Work04/04Next.js · SEO · Performance
Everest Thrills — SEO-first rebuild
A client website rebuilt on an SEO-first, server-rendered Next.js architecture, focused on organic growth, performance and content discoverability.
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The problem
A trekking company lives or dies by organic search — people plan an Everest trek by searching for it, not by remembering a brand. The existing site was not built to be found. The rebuild had to make every trip, region and guide page a fast, crawlable, structurally-described document.
The approach
01Render on the server, by default
Content is fetched and rendered server-side with static params generated for known routes, so crawlers and first-time visitors both receive real HTML instead of waiting on client-side hydration to see a trip description.
02Describe the content, not just display it
JSON-LD structured data and Open Graph metadata let search engines and social platforms understand what each page actually is, which is what earns the richer result treatments that drive clicks.
03A sitemap that maintains itself
Sitemap generation is dynamic rather than hand-maintained, so new trips and articles are discoverable the moment they exist — the failure mode of a stale hand-written sitemap simply cannot happen.
04Weight is a ranking factor
Image optimization and targeted LCP work brought the largest paint down on image-heavy landscape pages, where the hero photography is both the point of the page and the main thing slowing it down.