Journey From React to Next.js: Building Modern Web Apps for SEO and Performance
Tags: react, nextjs, javascript, webdev
Published: 2023-08-08 06:13:05

## Introduction

Hello 👋 Devs.

Welcome to this quick introduction blog highlighting the differences between React and Next.js.

React is a widely used JavaScript library for constructing user interfaces. In this blog post, we will delve into the significance of React and explore how Next.js enhances the React experience even further.

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## Traditional Web Applications

In traditional web applications built with PHP, Python Flask/Django, each page is rendered on the server upon user request. However, this approach often results in bloated HTML and CSS documents. Furthermore, any update to a single element necessitates the entire page to reload. This results in a poor user experience, especially with slow internet connectivity.

## Introduction to React and SPA

React introduced a novel approach called Single Page Application (SPA). Instead of rendering the entire page on the server, the entire web app is delivered to the client as a JavaScript bundle. When the user's browser downloads the JS bundle, the app can update specific elements without needing a full page reload. This enables the page to remain functional even with slow internet connectivity, as all the necessary code is readily available in the client's browser.

However, SPAs have certain downsides, particularly in terms of SEO. Since the initial rendering is carried out on the client-side after downloading the JS bundle, search engines might struggle to crawl and index SPA pages. This potential issue could negatively impact the SEO performance of the application.

## The "Hydration" Phase

The transition from the initial HTML content to the fully interactive page in the user's browser is referred to as the "hydration" phase. During this phase, Google's crawlers might face challenges in fully comprehending and indexing the content, as they might not wait for the JavaScript to finish rendering before indexing.

## Enter Next.js and SSR

To address these challenges, Next.js was developed. Next.js builds upon React and introduces server-side rendering (SSR). With SSR, the static content of pages and layouts is pre-rendered on the server and then sent to the client. This approach significantly improves SEO performance, as the initial page content is available to search engines during site crawling.

Next.js seamlessly combines both client-side and server-side rendering. The initial data, such as fetching data from backend APIs to display on the page, is rendered on the server-side, ensuring a swift initial page load. On the other hand, dynamic interactions like button clicks and user actions are managed on the client-side using the JS bundle, much like React's behavior.

By employing server-side rendering for initial content and client-side rendering for dynamic interactions, Next.js effectively reduces the size of the JS bundle sent to the client. This results in faster page load times and a more SEO-friendly web application.

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## Conclusion

In conclusion, Next.js tackles the challenge of SEO performance by pre-rendering content on the server-side, enabling search engines to more effectively index the initial content. This synergy, combined with React's interactive capabilities, positions Next.js as a robust tool for building web applications that offer both exceptional user experiences and strong SEO performance.

Thank you for investing your time in reading this. Please feel free to share your thoughts and comments in the section below. 

Happy coding! 👨‍💻