WordPress Adoption Hits All-Time Rise: Web Almanac 2022 Report

In this ever-changing and infinite landscape of the internet, having a profound understanding of the current trends and evolving practices is tough. The reason; most of the information found on the web can be ephemeral. Fortunately, HTTP Archive with its annual Web Almanac 2022 report makes things easier.

Based on valuable data on content publishing, user experience, page content and more; the report is a comprehensive evaluation of millions of successful websites, and gets consistently updated every month.

What caught our attention in this year’s report is the CMS Chapter. HTTP Achieve takes the definition of CMS from Wappalyzer and analyzed over 250 CMS for the report.

According to the web almanac report:

“WordPress is leading the CMS market with a mobile adoption of 35%, followed by other eminent companies such as Joomla (1.8%), Drupal (1.6%), Squarespace (1%) and Wix (2%).”

 Breaking Down The Parameters of Web Almanac Report

The report evaluated CMS adoption trends using four strategic parameters:

1. Core Web Vitals 

The report showcased the performance of various CMS in terms of their core web vitals, and the results were surprisingly varied. Duda, a drag-drop website builder adopted by less than 1% of the users had the highest i.e., 67% of CWV score. This was followed by TYPO3, Jimdo and Drupal with 62%, 61% and 50% respectively.                  

                                                         @CMS CHAPTER WEB ALMANAC 2022

WordPress which had earlier acquired a 19% score last year has seen a rise of 11% with a 30% CWV score. Gaining a higher score for CMS that are hosted independently on the web is difficult, in comparison to SaaS centralized platforms.

The report dives deep into other details and measures the performance using top metrics, including:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
• First Input Display (FID) and
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)

2. Lighthouse 

Interestingly, the Lighthouse score of notable CMS was low, with an average range of 19 to 35. Yet, in this case, an exception is Duda which had a performance score of 47. Joomla, Drupal and WordPress showed no significant change in the results while the score of Wix dropped to 29% from 30%, while others had minor improvements.

                                                         @CMS CHAPTER WEB ALMANAC 2022

In the case of SEO score, every CMS had amazing improvement with WordPress achieving the highest at 91. The accessibility score, on the other hand, had a range of 77 to 91. WordPress fell in the middle with 86 and Squarespace hit the highest with 91. 

3. Resource Weight 

The resource weight highlighted the possible scope of improvements and opportunities of CMS platforms. 

It measured the top platforms based on:

• Images 
• JavaScript
• HTML Document
• CSS 
• Fonts 

                                                         @CMS CHAPTER WEB ALMANAC 2022

Advanced image format was the star of Wix with a median average image byte of 290 KB. While other platforms delivered more than 1MB with Squarespace providing 1.7 MB- the largest. JavaScript and HTML Document had similar results, whereas Wix showcased minor improvements. On the contrary, Wix delivered the lowest CSS resources while WordPress offered the highest. 

Geographical Adoption of WordPress Increased Tremendously 

                                                         @CMS CHAPTER WEB ALMANAC 2022

For better clarity, the report also published CVW scores of WordPress by geography. Though Japan stands as the leader with the highest score of 52%, its followed by Canada and Germany at 49% and 48%. It’s worth considering that despite geo disparities, Brazil i.e. 10% than 52% of Japan.

Wold cited in the report:

“Brazil even though stands at the low end, is growing year by year. As it evaluates data sets of the coming year, it would be worth focusing on the low-end performers for identifying potential reasons, the scope for further improvements and opportunities” 

At the end of the day, CMS platforms are the key to creating content on the web, and as the standards of CWS scores evolve, it will be interesting to see if WordPress can maintain its feat of being the top contender.