Contentful

The traditional content management system loses to headless CMS in flexibility and scalability. In a traditional system, all content, images, texts, HTML, CSS are put in “one bin” and the contents are among the code. Therefore, no content can be used as one time and in one channel.

However, with the progress of digital platforms and environments, companies have a clear need to develop digital content across multiple channels at once. In addition to web pages, there are mobile sites, applications, display screens, various interactive user interfaces and more channels are constantly coming. Under the terms of a traditional content management system, the content of each channel should be built separately, since the system will only bend to website content management. Instead, in headless content management, the same content can be flexibly used in multiple channels.

Traditionally, content is built around pages, but in headless CMS, the structure is based on content model, where different content types are defined and arranged, The content model also defines how different content types are related. As an example, the content template may include a blog title or text for a call-to-action (CTA) button as content types. A combination and presentation format suitable for each digital channel can be assembled from such smaller pieces of content.

Each company needs its own content model and it is worth investing time and effort on the defining stage. In traditional content management systems, the structure of the content is often defined as finished and organisation needs to bend to fit the finished model. The custom content model works just the other way around, molding the content to fit the company's content needs.