How to handle server-side rendering (SSR) in Next.js for SEO?

@emelie 

Handling server-side rendering (SSR) in Next.js for SEO involves several best practices and strategies to ensure that your web application is optimized for search engines. Here’s a guide on how to optimize SSR for SEO in a Next.js application:

1. Understand SSR in Next.js

• Server-Side Rendering: Next.js pre-renders pages on the server on each request. This means that the HTML is generated on the server at request time.
• Static Generation: Alternatively, you can use Static Generation, which generates the HTML at build time and can be reused for requests.

2. Dynamic Meta Tags

• Use the component from next/head to manage meta tags. This is essential for influencing search engines and social media platforms.
• Example: import Head from 'next/head'; function MyPage() { return ( <> {/* Page content */} ); }

3. Use getServerSideProps

• Next.js has a data-fetching method called getServerSideProps that fetches data on each request, which is useful for SSR.
• By using this method, you can tailor content dynamically while ensuring search engines read the latest version.

4. Optimize for Performance

• Faster pages improve SEO. Use HTTP caching headers with SSR to enhance performance.
• Optimize images, lazy-load off-screen content, and use a CDN for static assets.

5. Canonical Tags

• Use canonical tags to avoid duplicate content issues. These indicate the preferred version of a URL to search engines.

6. Structured Data

• Implement structured data (JSON-LD) using scripts within the component. This helps search engines understand your content better.
• Example:

7. Sitemap and robots.txt

• Generate a dynamic sitemap.xml that includes all publicly accessible pages in your Next.js app.
• Use a robots.txt file to give instructions to search bots on which pages to crawl.

8. Internationalization (i18n)

• If your site supports multiple languages, use Next.js i18n support to enable href-lang tags for multilingual SEO.

9. Monitor SEO Performance

• Use tools like Google Search Console to monitor your site's SEO performance. Track indexation, crawl errors, and keyword performance.

By applying these strategies in your Next.js application, you can enhance SEO performance through effective server-side rendering. Remember, SEO is an ongoing process, so continually refine and update your approach based on the latest best practices and algorithms.