Rendering determines whether Google can see your content clearly, while ranking determines whether Google is willing to rank you at the top—the former is the prerequisite for being seen, and the latter is the key to getting traffic.
Rendering strategy
Static Site Generation (SSG)
Static site generation is where HTML is generated during the build process. This HTML is then used for every request. Static site generation is arguably the best rendering strategy for SEO because all HTML is pre-rendered when the page loads. However, it also helps improve page performance—which has now become another ranking factor for SEO.
Server-Side Rendering (SSR)
Similar to SSG, Server-Side Rendering (SSR) uses pre-rendering technology, making it highly beneficial for SEO. Unlike SSG, which generates HTML at build time, SSR generates HTML on request time. This is ideal for dynamic pages.
Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR)
If you have a very large number of pages, generating them all during website building may not be feasible. Next.js allows you to create or update static pages after your website is built.
Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR) enables developers and content editors to generate static content page-by-page without rebuilding the entire website. With ISR, you can retain the advantages of static content while scaling to millions of pages.
Client-Side Rendering (CSR)
Client-side rendering allows developers to fully render a website in the browser using JavaScript. When a page initially loads, it typically provides an HTML file with almost no content; the browser only compiles all the content after the JavaScript has finished loading.
As mentioned above, client-side rendering is generally not recommended for optimal search engine optimization (SEO).
CSR is ideal for data-intensive dashboards, account pages, or any page you don't need to be indexed by search engines.
For SEO, the most important thing is that page data and metadata can be obtained without JavaScript during page load. In this case, SSG or SSR would be the best choice.
