Matthew Widdop
Matty is a Digital SEO Executive at Intelligency, helping our clients to improve their digital performance. Matty is currently studying for his Level 3 Multi-Channel Marketer apprenticeship and has completed a Sport Journalism Degree at the University of Huddersfield.
Astro is not a content management system like WordPress, Wix or Shopify; however, it could be the new alternative. A content management system is defined by the ability of its users to create, manage, store and publish content. Astro doesn’t offer these features in the traditional sense, but it is a modern web framework that allows users to build fast, static HTML websites. This basically means that your website is created using code rather than a content management system; however, Astro lets you reuse layouts, components and templates to minimise the code and build large, fast websites that are optimised for SEO.
Where is WordPress faltering?
Why would you want to look for an alternative to WordPress, you may be wondering? While WordPress is the largest CMS on the market with some impressive features, including an extensive plug-in library and a large community, it also has its drawbacks as well. WordPress has a built-in editor and a theme that all come with their own code, but devs often install alternative themes or page builders to improve page build efficiency in WordPress. All these features can lead to page bloat as code is coming from the editor, the theme and the page builder, slowing down sites and negatively impacting SEO.
How can Astro solve WordPress issues?
For issues with code bloat and site speed, Astro is dramatically better than WordPress. Astro will not only remove any of the additional page bloat issues that accompany WordPress, but you can also create reusable components to speed up your build process, known as islands. These islands allow users to save sections of code to re-use, which Astro will then take and turn into plain HTML, making the build much faster. This process helps devs to create a site that is SEO friendly, excelling in speed and core web vitals, which are both ranking factors for SEO. Below is a snapshot of some of the key features of Astro. Some other features include server-first rendering, which once again helps speed up sites for the end user and more
Where is Astro still behind WordPress?
The advantage WordPress still has over a platform like Astro, and it is a big one, is accessibility and ease of use for the masses. While for developers, Astro may be easy to use and update content, for non-technical editors or teams with lots of publishers without a background in development, it does not allow these users the flexibility to go in and edit the content.
There is a fix for the issue with Astro; however, it is compatible with a headless CMS. This basically means your code is integrated into a CMS that doesn’t have its own code and allows your publishers an admin panel to edit content.
Astro has both advantages and disadvantages of WordPress, but for users who are seriously thinking about alternatives to WordPress to improve site speed on a bloated site, Astro is a really important alternative to consider.
