Building a Headless WordPress Site with Next.js and WPGraphQL: An Overview

As the digital landscape evolves, more developers are choosing headless WordPress setups, leveraging modern front-end frameworks like Next.js. In this post, I’ll walk through why I opted for a headless setup using Next.js and WPGraphQL, as well as some best practices and tips from my experience.

Why Headless WordPress?

Going headless with WordPress offers flexibility and performance benefits. Traditional WordPress setups can sometimes fall short in terms of speed and customization, especially for dynamic content-heavy sites. With Next.js, I can create a more efficient, responsive front end while using WordPress’s familiar content management features. This separation of the backend (WordPress) from the front end (Next.js) allows for faster page loads through static generation, enhanced SEO customization, and the freedom to use React components for a modern user experience.

Setting Up WPGraphQL and Next.js

The first step in setting up my headless site was connecting WordPress to Next.js via WPGraphQL. WPGraphQL provides a powerful, extensible GraphQL API for WordPress, enabling me to fetch only the data I need. After installing the WPGraphQL plugin in WordPress, I set up my Next.js project to fetch data using GraphQL queries, pulling in WordPress content like posts, pages, and custom post types.

Here’s a simple example of how I query blog posts:

// next.config.js
export async function getStaticProps() {
  const res = await fetch('https://yourwordpresssite.com/graphql', {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {
      'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({
      query: `
        query {
          posts {
            nodes {
              title
              slug
              content
            }
          }
        }
      `,
    }),
  });
  const { data } = await res.json();
  return { props: { posts: data.posts.nodes } };
}

With this setup, I can access my WordPress content within Next.js while keeping a clean, decoupled structure.

SEO and Performance Optimization

One of the major benefits of using Next.js with WordPress is SEO control and performance. By leveraging static generation (getStaticProps) for most pages, I can ensure rapid load times and better SEO. Dynamic content can be handled using Next.js’s incremental static regeneration, allowing for updates at specified intervals without sacrificing speed. Adding structured data (JSON-LD) to pages and custom SEO components also allows for fine-tuned optimization.

Future Improvements

Looking ahead, I plan to expand my toolkit with more WordPress-specific plugins and advanced features, such as custom Gutenberg blocks, a light and dark mode toggle for improved accessibility, and refined user experience options.

In conclusion, building a headless WordPress site with Next.js and WPGraphQL has allowed me to craft a dynamic, high-performance site with powerful content management capabilities. For developers interested in leveraging WordPress in modern, flexible ways, this approach highlights how WordPress and JavaScript frameworks can work together to achieve optimal speed, SEO, and user experience.