SEO for Next.js Explained with Tailwind

When we think about SEO, we often remember keywords and well-crafted titles. But in the modern web, especially when using Next.js, a big part of successful SEO comes from properly structured code — and that’s where metadata, semantics, and even Tailwind come in.

In this article, you’ll understand how to build optimized, fast, and crawlable pages using the power of the App Router, semantic tags aligned with Tailwind, and organized JSON-LD blocks to boost your application's ranking.

🔍 Why SEO is different in Next.js?

Unlike traditional SPAs, Next.js works with hybrid rendering. This gives you more control over how each page is delivered to Google, increasing the accuracy of how your data is crawled.

• Server-side rendering makes crawling easier;
• Persistent layouts prevent unnecessary downloads;
• Unified metadata improves page consistency;
• Built-in integration with JSON-LD and microdata.

🛠️ How to configure metadata correctly

export const metadata = {
  title: "My optimized article",
  description: "Using metadata in Next.js with modern SEO.",
  openGraph: {
    title: "My optimized article",
    description: "SEO with Next.js explained.",
    images: ["/og-image.png"],
  }
};

export function ArticleJsonLd() {
  const data = {
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "@type": "Article",
    headline: "SEO for Next.js explained",
    author: "Robson Albuquerque",
    datePublished: "2025-01-01"
  };

  return (
    <script
      type="application/ld+json"
      dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{ __html: JSON.stringify(data) }}
    />
  );
}

<main className="max-w-3xl mx-auto space-y-8">
  <section className="prose">
    <h1 className="font-bold text-3xl">Optimized title</h1>
    <p className="text-gray-700">Structured text with modern semantics.</p>
  </section>
</main>

⚡ Final applied example

Here’s a block that combines semantics, metadata, and modern SEO:

<article className="max-w-4xl mx-auto space-y-6">
  <header>
    <h1 className="text-4xl font-bold">SEO with Next.js</h1>
  </header>

  <p className="text-gray-700">
    Optimized structure, fast loading, and Google-ready data.
  </p>

  <ArticleJsonLd />
</article>