Headless WordPress with React and Next.js

Contents

Introduction

The evolution of web development architectures has shifted significantly toward decoupled, API-driven approaches.
Headless WordPress, combined with the modern JavaScript frameworks React and Next.js, offers developers
a powerful way to deliver lightning-fast, SEO-friendly websites while retaining WordPress’s mature
content management capabilities.

Understanding Headless WordPress

In a traditional WordPress setup, PHP templates render HTML on the server. In a headless configuration,
WordPress acts solely as a content repository. The front end is completely separated and interacts with
WordPress via APIs.

WordPress REST API

Since WordPress 4.7, the REST API
has been built into core, exposing endpoints for posts, pages, custom post types and more.
Data is returned in JSON, ready to be consumed by JavaScript apps.

WPGraphQL

For more flexible queries, the WPGraphQL
plugin exposes your WordPress content via GraphQL. This can reduce over-fetching and under-fetching
by allowing clients to specify exactly what data they need.

Why React and Next.js

  • Component-Based Architecture: React’s reusable components improve maintainability.
  • Server-Side Rendering (SSR): Next.js can render pages on the server for SEO.
  • Static Site Generation (SSG): Pre-build pages at deploy time for blazing performance.
  • Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR): Update static content incrementally without rebuilding the entire site.

The Jamstack Architecture

In the Jamstack model, your site is a collection of pre-rendered pages (HTML, CSS, JS) delivered via a CDN.
WordPress serves as the “Content” layer, while React/Next.js orchestrates the build and presentation.

  • J – JavaScript: React components rendered either at build time or runtime.
  • A – APIs: WordPress REST or GraphQL endpoints.
  • M – Markup: Pre-rendered HTML pages for performance and security.

Integrating WordPress with Next.js

Using the REST API

Next.js provides getStaticProps and
getServerSideProps to fetch data.


// pages/index.js
export async function getStaticProps() {
  const res = await fetch(https://example.com/wp-json/wp/v2/posts)
  const posts = await res.json()
  return { props: { posts } }
}
function Home({ posts }) {
  return (
    ltdivgt
      {posts.map(post =gt (
        ltarticle key={post.id}gt
          lth3 dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{ __html: post.title.rendered }} /gt
        lt/articlegt
      ))}
    lt/divgt
  )
}
export default Home

  

Using WPGraphQL

Install and activate the WPGraphQL plugin, then use Apollo Client or URQL.


import { GraphQLClient } from graphql-request
export async function getStaticProps() {
  const client = new GraphQLClient(https://example.com/graphql)
  const query = 
    {
      posts {
        nodes {
          id
          title
          content
        }
      }
    }
  
  const data = await client.request(query)
  return { props: { posts: data.posts.nodes } }
}

  

Rendering Strategies in Next.js

Strategy Use Case Pros
getStaticProps (SSG) Blog posts, marketing pages Fast, CDN-ready
getServerSideProps (SSR) Personalized dashboards, user data Always fresh
ISR (revalidate) Frequently updated content Hybrid SSG/SSR

Authentication and Security

  • Application Passwords: Built into WordPress 5.6 for basic auth.
  • JWT Authentication: Use
    jwt-auth plugin.
  • OAuth2: For enterprise use with granular scopes.
  • HTTPS Rate Limiting: Protect your endpoints and throttle requests.

SEO Considerations

  • Server-side rendered meta tags via next/head.
  • Pre-rendered sitemap using
    next-sitemap.
  • Structured data (JSON-LD) in templates.

Deployment and Hosting

  • Static Files: Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare Pages.
  • WordPress: Any managed WordPress host, Docker, or self-hosted server.
  • CI/CD: Automate re-builds on content changes with webhooks.

Performance Optimization

  • Image optimization with
    next/image.
  • Code splitting and lazy loading components.
  • Caching API responses at the edge (CDN).
  • Minify and compress assets (Brotli/Gzip).

Conclusion

Headless WordPress with React and Next.js marries the best of both worlds: a robust CMS with
modern front-end performance. By leveraging APIs, SSR/SSG strategies, and a CDN-first mindset,
you can build scalable, maintainable, and SEO-friendly websites that delight both editors and users.

References



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