Jamstack: Meaning and Implementation for Your CMS

A steadily shorter attention span has become the norm in today's digital world. It is increasingly important to capture and retain your users in a timely manner on your website. However, if this responds too late or too slowly, you can quickly lose users.

The technical component is therefore an important prerequisite in content management, so that sessions are not terminated too quickly. The application Jamstack can support you in this, as it can improve the speed and security of your website's web development.

In this article, we will show you exactly what this means and how Jamstack can be important for your content management. In addition, you will learn how and with which software solutions you can implement Jamstack.

What is Jamstack?

The word Jam in Jamstack refers to the three important website components JavaScript, APIS, and Markup. This is a modern web development architecture that was largely coined by Mathias Billman (co-founder of the hosting service Netlify).

We will break down what exactly is behind the three components:

• JavaScript is a flexible programming language that serves as the main scripting language for most websites.
• API provides a way to make asynchronous requests to websites that run on different servers. This allows websites to communicate with each other and integrate external services into the website.
• Markup sums up all the HTML content that you use to create text and text formatting on a website. In relation to Jamstack, this means that the text content is not provided by a database, but as finished markup.

To explain more precisely what exactly Jamstack can help you with, let's take a look at the difference between dynamic and static websites.

How Jamstack can support you in content management

Most of today's websites are built dynamically. This means that they are generally easy to create and update. However, every call from users sends a request to a server or database, allowing content to be updated without direct changes to an HTML code. However, dynamic websites quickly reach their limits: every single piece of content must be generated when the page is called up and then requested from a server.

The finished website can only be built and updated afterwards from the response and the website's markup. If there are technical problems with the server, for example, the loading times will be correspondingly longer, so you can lose users more quickly. In addition, content management systems, through which you maintain your website, are often dependent on third-party plug-ins, which can be more susceptible to security problems.

Using a Jamstack, your website is built in advance and not only when users click on an action. You are also no longer dependent on external web servers, as all content is collected at regular intervals and later combined with the markup to build a static page.

What are the benefits of Jamstack?

More and more websites are specializing in Jamstack websites because they are superior to traditional websites in terms of speed, security, and scalability. We show you what additional benefits you can get when you resort to this modern form of website development.

These are the advantages of Jamstack for marketers

1. Lower costs: Hosting on a web server can quickly become very costly for you. If you want to look not only at the technical component in content management, but also at the financial one, then hosting static data is worthwhile. Some of these are even completely free.
2. Better search engine optimization: For successful search engine optimization, not only good content and keyword optimization are important, but also some technical prerequisites. Usability and security play a major role here. Because of their modern website architecture, Jamstack websites load quickly and securely, which can have a positive effect on search engine optimization.
3. Access to services and channels: One of the major challenges with dynamic websites is the long loading times associated with working with external services. However, Jamstack sites can prevent this complexity by connecting to third-party services, such as payment gateways or e-commerce platforms, via APIs.
4. Omnichannel content: For successful operation, Jamstack websites need two additional components: a static website generator and a Jamstack CMS. When a Jamstack site is connected to a Jamstack CMS, it can share content with other channels via APIs. This gives you the ability to deliver your content across multiple channels and provide your users with a complete omnichannel experience.

These are the benefits of Jamstack for developers

1. Faster performance: One of the main advantages of Jamstack is speed, as websites do not need to be loaded by an application or web server. Instead, they are provided via a Content Delivery Network (CDN) as pre-built markup, increasing speed and web performance. The result is faster loading times and an improved user experience.
2. Improved experience for developers: Outdated web architectures can quickly restrict your developers and distract them from their main focus, the user experience. Also, working with a backend architecture requires a heavy workload and quickly leads to less productivity. With Jamstack, they can focus exclusively on the frontend experience.
3. Increased security: Server-side applications and databases can be very vulnerable to cyberattacks. Since Jamstack decouples the frontend from the backend, the risk of becoming a victim of such attacks is lower.
4. Greater scalability: With a CDN, you no longer have to worry about managing web servers, which gives you more scalability and flexibility than with traditional web applications.

How do you implement Jamstack in your CMS?

In order for both web developers and marketers to benefit from the advantages of a Jamstack website, you need, in addition to the JavaScript frameworks, APIs and CDN, a Static Site Generator (SGS) and a Jamstack CMS. A static site generator helps you build websites from HTML files before they are deployed to a CDN. To actually create and maintain the content, you need a powerful content management system (CMS). The right solution for Jamstack websites is a Headless CMS,where the frontend is fundamentally decoupled from the backend - the right prerequisite to start with a Jamstack website.

We would like to introduce one of these solutions in more detail and show you how to implement Jamstack in your CMS.

Storyblok

The headless architecture of Storyblok decouples the frontend layer from the backend database, making it a suitable Jamstack CMS. Storyblok can deliver content to end users with a fast website, while at the same time giving developers the opportunity to connect with additional services and channels via APIs.

In addition, marketers benefit from the ability to create content once and publish it on different channels, as well as optimize it with a visual editor.

Let yourself be inspired by an exciting use case on the financial platform Fundbox, who successfully implemented Jamstack with Storyblok.

These are additional features of the content management system Storyblok:

• Asset Management
• Internal Search
• Reusable Content
• Content Performance

On our software review platform OMR Reviews you will find suitable reviews and more information about Storyblok and many other Headless CMSs, which give you the prerequisite for implementing a Jamstack website.