WordPress is more popular than you would think. In fact, Manaferra found that WordPress powers a little over 43% of the web – imagine that. It helps that WordPress is a platform free to use; there are quite a few functionalities that it sports that make it so favorable with the mass population.
The primary reason WordPress is popular with businesses is that it is a highly SEO-friendly platform.
Any WordPress website development company would find it easier to manage the SEO of a website built on this platform. Additionally, there are loads of plugins in the WordPress library you can choose from to expand that functionality of your site.
Certain trends have emerged over the years that define how WordPress would shape the ecosystem of blogging and website creation in 2022. Let’s check them out.
2022 Trends in WordPress Website Development
There are certain practices and new tech-savvy implements trending in the world of WordPress. From the very ambiguous terms like headless CMS to the modifications in the fundamental building blocks of WordPress, the ecosystem of website development is evolving a great deal. Here is a quick list of what’s trending in 2022.
Full-Site Editing
If you have been using WordPress for a long time, you are familiar with its page and post builder modules. Of late, WordPress has been expanding the scope of these builders to include elements of the website as well – like the burger menu, widgets, header/footer and sections, among others. Modern editing tools on WordPress now offer full-site editing functionality, and bloggers have been flocking towards it. The entire site can be edited in the form of “blocks” that make it up – change the dimensions, layout, placement, colors, fonts, effects, and much more right inside the editor.
Gutenberg
Gutenberg has been the cornerstone in bringing about change in the way a website is presented to the readers. It has been gradually evolving to allow for more and more flexible modifications to what a developer can dabble into without having to code. Customization capabilities that Gutenberg offers are expected to go a step further to include support for multiple languages so that multilingual website development can be achieved straight from the editor. Considering co-authoring website content, this trend is expected to catch on quickly.
Block Themes
WordPress website development mostly functions on themes – sort of “clothing” for your website to make it intuitive, responsive, and looking good. To improve flexibility, trends have been pointing towards the usage of “Block Themes” – a way of building a theme composed entirely of editable blocks instead of hard-coded elements. The versatility of block themes is making them a popular download for people looking to customize their site more than a traditional theme would allow.
Headless CMS
CMS, or Content Management System, is another word for the capability of managing the entirety of content on a website. WordPress has emerged as the most popular CMS among the big players of the Fortune 500 group. Introducing a “Headless” CMS for WordPress has sparked interest among the multichannel content publishers especially. Here, being “Headless” is basically removing the frontend from the picture, and retaining only the backend processes to create content that can then be published on any channel (apps, website, or others) from the same CMS. That takes a lot of hassle out of the entire content development and publishing activity.
Improving SEO with Core Web Vitals
To anyone that’s bothered about Google’s SEO algorithms, the September 2021 update released three new parameters to rank websites on – loading speed, visual stability, and interactivity. In tandem, WordPress’s Version 5.8.1 also released certain bug fixes to its block editors to aid with better website performance, and improved website security even further. Users can be expected to adopt the latest WordPress version to stay in the higher rankings based on Google’s new parameters to measure site quality.
Improvements in Accessibility
In lieu of improving the usability of a website at both ends – the developer and the user – it is expected that certain phenomenal accessibility changes could be made. For example, the capability to append captions to a video straight from the editing block is one feature that could add to how users interact with the content published on a website. More and more developers are expected to create better accessibility tools in the website to boost user engagement.
eCommerce in WordPress
WooCommerce – WordPress’s own eCommerce widget – helped drive up the sales from WP sites to a figure in excess of $20 billion, by December 2020. eCommerce is a colossal industry today; WordPress is expected to leverage this trend to improve its eCommerce capabilities. Developers would find it beneficial to create more themes and websites on WordPress that support WooCommerce, like the theme “Tonal”.
The eCommerce trend isn’t only limited to WordPress websites; with businesses going digital, more and more digital commerce options are expected to emerge in 2022.
Template Kits are the New Themes
Up until now, WordPress users selected a theme to build a website with, and this is what kept the entire website cohesive with a single design. With the advent of template kits, themes are slowly going to be phased out. A template kit is a package filled with website elements that all follow the same base design and character, enabling developers to build a website outside of the boundaries that a theme would otherwise impose. Using template kits, complete websites can be created without ever having to use a theme.
Performance Improvements
WordPress users can expect a complete performance overhaul in their WP sites in 2022, owing to a new Performance Team on the deck. This team, as described in their November 2021 meeting, is now targeting four key areas of focus for improving the performance metrics of WordPress websites:
- JavaScript optimization
- Site Health data display for the user
- Image quality improvement within web-friendly sizes
- Data analytics and reporting
Conclusion
WordPress really does command the website scene of the internet. There are big things in store from the creators; developers can keep a track of these key trends to stay on top of the game. A good website always leads to better conversions.
