WordPress remains one of the key website creation platforms. It builds more than 500 websites every day, compared to Shopify or Squarespace that build only 60-80. This means that the competition is incredibly high and you need to follow all of the latest trends if you want to stay relevant. 

It’s not enough to have high-quality images or a unique design in order to stand out anymore. WordPress ramped up requirements for well-performing websites. 

This article goes over 5 major WordPress development trends in 2022 that will help you improve your website and ensure a positive user experience. Keep reading to find out more. 

1 AI-driven chatbots

Artificial Intelligence continues to develop and simplifies the way in which we complete our duties. Certain tasks that took hours or even days to finish can now be done in a matter of minutes. Simply said, AI does tedious work for us.

Let’s take a look at chatbots. Their capabilities are expanding daily, and it is predicted that they will eventually take over support management positions as well.

Understandably, this allows companies to save money on recruiting managers and reallocate resources appropriately. Some of the tasks AI performs include:

• More enjoyable navigation with the help of virtual assistants who interact with users – similar to taking a guided tour via the site.
• Handling and studying data collected from interactions with the chatbot.
• Handling sales inquiries using frequently asked questions and planned responses. That enables the collection of conversion-ready leads based on the data provided.

Chatbots are a good choice for companies that operate 24 hours a day, such as banks and online retailers. Human customer support agents are not always present to resolve issues which can negatively impact customer experience. However, this isn’t a reason for concern anymore since chatbots can answer up to 80% of customer questions. This only shows how much artificial intelligence is already impacting customer support. 

2 Progressive web applications

A progressive web app (PWA) is a website that performs and looks like a mobile application. PWAs are designed to leverage native smartphone capabilities without forcing the end-user to enter an app store, make a payment, and download software directly.

Rather than that, a PWA can be identified with a search engine inquiry and instantly accessed via a browser. The most remarkable feature is that loading speeds are comparable to a computer, which adds to the simplicity. In summary, the following points demonstrate why more businesses are embracing PWAs:

• PWAs convert at a 36% higher rate than native apps.
• PWAs achieve a 50% increase in user engagement.
• PWAs require 33% fewer maintenance costs.

3 Dark mode performance

You’ve probably encountered this developing trend in website building. Worldwide, the dark mode experience has grown in popularity and will continue to do so in the future years. This mode is more user-friendly and comfortable on the eyes.

It also performs better in daylight, especially when it is very sunny outside. Since dark-themed websites do not require additional brightness, they consume less battery power. Plus, they have a sophisticated user interface and a slew of extra enticing features.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google, and Reddit were among the first to adopt dark mode, and it is expected to be one of the leading developing technologies in 2022.

4 Voice search optimization

The recent web development trends emphasize the importance of voice search. Amazon, Apple, and Google introduced smart speakers in response to this growing demand. In addition, web developers strive to create websites that are entirely accessible to those with hearing and vision difficulties.

Worldwide, it is anticipated that the demand for smart speakers will expand by 21% to 163 million devices in 2022. This change has been achievable by speech recognition via AI assistants such as Siri and Alexa. In 2022, businesses, particularly eCommerce websites, will leverage the voice function.

Keep in mind that voice search optimization is not an easy task. Verbal language is quite different from the written one which makes it hard to predict people’s inputs. There are no traditional keywords you can analyze with the help of a keywords rank checker and optimize your website accordingly.

Instead, the entire process may take much longer but, if done properly, voice search optimization can significantly improve your website’s performance.

5 Page loading time 

According to studies, more than 50% of web browsers anticipate a website loading in less than two seconds after clicking on the link. If your website takes more than three seconds to load, your viewers will likely quit and never return!

Your job is to reduce the page loading time as much as possible. The way a website is coded has a significant impact on how swiftly it loads and performs. WordPress is more than capable of the chore, as the platform runs about 40% of the world’s websites. In addition, it is meant to handle large-scale websites and optimize them for maximum performance using a containerized hosting strategy.

This is important because the efficiency of a website directly impacts a business’s end result. For example, interest decreased perceived wait times by 40%, resulting in a 15% boost in search traffic and sign-ups.

Conclusion

Once considered a platform for small businesses and blogs, WordPress has evolved into a content management system that even large corporations use to power their websites. WordPress development trends have changed dramatically over the last three years, and these modifications have resulted from shifting user needs. Your job is to stay current with these changes and update your website accordingly to ensure the best performance.