Development
Next.js development: sites and apps that can be found
Next.js is what you reach for when a site has to be two things at once: fast and findable in Google, and an actual application behind the login. I build them, and I fix the ones where the application side has cost speed and findability.
When this makes sense
- You need marketing pages that rank and an application, and would rather not run two codebases
- Your React app is invisible to search engines and AI assistants, and that is starting to cost you
- A Next.js site is slow or expensive to host and nobody is sure which part is doing it
How it works
- 01
Decide what renders where
Which pages are static, which are server-rendered, and which are client-only. Getting this wrong is the cause of most Next.js sites that are slow or invisible, and it is cheap to get right at the start.
- 02
Build
Pages, API routes and the data layer, with the SEO and GEO fundamentals in from day one rather than retrofitted — canonicals, structured data, sitemap, an /llms.txt, and hreflang if you run more than one language.
- 03
Measure and hand over
Core Web Vitals on real devices, Search Console connected, and hosting you control. Numbers before and after, so you can see what changed.
What the work covers
- Server rendering and static generation, chosen per page rather than by default
- Technical SEO and GEO built in: canonical URLs, structured data, sitemap, hreflang and an /llms.txt
- API routes and the database layer behind them
- Hosting, deployment and monitoring you own and can move elsewhere
Headless CMS: WordPress, Sanity or Payload
A Next.js site needs somewhere the content is edited, and that is usually a headless CMS. If the editors are already used to WordPress, WordPress can stay as the editing tool while Next.js delivers the site itself, which gives you the speed without learning a new system. Starting fresh, Sanity or Payload are often a better fit, because they are built to deliver content to several places at once, for example both a website and an app.
The choice depends on who edits, how much structured content there is, and whether you want to pay for a hosted product or keep everything on your own server. I set it up so editors can preview changes before they are published, and so a change in the CMS reaches the site within seconds without rebuilding the whole thing.
Moving from WordPress without losing rankings
When a site changes platform, the biggest risk sits in the old addresses. Every page that brings in traffic from Google today has to keep its address or get a 301 redirect to the new one, and titles, descriptions, structured data and internal links have to come across. Before the move I build a list of every address from the sitemap, Search Console and the server logs, and afterwards I check that every single one answers correctly.
After launch I follow indexing and rankings in Search Console for the first weeks, so a drop is caught and fixed while it is still small. A move done properly usually gives a faster site and better Core Web Vitals, which is why most people do it. Without that list, a move is one of the most common reasons a site loses its rankings.
Common questions
- What does a Next.js build cost?
- It depends on how much of the project is pages and how much is logic. A plain site is the smaller job, and an application behind a login is the larger one. The scope and the price are agreed in writing first, so you know what it costs before anything is built.
- Next.js or WordPress?
- WordPress if the point is content you edit yourself and the site is mostly pages — it is cheaper to build and cheaper to run, and I will say so. Next.js when the same product has to be both a fast public site and an application, or when the page has to do something a theme will fight you on. Picking the expensive one for a brochure site is a common and avoidable mistake.
- Is Next.js good for SEO and for AI search?
- It depends on how the pages are rendered. Server-rendered and static pages index fine. A Next.js site built entirely client-side has the same problem as any other single-page application, plus a heavier bill. The per-page rendering choice decides what Google can index at all — and it matters even more for ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google’s AI answers, most of which do not run JavaScript. Once the pages are server-rendered, one piece of work covers both.
- Where does it get hosted?
- Wherever you want, and you should keep that choice. It runs on a normal container on ordinary European hosting as happily as on a managed platform — I run HostStack, so I know that setup well. What matters is that you own the hosting account and can move without asking permission.
- Can you take over an existing Next.js project?
- Yes. It usually begins with a technical review, and with Next.js the first thing worth checking is almost always the rendering strategy, because that is where the speed and the hosting bill are decided.
Other stacks I work in
Not sure which one to pick?
Send a couple of lines about what you are trying to achieve. You get a reply within 24 hours, and an honest yes or no.