Server-Side Rendering

The next step in building React applications is learning how server-side rendering (SSR) works and what benefits it can give us. By implementing SSR, we can create universal applications that are better for search engine optimization (SEO) and enable knowledge-sharing between the frontend and the backend. They can also improve the perceived speed of a web application, which usually leads to increased conversions. However, applying SSR to a React application comes at a cost, and we should think carefully about whether we need it or not.

In this chapter, you will see how to set up a server-side-rendered application, and by the end of the relevant sections, you will be able to build a universal application and understand the pros and cons of the technique.

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

• Understanding what a universal application is
• Figuring out the reasons why we may want to enable SSR
• Creating a simple static...