I was recently involved in a discovery call with a national business insurance company. We were talking about a complete rebuild of their website – something built from the ground up to support multiple business units, dozens of industry-specific pages, gated quote tools, and serious traffic volumes.
My usual go-to for builds like this is WordPress – it’s flexible, user-friendly, and quick to get live. But on this call, they threw something different into the mix:
“We’ve been thinking about going headless.”
And that changed everything.
What Is a Headless CMS?
For anyone unfamiliar with the term, a headless CMS is a content management system that separates the back-end (where your content lives) from the front-end (what users see). Instead of pushing content through fixed templates, it delivers everything via API – meaning developers can build the site however they like, using frameworks like Next.js, React or Vue.
This approach offers a few key advantages:
- Speed: With static site generation and smart caching, headless sites are lightning fast – ideal for improving SEO, user experience, and even PPC Quality Scores.
- Scalability: You’re not boxed in by theme limitations. You can structure content types however you need – products, sectors, FAQs, landing pages – and re-use them across multiple front ends.
- Omnichannel flexibility: One content source can power your website, customer portal, mobile app, and partner sites.
- Developer/editor freedom: Teams can work in parallel – developers build components, marketers create content – with less chance of breaking things.
From an SEO point of view, this setup allows for full control over metadata, schema, structured content and performance – all of which help in both traditional and emerging areas like Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO).
Why It Fits This Project
The insurance company in question wasn’t looking for a pretty brochure site. They needed something that could:
- Serve different user journeys across sectors (fleet, landlord, commercial, personal)
- Handle real-time quoting via API integrations
- Deliver content across multiple sub-brands and territories
- Support ongoing PPC campaigns with dynamic landing pages
- Be easily updated by a non-technical marketing team
- Stay compliant, secure, and lightning fast
We looked at traditional CMS options, including advanced WordPress setups with custom fields and page builders. But the complexity of this project – paired with the client’s desire for longevity, performance, and flexibility – made headless worth serious consideration.
Scoping the Technical Requirements
Here’s a rough outline of the technical scope we priced up:
- Content Modelling: Custom content types for sectors, product lines, FAQs, documents, call-to-actions, blog content and legal notices.
- CMS Integration: We explored options like Contentful and Sanity.io, depending on editorial needs and budget.
- Front-End Build: Likely using Next.js for performance, routing flexibility and hybrid SSR/SSG output.
- Quote Engine: Multi-step quoting form integrated via third-party API with custom front-end logic.
- SEO: Full control over meta titles, descriptions, schema markup and accessibility checks.
- Compliance: WCAG AA accessibility, GDPR-ready cookie management, and secure user input handling.
- Content Team Tools: Preview mode, role-based permissions, and scheduled publishing.
We scoped the total project approx. £200,000, depending on chosen CMS and integration complexity. The PPC budget alone is over £450,000 per month, so the pressure to get this right from day one is real.
What I’m Taking Away
I haven’t built this yet. This was a scoping and discovery process, but it pushed me into new territory, and that’s exactly why I’m writing about it here.
I’m starting to think differently about CMS architecture, especially when performance, SEO, and multi-channel delivery are on the line. Headless CMS isn’t just a dev trend. For the right client and the right build, it’s a smarter, more future-proof way to deliver digital platforms.
As marketers, we often inherit CMS decisions from someone else. But being able to lead the conversation – not just on content, but on architecture – is a big step up. It’s the kind of thinking that takes you from service provider to strategic partner.
More to come as this project evolves.
