WordPress offers the most streamlined solution for businesses looking to build their own website from scratch. Small businesses in particular benefit the most from using WordPress because of its easy-to-use interface, custom design options, great SEO capabilities and supportive community. It’s also free to download, install and use so you can build a website even if you have low budgets.

While WordPress is a wonderful web development tool, there are ways to enhance it so that you can further reap the benefits. For example, Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) is a plugin that offers an easy way of creating custom fields for your WordPress website. These can be dynamically controlled on each page they are used on, which offers businesses a great method of laying out their website.
This guide will take a closer look at ACF and why it has become one of the best plugins for WordPress. If you’re a new business or looking to use WordPress for your existing business, we hope this guide can give you the insightful information you need.
What is ACF?
ACF is a WordPress plugin that enables developers and designers to provide their clients with more sophisticated, user-friendly websites. The custom fields feature on WordPress can be taken to the next level with the ACF plugin, as it gives each field its own set of special capabilities. The core reasons for using ACF is that it can:
- Enhance the experience of entering meta data, such as the meta title and description.
- Control and standardise data as it is stored in the database.
- Display the metadata on the front end clearly and concisely.
Other features include support for custom options pages, front end forms and custom Gutenberg blocks. These custom Gutenberg blocks are blocks of content that users or developers create to add to WordPress pages and posts. They can be used to streamline content publishing, enhance website appeal and help non-technical users.
How Much Does ACF Cost?
ACF has both a free and pro version for businesses to utilise. The flexibility of the free version is incredible and offers all the functionality required to ensure that the website works optimally. However, the pro version does give you extra features that can make your experience using the plugin even better. These additional features include:
- Repeater Field: Make subfield sets that can be repeated as many times as you choose.
- ACF Block Support: You can register your own unique Gutenberg blocks that control data using ACF fields.
- Flexible Content Field: Groups of subfields can be used to create adaptable layout templates.
- Options Pages: These can give you a more personalised user experience while using the plugin.
- Gallery Field: Better management of a collection of images.
- Clone Field: Reuse fields without the hassle of creating them over and over again.
The version of ACF you choose will depend on your budget and what you are looking to get out of using the plugin, as every business will be different in their requirements.
ACF Field Types
The ACF core offering comes with 30 different types of custom fields and there are also an increasing number of third-party fields created by independent developers worldwide. Some of the main types of fields that come with the ACF core include the WYSIWYG text editor field, Google Maps field, single line and multi line text fields, Post relationship fields and more. There are also accordion and tab fields to help with organising fields in the WordPress admin, so you can streamline the process and make your website look better.
Unless a developer chooses to use ACF forms for front-end field rendering, the field inputs themselves will only show up in the WordPress admin.
Why is Structuring Data Important?
When you’re building websites that display, search and filter objects, you will really begin to understand why structuring data is so important when it comes to the overall look and feel of your website. This is why many ecommerce businesses use WordPress for their website, as it gives them the best options for structuring all of the data on their website including all the products that they are selling to customers.
For example, customers coming to your fashion brand’s website will want to see a clear display of all the clothing you are selling, as well as be allowed to search for specific pieces or add filters to see all the specific types of clothing.
Do I need to know how to code to use ACF?
While it’s not essential to be an expert of code, it might be beneficial to know a little bit about it when using ACF. Being comfortable with HTML, CSS and the use of PHP will streamline how you use WordPress and give you the best chance of building a website that benefits your business.
Conclusion
When building a website in WordPress, a digital marketing agency would install the ACF plugin to ensure that they get everything they need out of the tool to enhance a business’s website. ACF serves as a robust foundation for innovation in WordPress development projects for businesses looking to create a wonderfully operational website. Its extensive library of field types and flexible API enable experimentation with new ideas, as well as the chance to explore cutting-edge technologies and push the boundaries of what’s possible with WordPress.