Building a High-Performance Portfolio with SEO Best Practices

Why SEO Matters for Your Portfolio

Your portfolio is your digital presence. Good SEO ensures potential clients and employers can find you.

Essential SEO Elements

1. Meta Tags

Every page needs proper meta tags:

export const metadata = {
  title: "Your Name | Portfolio",
  description: "Full-stack developer specializing in React and Node.js",
  openGraph: {
    title: "Your Name | Portfolio",
    description: "Full-stack developer specializing in React and Node.js",
    images: ["/og-image.png"],
  },
};

2. Structured Data

Implement JSON-LD for better search results:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Person",
  "name": "Your Name",
  "jobTitle": "Full Stack Developer"
}

3. Performance Optimization

• Use Next.js Image component for optimized images
• Implement lazy loading
• Minimize JavaScript bundle size
• Use CDN for assets

Technical Implementation

Sitemap Generation

Create a dynamic sitemap:

export async function GET() {
  const posts = await getAllPosts();
  const sitemap = generateSitemap(posts);
  return new Response(sitemap, {
    headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/xml' },
  });
}

Robots.txt

Allow search engines to crawl your site:

User-agent: *
Allow: /
Sitemap: https://yoursite.com/sitemap.xml

Performance Metrics

Aim for:

• Lighthouse Performance Score: 95+
• First Contentful Paint: < 1.5s
• Time to Interactive: < 3.0s

Conclusion

A well-optimized portfolio not only looks great but also performs excellently and ranks well in search results.