ‘Email Verification’ tab. It’s also a good idea to enable verification if you plan to email the giveaway’s winner.

To make this change, simply click on the ‘Contestant Must Confirm Their Email’ toggle to turn it from ‘No’ to ‘Yes.’

Requiring email verification for contest entries

If you’re using Google Analytics to track user engagement, then you can select the ‘Success Tracking’ tab.

Here, you can add tracking scripts to record when the page loads or the visitor converts. In this example, conversion happens when the visitor successfully enters the TikTok giveaway.

Adding tracking scripts to a Twitch contest

After entering the contest, you may want to redirect visitors to a specific page such as a custom thank you page or your top-performing TikTok.

To set up a redirect, select the ‘Success Redirect’ tab and then click to activate the ‘Enable Success Redirect’ toggle. You can then add the page to the ‘Redirect URL’ field.

How to set up a redirect for a TikTok competition

You may want to allow visitors to sign into your giveaway using their Facebook accounts. This will make it easier for people to enter your giveaway, which can get you more participants.

To allow logging in with Facebook, simply select the ‘Social Logins’ tab and then click to activate the ‘Allow logging…’ toggle.

Enabling Facebook login for RafflePress

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a European Union (EU) law that aims to give EU citizens more control over their personal information. If you break GDPR then you could get a fine or even jail time, so you’ll want to make sure you’re GDPR compliant.

Thankfully, RafflePress has a checkbox that gets visitors to consent before entering your TikTok giveaway. To add the checkbox, simply select the ‘GDPR’ tab and then click to enable the ‘GDPR Consent’ toggle.

Enabling GDRP compliance for RafflePress

RafflePress has some default text that it’ll show next to the checkbox, but you can change this if you want.

For a closer look at this important privacy law, please see our ultimate guide to WordPress and GDRP compliance.

Spam and fake entries can stop you from reaching your goals. With that being said, you may want to protect the giveaway form using an invisible recaptcha.

Unlike standard captchas that ask visitors to complete a puzzle, invisible recaptchas run in the background. This allows them to block spam without hurting the user experience.

To add an invisible recaptcha to your TikTok contest, select the ‘Recaptcha’ tab. Then, click to activate the ‘Enable Invisible Recaptcha’ toggle.

How to add an invisible recaptcha to a TikTok giveaway

For more on this topic, please see our guide on how to add recaptcha to WordPress.

When you’re happy with how your TikTok competition is set up, click on the ‘Save’ button.

Publish and Add the Giveaway to Your WordPress Website

After you’ve done all that, it’s time to make your giveaway live by clicking on the ‘Publish’ tab.

RafflePress' publishing settings

You can add the contest to your site using a shortcode, the RafflePress WordPress block, or by creating a landing page.

We’ll cover each method, but if you want to get as many entities as possible, then we recommend choosing the ‘Giveaway Landing Page’ option. This creates a separate page that you can easily share on social media, which can help your TikTok giveaway go viral.

To get started, click on ‘Giveaway Landing Page’ and then select the ‘Click here’ link.

How to create a contest landing page

In ‘Page Permalink,’ type in the URL where you want to publish the giveaway landing page.

Then, go ahead and click on ‘View.’

Publishing a TikTok competition

RafflePress will now publish your giveaway as a landing page.

If you visit the URL, then you’ll see the giveaway live.

Adding an online contest to your WordPress website

Another option is to add the giveaway to a post or page using the RafflePress block.

Simply open the post or page where you want to show your TikTok giveaway in the content editor. Then just click on the ‘+’ button and type in ‘RafflePress.’

When it appears, select the ‘RafflePress’ block.

The RafflePress WordPress block

After adding the block, open the dropdown and choose your TikTok giveaway.

You can then either publish or update the page to make the contest live on your WordPress website or blog.

Adding a contest to your WordPress website using the block editor

Another option is to add the contest to any page, post, or widget-ready area.

In the giveaway editor, click on ‘WordPress Shortcode’ and RafflePress will show the shortcode that you can use.

Adding a contest to your website using shortcode

Simply copy the shortcode and then add it to your WordPress blog or website. For more information on how to place the shortcode, please see our guide on how to add a shortcode in WordPress.

How to Make Your TikTok Giveaway Go Viral

To help your TikTok giveaway go viral, it’s important to promote it so more people can enter.

Wherever possible, it’s a good idea to promote your giveaway before publishing it, so you can create a sense of anticipation and excitement around your contest. Then, when your giveaway goes live you should get a ton of entries straight away.

You’ll want to help visitors find your giveaway by promoting it on your site’s most important pages. To start, we recommend adding the giveaway to your navigation menu or sidebar.

You can also create a floating bar with a link to the giveaway landing page using a plugin such as OptinMonster.

How to create a floating bar using OptinMonster

To create a sense of urgency, we recommend adding a countdown timer to the floating bar. In this way, you can use FOMO on your WordPress site to get more entries and TikTok followers.

You can ask your push notification subscribers to follow you on TikTok if they haven’t already, or to refer any friends or family members who might want to enter the competition. To learn more, please see our guide on how to add push notifications to your WordPress site.

Another option is to send an email newsletter with a link to your TikTok giveaway.

Promoting the giveaway on your social media profiles is also a great way to get more participants. Since these people already follow you on social media, they may be interested in watching your TikToks and following your account, so this is a great way to get more engagement and grow your channel.

It’s also important to promote the contest to your TikTok audience. They may already be following your TikTok, but contests are a great way to create content and engage with your existing audience. For example, you might create a video announcing the contest or showing off the prize.

RafflePress also has a ‘View TikTok Post / Video’ action, which is perfect for re-engaging your TikTok followers. If you’re using this entry method, then it’s even more important to promote the contest to your existing TikTok audience.

If you’ve enabled daily entries, then you might even create multiple TikTok videos encouraging your followers to enter every single day.

You can also reach out to TikTok influencers and ask them to mention your giveaway to their followers. To help your giveaway go viral, think about the influencer’s fan base and whether they’ll be interested in the prize. For example, if you’re offering a skin care bundle then you might partner with beauty influencers.

How to Choose a TikTok Giveaway Winner

Once your giveaway closes, it’s time to choose a lucky winner at random.

To pick a winner, just go to RafflePress » Giveaways in your WordPress dashboard.

How to choose a winner at random in WordPress

If you didn’t schedule an end date for the contest, then you’ll need to close it manually.

Simply hover over the giveaway and then click on the ‘End Now’ link.

How to close your TikTok giveaway

To choose a winner, click on ‘Needs Winners.’

On the following page, RafflePress will show all the people who entered your TikTok giveaway, along with how they entered, their total entries, and more.

Here, just type in the number of winners that you want to pick and then click on ‘Choose Winners Now.’

Picking a winner for your WordPress contest

RafflePress will then show the winner highlighted at the top of the list. Now, you simply need to contact the winner and let them know the good news.

You may also want to announce the winner in a TikTok video. If you’re shipping a physical prize, then you might ask the winner to create their own TikTok showing them receiving or unboxing the prize. This is great content for your followers and also proves that your contests are genuine.

It’s also a good idea to create a TikTok thanking everyone for taking part and encouraging them to join your giveaways in the future.

Wherever possible, we recommend you email all participants as this will help you build a relationship with these new leads and gives you another chance to mention your brand.

We hope this article helped you learn how to create a viral giveaway in WordPress. You may also want to check out our guide on how to allow user registration on your WordPress site, or see our list of best social media plugins for WordPress.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Create a Viral TikTok Giveaway in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.


December 13, 2022 at 03:56PM

Monday, December 12, 2022

What is Headless WordPress and Should You Use It? (Pros & Cons)

We are often asked by users about what is headless WordPress and should they use it?

Headless WordPress separates WordPress’s back-end admin area from the front-end that visitors see. This allows developers to use different technologies for the front-end part of a website while still keeping the stability and security of WordPress.

In this article, we’ll explain what is headless WordPress and if should you use it. We’ll also talk about the pros and cons of a headless WordPress website.

Headless WordPress pros and cons

Here is a quick overview of the topics we’ll cover in this guide:

What is Headless WordPress?

Headless WordPress is a term for any website that uses WordPress as the back-end software to manage data and content, but uses separate technologies to display the data on the front-end.

The back-end is the term used for the admin area of a website. This is where you create content like posts and pages, install plugins, manage comments, and more.

WordPress admin area

Front-end is the publicly visible area of your website.

This is what the users see when they visit your site their browsers.

Front-end example

WordPress normally takes care of both components in one robust software. You can simply use any WordPress theme to display your website.

However, some developers and website owners may have different requirements where they may need to use others technologies such as React.js, Angular.js, Faust.js, and others to create a custom front-end for their website.

Headless WordPress allows them to use those technologies while still using WordPress in the backend for easier content management.

How Headless WordPress Works?

WordPress comes with an easy-to-use admin area where you create content and manage your website. It also includes a templating engine to display the front-end of your site using themes.

For more details, see our article on how WordPress works behind the scenes.

WordPress also ships with an API called WordPress REST API.

This API provides a programming interface for developers to access WordPress website data in JSON format.

When making a headless WordPress website, developers use the REST API to fetch data from WordPress. After that, they can use it in their apps or other front-end technologies like React.js, Angular.js, Faust.js, and more to create a custom website.

What Are the Advantages of Using Headless WordPress?

Headless WordPress can be beneficial in some specific scenarios. We’ll talk about some of the advantages of using headless WordPress in those.

1. Headless WordPress Can Be Faster Than Regular WordPress Website

Many developers believe that headless WordPress can be used to create a much faster WordPress website.

By separating the front end of the site using technology such as React.js, many developers try to deliver more efficient code than most WordPress themes.

However, in our experience simpler WordPress performance optimization techniques work just as good as headless WordPress for most small business websites and use-cases.

2. Integrate Headless WordPress Data into Other Apps

Let’s say you have a mobile app and now you want to integrate your blog or other section from your WordPress website into that app.

Headless WordPress can help you bring your WordPress data into other apps, and you can use different technologies to create a seamless user experience.

Similarly, if you have a static website, and you need a dynamic section only for a specific section like a blog, reviews, or online store. Then headless WordPress can integrate WordPress data into your static website.

3. Publish on Multiple Platforms via Headless WordPress

Headless WordPress makes your WordPress data portable, so that you can take it anywhere.

You can use the data in your marketing campaigns, post on social media platforms, use it on IoT devices such as smart speakers, feed an artificial intelligence tool, connect to virtual assistants, and more.

4. Headless WordPress is far more affordable than proprietary headless CMS

Headless WordPress is far more affordable and powerful than proprietary “enterprise CMS” solutions like Contentful which will easily cost you tens of thousands in hosting alone (not including development costs).

What Are the Disadvantages of a Headless WordPress Website?

Creating a headless WordPress website may also put your website at certain disadvantages. Let’s take a look at a few of them.

1. Headless WordPress is More Expensive compared to Traditional WordPress sites

You’ll need to hire a developer to make a custom front end for your website. This could easily get into the range of tens of thousands of dollars.

If you are a developer, then you’ll be spending valuable time making a custom front end.

Even if you are using a front-end development framework, it would take more time and effort than using a ready-made WordPress theme with proper caching on server / DNS level.

2. Some WordPress Plugins May Not Work

Plugins are like apps for your WordPress website, and they allow you to add new features to your site and extend its functionality.

A headless WordPress website may not be able to take advantage of some of the WordPress plugins.

For instance, some WordPress plugin data may not be accessible using the REST API, or plugin features may require a WordPress theme to function properly.

With that said, popular WordPress plugins like AIOSEO have a REST API extension that lets you create SEO friendly headless WordPress sites.

3. Maintainance Headaches

You’ll basically be using separate platforms for the front and back end of your site, and you will need to maintain both of them separately.

Occasionally, things may break down on either side. You will need to rely on developers to sort out these issues. Or you will spend your own valuable time fixing them.

The additional complexity will make it harder as your business grows.

Should You Use a Headless WordPress Website?

In our opinion, most WordPress users don’t need to use a headless WordPress website or other types of headless framework.

It is expensive, needlessly complicated, and not suitable for vast majority of website owners, bloggers, small businesses, or online stores.

For instance, if speed and performance is your main concern, then your existing WordPress website can easily beat any headless WordPress website.

All top WordPress caching plugins come with page caching, cache preloading, object caching, and gzip compression features.

Turning on these features can significantly boost your website speed without hiring any developers.

Combine that with a powerful CDN and web application firewall like Cloudflare or Sucuri, and your website will be even faster.

See the case study of how we made WPBeginner load faster than headless websites.

As for integrations, there are more than 59,000+ WordPress plugins offering integrations with almost every third-party platform available.

There are even tools like Uncanny Automator that allow integrations with WordPress websites and third-party tools using Zapier.

If you need an integration that is not available via an existing WordPress plugin, then perhaps you should hire a developer to write a custom plugin.

This will cost a lot less, and you can even make money online by selling it as a digital download to other WordPress users.

Who Should Use Headless WordPress?

We believe that headless WordPress should only be used in very specific scenarios.

First, you need to evaluate if there is a genuine need for headless CMS.

For instance, a company that has built a custom website or an app. They might need WordPress for easier content management features, and in that scenario it makes sense to use headless WordPress.

Secondly, you should either have the budget to hire & retain developers or have the skillset required to maintain a headless CMS.

Remember, a headless WordPress CMS is used for creating a new custom app, or one that uses WordPress for easier content creation and management.

Important Thing to Watch Out for with Headless WordPress

As a non-techy business owner, sometimes it’s hard to know if you truly need headless WordPress.

Some WordPress developers and agencies will try to push headless websites on you, and you must know what you’re getting yourself into. Remember their incentives are to charge you more money.

If the only reason why they propose headless WordPress is speed or SEO, then you must ask them what have they already done to optimize the speed of your website, and how big of the impact will switching to headless WordPress may have. If you don’t get a concrete answer, then you should look for a second opinion.

You will be surprised that for vast majority of websites, the improvements are negligible, but the cost to develop & maintain headless WordPress websites are much higher.

Whatever you do, definitely do not let anyone talk you into switching away from WordPress to something like Contentful because you’ll be highly disappointed.

We have heard numerous business owners switching only to realize what a mistake they had made, and then converting back to WordPress.

What that said, if you’re 100% convinced that you need a headless WordPress website, then below is a quick step by step guide.

How to Make a Headless WordPress Website?

There are many ways to make a headless WordPress website depending on what tools you want to use for the front end.

For the sake of this tutorial, we’ll show you how to create a headless WordPress website using only the static pages generated by WordPress. This is NOT the most flexible way to create a headless WordPress website, but it is the easiest way for beginners.

First, you need to make a WordPress website that you want to use as your headless CMS.

This needs to be a live website on its own domain name and web hosting account.

We recommend using SiteGround. They are one of the fastest WordPress hosting companies and an officially recommended WordPress hosting provider.

SiteGround servers are powered by Google Cloud and they have many built-in performance optimization tools.

Alternatively if you can spend a little more, then take a look at WP Engine. Their Atlas plan is made for large headless WordPress websites and is targeted towards developers.

Atlas comes with a free sandbox account, custom content modular, pre-configured blueprints to speed up your workflow, and a deeper integration with WPGraphQL plugin.

You can also make a local WordPress website on your own computer.

After that, you can start working on your website by adding posts and pages. You can also choose a WordPress theme for your website and design your website.

Once your website is ready, you need to install and activate the Simply Static plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit the Simply Static » Settings page to configure the plugin.

Simply Static general settings

From here, you can choose the URL path you want to use in your static files.

For instance, if you know the URL or domain name where you will host your static files, then you can provide that URL under the ‘Absolute URLs’ field.

If you are unsure, then you can use the ‘Relative URLs’ option.

Next, switch to the ‘Include/Exclude’ tab. From here, you can add additional pages that you want to include or add pages that you want to exclude.

Exclude URLs

You can also use regex expressions to exclude URLs that match a specific pattern.

Don’t forget to click on the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings.

Now, you are ready to generate static files for your headless website. Simply go to the Simply Static » Generate page and click on the ‘Generate Static Files’ button.

Generate static files

The plugin will then start crawling your website and storing static files in a temporary folder. It may take a while depending on how many pages your website has.

Once finished, you will see a success notification with a link to download files to your computer in a zip archive format.

Download files to your computer

After downloading the zip file, you will need to extract it.

You are now ready to upload the extracted files to your website or the server where you want to host your headless website.

Simply connect to your website using an FTP client or use the file manager app in the hosting control panel.

Once connected, upload the extracted static files you downloaded earlier to your website.

Upload static files

After that, you can visit your static website to see it in action.

Note: To update your static website, you will need to create new content in your WordPress installation and then repeat the whole process again to replace the static files being served to your users.

It’s important to note that this is not the most flexible way to create a static WordPress website.

When you’re using a headless WordPress solution like WP Engine Atlas, it comes with better developer tooling, starter site blueprints, how-to guides, smarter production deployment solutions, and more.

For larger websites and enterprise solutions, we would recommend using WP Engine Atlas along with WPGraphQL to unlock the full power of headless WordPress CMS.

With that said, if you’re a small business owner and read somewhere that you need a headless WordPress site to improve your SEO rankings, that’s just wrong advice. You can get similar results by just improving your website performance by following our guide on how to speed up WordPress.

We hope this article helped you learn what is headless WordPress and if should you use it for your website. You may also want to see our guide on how to create a custom WordPress theme without coding, or see our comparison of best smtp services to improve email deliverability.

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The post What is Headless WordPress and Should You Use It? (Pros & Cons) first appeared on WPBeginner.


December 12, 2022 at 04:13PM