Introduction to Static Site Generation (SSG)

Static Site Generation (SSG) is a powerful feature in Next.js that allows you to build websites with pre-rendered pages at build time. This means that the HTML for each page is generated during the build process, resulting in fast-loading, SEO-friendly, and highly cacheable websites. In this tutorial, we'll explore SSG in Next.js.

Creating an SSG Page

1. Start by creating a new Next.js project. If you haven't already installed Next.js, you can do so with:

    npx create-next-app my-ssg-app

2. Create a new page in the "pages" directory, for example, ssg.js:

    // pages/ssg.js
    import React from 'react';
    function SSGPage({ data }) {
        return (
            <div>
                <h2>Static Site Generation (SSG)</h2>
                <p>{data}</p>
            </div>
        );
    }
    export async function getStaticProps() {
        // Fetch data from an API or database
        const response = await fetch('https://api.example.com/data');
        const data = await response.json();
        return {
            props: {
                data,
            },
        };
    }
    export default SSGPage;

In this example, the getStaticProps function is used to fetch data during the build process and pass it as a prop to the component. This page will be pre-rendered as an HTML file during the build.

3. Build your Next.js application using:

    npm run build

4. Start your Next.js application using:

    npm run start

5. Access the SSG page by visiting /ssg in your application. The page loads quickly and is SEO-friendly, as it is pre-rendered.

Conclusion

Static Site Generation in Next.js is a game-changer for building fast and highly optimized websites. It allows you to generate pre-rendered HTML pages, resulting in better performance and improved SEO. For more advanced features and use cases, visit the Next.js website.