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Next.js - The ultimate way to build React apps

Next.js tutorial with examples: Build better React apps with Next

Explore how Next.js builds on React by adding server-side rendering, static site generation, and an intuitive App Router to create fast, scalable, and SEO-friendly web applications. Understand the framework's key features, routing systems, data fetching methods, and benefits for building dynamic, high-performance sites.

We'll cover the following...

Key takeaways:

  • Next.js builds on React by adding features like server-side rendering (SSR) and static site generation (SSG), optimizing performance and SEO.

  • SSR and SSG improve page load times and search engine rankings, making Next.js ideal for content-heavy websites.

  • The Next.js App Router allows developers to create complex and dynamic routes using dynamic segments like user IDs and product slugs, enhancing your application’s flexibility.

  • Incremental static regeneration (ISR) in Next.js allows developers to update static pages after they have been built. This means static pages can be regenerated on demand when a certain condition is met.

  • Automatic code splitting and image optimization ensure that applications load faster by serving only necessary code and optimizing media assets without extra configuration.

Building high-performance, scalable, and SEO-friendly web applications can be challenging, especially when working with React. While React excels at creating dynamic user interfaces, achieving optimal performance and SEO often requires additional effort. This is where Next.js comes in. As a React framework, Next.js empowers developers to easily create fast, SEO-friendly applications without complexity.

With features like server-side rendering (SSR), static site generation (SSG), and the new App Router introduced in Next.js 13, it has become the go-to choice for building modern web applications. Full stack developers love Next.js for its ability to deliver optimized, reactive websites by combining client-side React with powerful server-side capabilities.

In this blog, we’ll help you start with Next.js by covering the main concepts you need to know before building optimized sites.

What is Next.js?

Next.js is an open-source React front-end framework that adds optimization capabilities like server-side rendering (SSR) and static-site generation. It builds on the React library, meaning Next.js applications take the benefits of React and add additional features.

Key features of Next.js

Let’s look at some of the key features offered by Next.js:

  • Server-side rendering (SSR): SSR allows the server to access all required data and process the JavaScript together to render the page. Then, the page is sent back to the browser and immediately rendered. SSR reduces page load times and enhances responsiveness, improving user experience.

  • Static site generation (SSG): SSG prerenders pages at build time, generating static HTML files that can be served instantly. This approach offers fast load times and scalability, ideal for content that doesn’t change frequently.

  • Search engine optimization (SEO): SSR and SSG improve SEO by providing fully rendered HTML to search engines, which enhances crawlability and indexing. This helps the site to show up higher on search engine results pages, making websites rank better for SEO because they load faster, and SEO trackers can scan more of the site content.

  • <head> tag: Next.js also allows you to edit a site’s <head> tag, which you cannot do in React. The <head> tag is a core part of a web page’s metadata and contributes to the site’s SEO ranking.

  • New App Router: Introduced in Next.js 13, Next.js uses React ...