Headless CMS agency for Astro and Next.js sites built on structured content

Who needs a headless CMS agency?

Headless suits a business whose content has outgrown the system it sits in: pages that are slow to change, a theme that drags the site down, or content that has to appear in more than one place. How much it pays off depends on the business:

• Established local businesses: a separate CMS may be more than you need. A site whose content lives in its own files is simpler to run than two systems, and a separate CMS earns its place when someone on your team will edit the site often.
• Multi-location and regional businesses: location and service pages that must stay consistent, with people in several places who need to change their own pages. A content model with a type for each keeps those pages in line.
• National businesses: several brands or sites, content shared with an app or other channels, and a marketing team that publishes often. A headless CMS lets that team work in one place while each site displays the content its own way.

If a headless build would be more than you need, we’ll say so on the call. Our page on custom web development sets out the way we plan and build every site, headless or not.

How does a headless CMS work with the site in front of it?

A traditional CMS does two jobs: it stores and edits your content, and it builds the pages from a theme. A headless CMS keeps the first job and hands off the second. The content goes out through an API, and a separate front end turns it into pages.

Astro’s documentation says a CMS lets you write content and manage assets outside your Astro project. Some CMSes connect through an integration and others through a JavaScript SDK, and the site then fetches the content and displays it wherever and however you want.

A traditional CMS can work this way too. WordPress’s REST API handbook says any programming language that can make HTTP requests and interpret JSON can use the API, and that it can bring WordPress content into completely separate applications. So going headless doesn’t always mean leaving the CMS your team already knows.

Astro and Next.js, the two frameworks we build front ends in, can both fetch content from a headless CMS and turn it into pages.

What does headless CMS development include?

The work splits into the same parts whichever CMS is involved:

• The content model: the types of content, the fields each one needs and how they relate, such as a service linked to the locations that offer it.
• The connection: the link between the CMS and the front end, through the CMS’s API or SDK.
• The templates: the front end code that turns each content type into pages, in Astro or Next.js.
• Previews: a way for editors to see a change on the real design before it goes live.
• Publishing: a rebuild or refresh of the affected pages each time content changes.
• Moving content in: an export from the old system, cleaned up and fitted to the new model.

The content model tends to outlast the rest. Templates get redesigned and a CMS can be swapped, but a well-planned set of content types can carry over to whatever comes next.

Where does the content live on the sites we build?

On the sites we build today, the content lives in content files inside the site’s code, each checked against a schema as the site builds. A page missing a required field fails that check, so the mistake is caught before the site goes live. This site works that way: midnitesystems.com is one of our Astro builds, and the page you are reading is a content file checked against its schema.

Astro’s documentation defines a content collection as related data that all shares one structure. It says schemas keep each entry consistent through Zod validation and power Astro’s automatic TypeScript typings, and that a collection can come from local files or be fetched from a CMS, a database or an API through a loader.

Editing is the trade-off. Changing a content file means working in the site’s code, which a marketing team may not want to do. Where your team needs to edit pages itself, what we would build connects a headless CMS to the same front end, so the content moves to an editing screen while the templates stay as they are.

Should the front end be built in Astro or Next.js?

We build front ends in both. Our recent sites are Astro builds, and Next.js comes in where a site needs it. The choice comes down to what the site has to do:

• Astro for content-led sites: marketing sites, service and location pages, guides and documentation. Astro’s docs say it was designed to showcase your content, that websites run faster when they render HTML on the server, and that less JavaScript in the browser leaves less to slow a site down. It can also use components written in React, Vue, Svelte and other frameworks where a page needs them.
• Next.js for sites that behave like apps: logins, dashboards, accounts and data that changes for each visitor. Next.js describes itself as a React framework for building full-stack web applications, and its App Router supports newer React features such as Server Components.
• Either one with a headless CMS: both can take content from a CMS, so the CMS and the front end can be chosen separately.

Our Astro work includes the Alvy Logistics website, a 70-page rebuild in our own system. We still run that site with Alvy. Alvy is owned by our co-founder Noah Alvarez, and DSI is an Alvy company.

Where a site needs accounts, portals or live data, the work starts to look like custom software, which our page on web application development covers.

Will a headless site rank on Google?

A headless site ranks on the same terms as any other, and the front end decides how easily Google can read it. Google’s JavaScript SEO basics describe three phases: crawling, rendering and indexing. Googlebot queues pages for rendering, and a page may stay in that queue for a few seconds or longer. Content that JavaScript generates can’t be seen until Google runs the JavaScript. Google still recommends rendering pages on the server or ahead of time: they reach users and crawlers faster, and some bots can’t run JavaScript.

Astro sends finished HTML by default, and Next.js can render pages on the server, so a front end built in either can give Google the words without waiting for scripts to run. The rest is the SEO work any site needs: titles, structured data, a sitemap, internal links and redirects for old addresses. Our page on SEO-friendly web design lists that work in full. We do not guarantee search rankings, traffic, or uninterrupted uptime.

Can AI search tools read a headless site?

The rendering point matters here too. A page whose words are in the HTML from the start can be read by crawlers that don’t run JavaScript, as well as by those that do.

For Google’s own AI features, the bar is the one Search already sets: AI Overviews and AI Mode take their supporting links from pages that are indexed and able to show a snippet, and Google says no AI-specific files or markup are required. A setting in Search Console, the Search generative AI control, decides whether your pages take part. It reached all sites by August 31, 2026 and starts on include; set it to exclude, and neither AI Overviews, AI Mode nor the generative AI features in Discover will use the site’s links and content.

On the sites we build, the robots rules allow AI crawlers, and the structured data and sitemap are in place, which makes them easier for AI answers to find, read and cite. Which answers name your business is each tool’s own decision, and generative engine optimization is the work that follows.

How do you move from a traditional CMS to a headless one?

There are two routes. You can keep your current CMS and run it headless, as the WordPress REST API allows, or move the content into a new home: a headless CMS, or content files in the site’s code. Either way, the move runs in the same order:

• List what you have: every page, post and file, with its address and whether it gets visits or links.
• Design the content model: the types and fields the new site needs, which is the moment to tidy content that grew without a plan.
• Export and map: pull the content out through the old system’s API or export tool, and fit each item to its new type.
• Check it on a preview: build the new front end on a private preview and compare it page by page with the old site.
• Redirect every moved address: Google’s site-move guide asks for a map from old URLs to new ones and server-side permanent redirects, kept for as long as possible, generally at least a year.

Google also tells site owners to expect rankings to move around for a while during a site move. Our page on website migration covers moves in more detail.

What would we build at each level?

For one location, we would usually build an Astro site with the content in its own files: templates for services, areas and guides, and no separate CMS unless someone on your team will edit pages often.

With several locations, we would plan a content model that links a location type to a service type, so each location page lists the services it offers, plus a connected CMS if local managers edit their own pages.

At national scale, the build we would propose covers several content types and brands, a CMS with editor roles and previews, content shared with other channels, and Next.js for the parts of the site that need logins or live data.

What does a headless site need after launch?

A headless site has more moving parts than a site on one platform: the front end framework, the CMS and the hosting each get updates on their own schedule. Astro publishes an upgrade guide after every major release, covering the important changes. Its docs strongly recommend upgrading to the current major version as soon as you are able, and its core team keeps one previous major version on security fixes only. A hosted CMS can change its plans and its API over time as well.

Your proposal lists what our monthly plan covers on your site. For more on what upkeep involves, see our website maintenance page.

If your content has outgrown your CMS, or you’re weighing Astro against Next.js, book a 15-minute call. Bring a page your team finds slow to change, and we’ll look at it together.