Let's say I have an app, residing at app.example.com. I want a separate landing page for this app at example.com.<p>This landing page should be easily managed for updating content and also have multiple pages. What stack would you use for this today?<p>I want it to be SEO optimized.<p>I use Vue for the app but feels overkill for the landing page and also not ideal in terms of SEO. I don't feel like going the SPA+SSR way either.<p>Is wordpress still a good alternative?<p>Or maybe just a html+jquery site hosted at for example Firebase?<p>I don't expect to update it too much with news etc so a CMS is not required.<p>What would you do?
I recommend using a static site generator. It brings precisely the features you ask for:<p><pre><code> - easy SEO optimization, especially compared to SPA
- easy content management, GitOps
- fast, scales well
- free to host via various services (e.g. GitLab and GitHub)
</code></pre>
Personally, I like Hugo. They have an amazing gallery of free templates: <a href="https://themes.gohugo.io/" rel="nofollow">https://themes.gohugo.io/</a><p>You might enjoy my blog post on how I host my personal website for free with Hugo and GitLab Pages: <a href="https://tkainrad.dev/posts/using-hugo-gitlab-pages-and-cloudflare-to-create-and-run-this-website/" rel="nofollow">https://tkainrad.dev/posts/using-hugo-gitlab-pages-and-cloud...</a>
Wordpress is a great option, many large companies use Wordpress for landing pages (also the most popular on Builtwith). Its CMS also makes it easy to set up a blog, update pages, etc.<p>If you're not well versed with using Wordpress (like me) than there's 2 routes you can take:<p>Developer route: Use a static site generator. (not meant to be exhaustive)<p>- Gatsby: if you know React<p>- Hugo<p>- Jekyll: ruby<p>- simple HTML + CSS static website<p>Non Dev route: If you're not a developer, you could use one of the following paid tools:<p>- clickfunnels<p>- hubspot<p>- mailchimp<p>- leadpages<p>- unbounce<p>- and many more<p>If you're using a static site generator, it's really easy to host it on AWS Amplify Console for free.<p>Disclaimer: not associated with any of the above listing products
I always start with <a href="https://html5up.net/" rel="nofollow">https://html5up.net/</a> where you have a nice selection of free HTML5+CSS templates! I hope it helps.
An option that I like to use is Middleman (or any other static site generator) for creating the pages and Netlify for hosting, all for free even with your own domain and HTTPS.<p>You have nice static HTML pages with a CDN, super fast, and there's even a CMS option with NetlifyCMS, which works by creating git commits for you and then automatically pushes the new static version on Netlify. The basics in Netlify are free and there are nice add-ons where some are also free (e.g. forms).<p>Check out the template list here:
<a href="https://templates.netlify.com" rel="nofollow">https://templates.netlify.com</a>
In a somewhat similar situation I used PHP with `include`.<p>The structure was something like this:<p><pre><code> - index.php
- header.php
- sidebar.php
- footer.php
- page-1.php
- page-2.php
...
</code></pre>
In `header.php` I used variables for the title, description, etc. and then in each page I specified the values for those variables. This way each page had the same header HTML code, but with a different title, description and so on.
> Is wordpress still a good alternative?<p>No, you just said you don't need a CMS.<p>I would hand edit the HTML and deploy it on Netlify with a Parcel build step, at least that's what I've done.<p><a href="https://parceljs.org/" rel="nofollow">https://parceljs.org/</a><p><pre><code> parcel build *.html --public-url https://your.page
</code></pre>
> I want it to be SEO optimized.<p>It's a complex problem, it all boils down the template you use. I usually hunt hours for free HTML/CSS templates then get mad about them and create one from scratch using some CSS framework :)
Surprised webflow.com has not been mentioned yet. Been using it for years and its an absolute Wordpress killer.<p>You can make simple landing pages, full sites, etc. All with as much or as little custom coding as you want.<p>It feels like what Squarespace sold me on back in 2011 for my first site... but it actually works, you can export the HTML if you want to self host, or use their backend. Great stuff
Personally, I would use Next.js. It allows you have dynamic pages (e.g. your app) alongside static pages (e.g. landing page). Since it's server-side rendered, it's great for SEO.<p>You mentioned you don't want to do SPA+SSR. With static pre-rendering from Next.js, there isn't a SPA. It's a fully static site.<p>You also mentioned having multiple pages. Rather than dealing with React Router or other SPA approaches, Next has a `/pages` directory where each file nested inside maps to a route. So `pages/about.js` is /about. It's similar to PHP in that regard.<p>If you don't need CMS, then you don't need Wordpress. For hosting, I would recommend Zeit's Now. They're also the creators of Next.js, so the tech pairs well together.<p>It's as simple as `npx create-next-app` to make the app and then `now` to deploy.<p><a href="https://nextjs.org/" rel="nofollow">https://nextjs.org/</a>
<a href="https://zeit.co/home" rel="nofollow">https://zeit.co/home</a>
I would personally use Jekyll, it's pretty easy to build, free to host (thanks to Netlify or Github pages), perfect for SEO since it's all static content.<p>There's tons of themes available: <a href="https://www.jekyll-resources.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.jekyll-resources.com/</a>
- Static HTML5 on a CDN (speed)<p>- Responsive design (important; you will get penalized otherwise)<p>- Minimal JavaScript (React still gets penalized)<p>- Metadata like image alt text, JSON-LD structured data, <meta>, and so on<p>This is the best you can do for SEO without external resources.
Hugo can also serve as a no-code/low-code solution:<p>1) you install Hugo following the guide from gohugo.io/getting-started/quick-start .<p>2) You download any theme from themes.gohugo.io and set them up with instructions on theme's page. For example, the theme I used is for wrenches.io is hyde-hyde .<p>3) You change general settings for the site and add content by adding and editing files in your website's folder.<p>That's it! I usually host on netlify and deploy from GitHub, so it also doesn't cost me anything except for domain.<p>Hugo themes also allow to make many different kinds of websites, and they are fairly easy to use.
Another example of a website made the same way is justfindthis.com ; the theme for it is Highlights
I recently dealt with the same issue and was satisfied with prerender spa plugin (<a href="https://github.com/chrisvfritz/prerender-spa-plugin" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/chrisvfritz/prerender-spa-plugin</a>).<p>It enabled me to quickly implement the landing page with Vue and then build it as a static page that I deployed on Netlify. I found it easier and faster to set up than an SSR solution.<p>There's also a Vue-CLI version of the prerender plugin (<a href="https://www.npmjs.com/package/vue-cli-plugin-prerender-spa" rel="nofollow">https://www.npmjs.com/package/vue-cli-plugin-prerender-spa</a>)
I just use Wordpress with a plain theme and some builder, e.g. OceanWP + Elementor. Little code needed, decent plugin ecosystem (contact forms, cookie warning, seo stuff), one-click deploy on DigitalOcean, Linode...
"should be easily managed for updating content "<p>This is the key point for me. Who will be managing/updating the content ? If it is users who are non technical, then you have limited options and you can go with something like WordPress. The reason is that if you use those static site generators which are awesome btw, the non tech. users will be limited. Not to mention they will have no WYSIWYG builders to work with.<p>So the answer is it depends. If the people making changes/updates are technical enough, static site builders are great. If not, then go with something like WordPress.
Since you're already experienced in Vue I would have a look at <a href="https://vuepress.vuejs.org/" rel="nofollow">https://vuepress.vuejs.org/</a>. I don't have any hands-on experience, but I've only heard positive things about it.<p>I'm currently converting a site from static HTML to Gatsby because I got tired of having to copy-paste changes to repeating elements between the different pages. The Vue/React component approach works really well in that regard. And you don't lose out on the static element, nor the SEO.
Could someone explain to me why using a react app built using CRA is bad in this case? I have a similar use case where the app is on app.example.com (built using CRA) and I have a landing page (also built using CRA) on example.com<p>The landing page links to:
- The App at app.example.com
- Docs at docs.example.com
- Blog at blog.example.com<p>I have 0 front-end experience so this is an honest attempt at understanding why I should NOT be using the CRA for a landing page.<p>The landing page isn't doing much so its a very simple react app. But don't understand the implications on SEO
I think the hardest part is the design of nice images and graphics, if you are not a designer.
You can for example use this open-source collection of awesome svg illustrations. They are free of attribution and really good looking.
<a href="https://turtle.community/discovery/285" rel="nofollow">https://turtle.community/discovery/285</a>
I've done a few static sites with Nanoc (<a href="https://nanoc.ws/" rel="nofollow">https://nanoc.ws/</a>), a Ruby gem, and I really enjoy the results. It has quite a few useful helpers for stuff like XMLSitemap, which might be useful for you, and has filters that compile several formats (markdown, erb etc) into HTML.
DesignModo's Startup Framework should be at least considered - <a href="https://designmodo.com/startup/app/" rel="nofollow">https://designmodo.com/startup/app/</a><p>We've used it to build Rezi - <a href="https://rezi.io" rel="nofollow">https://rezi.io</a>
To all the people using a static site generator. How do collect emails from interested people? Is there a way to easily integrate this into the static site? Ideally it would be a simple form, that collects the data and stores it somewhere? Google Forms comes to mind but it would integrate that nicely into the UI.
I'd use Gatsby with TinaCMS. Although TinaCMS isn't quite ready for primetime yet. <a href="https://tinacms.org" rel="nofollow">https://tinacms.org</a><p>And hosting with Netlify maybe.
If you already know and you're familiar with Vue, why don't you use Nuxt.js? You can generate a SPA or a PWA if you don't want to have the SSR version.
How about pug.js for HTML templating and Stylus or Less for the CSS. Then just generate a static site. Static sites are fast and fast is always good SEO.
just use www.carrd.co
You will get your lander up within half day with all content. Easy to update, easy to learn. Saved a lot of hours and days for me so far. Nothing comes close for me.
Can Anyody tell which one is best for my youtube views <a href="https://www.stormviews.net" rel="nofollow">https://www.stormviews.net</a> or <a href="https://www.follower18.com" rel="nofollow">https://www.follower18.com</a>