Next.js Performance and SEO Checklist (2025 Edition)

Performance isn’t magic. It’s discipline.
This checklist is the one we use internally to make sure every Next.js site we ship is fast, SEO-ready, and resilient.

Rendering & Data

• Use React Server Components + streaming for faster above-the-fold.
• Cache at the right level: route segment, fetch cache, or CDN.
• Keep data dependencies local to each route to avoid waterfalls.

Assets

• Always use next/image with WebP/AVIF.
• Preload critical fonts, subset them, avoid layout shifts.
• Remove unused scripts, defer what’s non-critical.

UI Responsiveness

• Animate with transform/opacity only.
• Respect prefers-reduced-motion.
• Keep all interactions <100ms.

SEO Signals

• Titles + descriptions unique per route.
• Canonical tags + structured data for articles/products.
• XML sitemap, robots.txt, and monitoring via Search Console.

Monitoring

• Track Core Web Vitals in production.
• Watch error rates and slow queries.
• Set budgets (image weight, script size).

👉 Run this checklist every quarter. Small wins compound — and your SEO and revenue will thank you.