Building a Portfolio: The Key Requirements
When I set out to build my personal portfolio website, the decision of which technology to use was a crucial one. I wanted a platform that could do more than just showcase my projects; it had to be an example of my skills in practice. My key requirements were speed, an intuitive development experience, and, most importantly, discoverability. As a developer, my portfolio is my resume, and if potential employers or collaborators can't find it, it’s not serving its purpose. Given these requirements, I knew that traditional client-side rendering, which relies on the browser to handle all the rendering, wouldn't be the optimal choice. That's why I immediately turned to Next.js.
The Core Reasons Behind the Choice
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Lightning-Fast Performance with Static Site Generation (SSG): For a portfolio and blog site, the content is largely static. My projects, my 'About Me' section, and my blog posts don't change every minute. Next.js's Static Site Generation (SSG) was the perfect solution. With SSG, every page on the site is pre-rendered into a lightweight, static HTML file at build time. When a user requests a page, the server can immediately serve this pre-built file, which results in a website that loads almost instantly, providing a superior user experience. For a developer portfolio, a fast-loading site is a powerful demonstration of skill.
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SEO-Friendliness: SEO was a top priority. My portfolio is designed to help me get opportunities, so it needs to be easily discoverable by search engines. Because Next.js pre-renders pages into static HTML, search engine crawlers can easily read and index all the content, including the text in my blog posts and project descriptions. This is a significant advantage over single-page applications (SPAs) where a lot of content is loaded dynamically after the initial page has rendered. With Next.js, my content is fully indexed, which means it has a better chance of ranking on search engines like Google and Bing.
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An Exceptional Developer Experience: The developer experience with Next.js is second to none. The framework's file-system routing is intuitive and straightforward. Organizing a project's pages is as simple as creating a new file in the
pagesorappdirectory. Next.js also handles a lot of the boilerplate code and configuration, allowing me to focus on what matters most: the content and design of my portfolio. The built-in features, such as image optimization, automatic code splitting, and fast refresh, all contribute to a smooth and efficient development process. I was able to iterate on my design and add new features without a lot of friction.
By choosing Next.js, I was able to build a portfolio that not only effectively showcases my skills but also serves as a practical example of a well-built, performant, and modern web application. It’s a testament to the fact that the right technology choice can make a huge difference in the success of a project, and it's a tool I will continue to use for building high-quality web experiences.