Server-Side Rendering (SSR) with Next.js

Published on 10.9.2019

When building modern web applications, performance and SEO are critical factors to consider. Server-Side Rendering (SSR) is one of the most powerful techniques to enhance both. While traditional React apps use client-side rendering (CSR), Next.js brings SSR into the picture, allowing us to render pages on the server before sending them to the client.

In this post, we’ll introduce Next.js, explore the advantages of SSR, and see how Next.js makes it easy to implement SSR. By the end, you’ll understand why SSR is important for SEO and how it can improve the performance of your app.

Let’s dive into it!


What is Server-Side Rendering (SSR)?

Server-Side Rendering (SSR) refers to the process of rendering web pages on the server rather than the client. This means that the HTML of the page is generated on the server and sent to the browser, instead of relying on JavaScript to generate HTML on the client side after the page loads.

This approach has several advantages:

  • Improved SEO: Search engines can crawl pre-rendered HTML more easily, leading to better indexing and ranking.
  • Faster Initial Load: Since the HTML is ready when it reaches the client, the browser can display the content faster.
  • Enhanced Performance: The server does the heavy lifting, so the client-side JavaScript bundle is smaller, which can improve overall performance.

With SSR, your web app can provide content to users quickly and improve its visibility on search engines.


What is Next.js?

Next.js is a powerful framework built on top of React that simplifies the process of building SSR applications. It gives you automatic SSR support with minimal configuration. Next.js handles the server-side rendering behind the scenes, so you don’t have to worry about configuring a server to render your React pages.

Some key features of Next.js include:

  • SSR and Static Site Generation (SSG): Next.js allows for both SSR (on-demand rendering) and static site generation (pre-rendering).
  • Routing: Built-in routing system based on file structure, making it easy to create pages.
  • API Routes: You can build serverless functions directly in your Next.js app.
  • Automatic Code Splitting: Next.js automatically splits your code, so only the necessary JavaScript is loaded for each page.

Next.js’s flexibility and simplicity make it one of the best choices for React applications that need SSR.


How SSR Improves SEO and Performance

Improved SEO

Search engine crawlers, like Googlebot, are often unable to execute JavaScript efficiently. They rely on the HTML that is served to them to understand the content of a page. Without SSR, React’s client-side rendering means search engines only see an empty HTML shell with JavaScript that needs to be executed to populate content.

With SSR, the content is pre-rendered on the server and sent as HTML, which makes it easier for search engines to crawl and index your pages. This can lead to improved SEO rankings, especially for content-heavy pages or those that require high visibility.

Faster Time-to-First-Byte (TTFB)

With SSR, since the content is pre-rendered and sent directly to the client, users will see the page faster than with client-side rendering. This reduces the time-to-first-byte (TTFB), which is the time taken for the browser to receive the first byte of content from the server.

SSR improves the perceived performance of your app because users don’t have to wait for JavaScript to download, parse, and render content — they get the fully rendered HTML right away.


How to Set Up SSR with Next.js

Setting up SSR in a Next.js project is incredibly simple. Here’s a step-by-step guide to getting started:

Step 1: Install Next.js

First, let’s create a new Next.js project:

npx create-next-app my-next-app

Change to your project directory:

cd my-next-app

Step 2: Add SSR to a Page

Next.js enables SSR for all pages by default. Let’s create a simple page with SSR enabled.

  1. Inside the pages folder, create a file called index.js:
// pages/index.js
import React from 'react';

const Home = ({ serverTime }) => {
  return (
    <div>
      <h1>Server-Side Rendering with Next.js</h1>
      <p>This page was rendered on the server at: {serverTime}</p>
    </div>
  );
};

export async function getServerSideProps() {
  // This function runs on the server and fetches data to pre-render the page
  const serverTime = new Date().toISOString();

  return {
    props: {
      serverTime, // This data will be passed to the component as props
    },
  };
}

export default Home;

Explanation:

  • getServerSideProps: This function fetches data and returns it as props before the page is rendered. It runs on the server every time a request is made for this page.
  • serverTime: In this example, we’re passing the current server time to the component as a prop. This is just an example, but in a real app, you might fetch data from an API or database here.

Now, when you navigate to localhost:3000, Next.js will render this page on the server and send the fully rendered HTML to the browser, including the server time.

Step 3: Build and Run Your SSR Application

To see SSR in action, build your Next.js app for production:

npm run build

Then, start the server:

npm start

When you visit your app in the browser, you’ll see that the HTML is served with the pre-rendered content, including the server time.


Benefits of Using SSR with Next.js

  • SEO Boost: Pre-rendered content is more accessible to search engines, improving your SEO performance.
  • Faster Load Times: With SSR, your app loads faster since the browser receives fully rendered HTML immediately.
  • Automatic Code Splitting: Next.js splits your code automatically based on the pages, which leads to faster initial loads.

Conclusion

Next.js makes it incredibly easy to implement Server-Side Rendering (SSR) in your React apps. With just a few lines of code, you can start rendering your pages on the server, improving both performance and SEO. The ability to fetch data on the server and pre-render it before sending it to the client makes SSR a powerful tool for creating fast and SEO-friendly web apps.

As web apps become more complex, server-side rendering is becoming an increasingly important tool to ensure high performance and good search engine visibility. By using Next.js, you can leverage SSR and improve your app’s performance with minimal configuration.

Happy coding, and enjoy building your SSR-powered React apps with Next.js!

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