Taking our websites to the Next.js level

The nature of our industry is that it is ever-evolving.

Whether it’s a new web design feature, a new version of the internet we know and love or a new technology bursting onto the scene, we want to know about it.

But why?

Well it’s important that as a web agency, we keep ahead of the curve, and stay vigilant when it comes to the technology we use.

Why?

Because we want to continue to push boundaries for our clients’ websites, and that is the reason many of them have been with us for decades.

And that’s where Next.js comes in.

But what exactly is Next.js?

To put it simply, Next.js is a framework built on top of React (an open-source JavaScript library).

A web framework is essentially the foundation of your web application.

It provides a standard way to build applications on the World Wide Web and gives you the building blocks for building interactive user interfaces.

Ultimately, Next.js can be leveraged to build highly dynamic, fully interactive, performant and super-fast web applications.

Named by StackOverflow as the 5th most popular framework of 2022 and used by some of the biggest companies worldwide such as Netflix, Starbucks and Uber, it’s considered as one of the fastest-growing react frameworks.

But what has attributed to its surge in popularity with organisations and web development communities?

The benefits of Next.js

So let’s look at the benefits of this technology:

• You can benefit from super-fast load speeds as Next.js can achieve unrivalled page load times contributory to its out-of-the-box image optimisation, static-site generation and code splitting.
• Its Indexable and Crawlable for SEO as alongside fast load speeds, Next.js also utilises a simple and efficient hierarchy of pages and folders that are easily crawled by Google.
• You have improved data security as the static website has no direct connection or dependencies to the database reducing your organisations risk of being compromised by a malicious attack.
• Development is more efficient with built-in CSS support, fast-refresh, which gives instantaneous feedback on dev edits and its ability to allow developers to group and reuse components.

But how does Next.js fit into mso’s offering?

At mso, we’ve been experimenting with Next.js alongside a headless WordPress CMS for our new website (oops! Spoiler alert).

On one hand we have one of the best performing front end web frameworks available and on the other one of the most popular open-source softwares for creating websites.

And if you take into account each of the technology’s strengths, the headless WordPress CMS’ versatility, efficiency, stability, security and speed performance alongside Next.js’ surmised above, we have the tools to create magnificent websites and web applications that are truly innovative.

A match made in heaven right?

With this setup offering numerous benefits for both our clients’ applications and for our development team – it’s certainly an exciting time.

What does this mean for our clients?

For our development team, utilising Next.js alongside a headless WordPress CMS makes for a more efficient way of web development.

This efficiency results in the ability to code web applications or expand website functionality faster, which as a result makes the web development process more cost effective for our clients.

Additionally the technical SEO benefits from Next.js such as improved performance, indexability of site and SEO-friendly applications will improve the website’s visibility in Google search results.

Whilst the WordPress CMS offers the same intuitive and user-friendly interface that allows clients to continue updating and maintaining their sites with ease.

Our takeaways

As with any decision concerning adopting a new technology, it’s never a quick process.

We’re always looking for technologies that have no limitations that not only improve the efficiency of our web development team, but also benefit our clients.

Which is why we’re exploring Next.js to understand how it can elevate our mission, to push boundaries through bespoke website design and deliver enhanced website performance.

And having been adopted by some of the world’s biggest brands, Next.js’ surge in popularity to the 5th most popular framework in 2022 is affirming for many reasons

Whilst its community of developers grows, its popularity offers the security that the framework is not only here to stay, but keeps evolving to continue to push the boundaries of web development even further.

We’re certainly eager to learn and understand more about the capabilities of the technology and embrace the benefits that it offers both our technical team and our clients in the future.

If you have any questions, or want to discuss in more detail, please get in touch by calling 01474 704400 or email [email protected].