The Challenge
As a developer, I needed a portfolio that was easy to update without touching code, while maintaining top-tier performance and SEO. Traditional CMS solutions often compromise on frontend flexibility or performance. I wanted a solution that would allow me to:
- Manage all content (projects, blogs, assets) in a user-friendly admin panel.
- Achieve 100/100 Lighthouse scores for SEO and Performance.
- Showcase modern React Server Components and Next.js 16 capabilities.
The Solution
I adopted a Headless CMS architecture to solve this:
1. Centralized Content: Deployed Strapi 5 to map out custom schemas for projects and blog posts, providing a flexible and powerful backend API.
2. Modern Web Frontend: Built a server-side rendered application using Next.js 16 and React 19.
- Utilized Tailwind CSS 4 for a responsive and modern design.
- Implemented Framer Motion for smooth page transitions and micro-interactions.
- Used Radix UI for accessible, headless UI primitives.
3. Performance & SEO:
- Leveraged Next.js App Router for optimal caching and server-side rendering.
- Optimized images automatically via Next.js Image component.
- Implemented dynamic metadata generation for excellent SEO visibility.
Technology Stack:
Next.jsStrapi CMSPostgreSQLTypeScriptTailwind CSSNode.jsReact
Technical Implementation
Frontend:
- Next.js 16 (App Router)
- React 19
- Tailwind CSS 4
- Framer Motion
- TypeScript
- Radix UI
- Lucide Icons
Backend:
- Strapi 5.33 (Headless CMS for Projects & Blog)
- PostgreSQL
- Node.js
- Cloudinary (Asset Management)
DevOps:
- Vercel (Frontend Deployment)
- Render/Railway (Strapi Deployment)
- ESLint (v9)
Results & Impact
The resulting portfolio provides a professional and efficient platform:
- Instant Content Management: Adding a new project or blog post takes minutes via the Strapi admin panel.
- Top-Tier Performance: The site consistently scores 98-100 on Core Web Vitals thanks to Next.js optimizations.
- Robust Architecture: Separation of concerns between content (Strapi) and presentation (Next.js) ensures long-term maintainability.
Key Learnings
- Next.js 16 & RSC: Leveraging React Server Components significantly reduced the client-side JavaScript bundle, leading to faster load times.
- Headless Flexibility: Strapi's content modeling capabilities allowed me to create a highly customized data structure that perfectly fits my portfolio needs.
- Modern Styling: Using Tailwind CSS 4 provided a rapid development workflow with a small CSS footprint.