Go Go Gadget...Gatsby

A few weeks ago I reached a wall with Create React App which I’m sure many others have already found...SEO. Now before anyone assumes I’m bashing on this project, I'd like to say that Creat React App is a handy starting point for React development. For me, it was the perfect boilerplate to allow me to get my feet wet and learn React. However, as my project needs grew it quickly became apparent that I needed more flexibility and server-side rendering. My options were either to eject and tweak a bunch of config on my own, or I could find a new framework.

Gatsby has been on my list of frameworks to try out for some time. I have been reading and listening to several podcasts lately suggesting that it's going to quickly become the next Wordpress. Given that, and my new found love for React, I decided to bite the bullet and give it a try, and I’m extremely glad I did.

Since Gatsby is based on React, all my existing component fit right in. I did, of course, make minor changes so they would fit the mold even better, but they were very minor. Just like Create React App, Gatsby allows developers to get started really quickly. Literally, in just a few commands, you’re ready to customize. Customization took very little time given the React components I had already developed. I would say at most it took me about 3 to 4 hours to port everything from Create React App to Gatsby.

Once I integrated my existing components to fit the Gatsby mold, I could pick up where I left off with SEO. Since everything is pre-rendered it all works as I had initially intended, and each page can modify the head for Facebook OpenGraph, Twitter cards, and whatever other metadata you want to include to optimize your pages.

So, if you’re considering a site like mine, or anything requiring SEO considerations you might give Gatsby a shot. I’m fairly certain you will enjoy the developer experience.