What is Gatsby, and why are we so obsessed with it?

At Jambaree, we’re JAMstack developers that use Gatsby to build blazing-fast sites that are a pleasure to use and a joy to behold. But what exactly is Gatsby, why do we use it, and how does it benefit our clients? 

Gatsby is a static site generator used to create beautiful, fast, secure websites. 

When you’re looking at content generated by a dynamic content management system like WordPress, the webserver has multiple time-consuming tasks to fulfill each time a page is requested. The server needs to execute multiple slow PHP scripts, query one or more databases, and then dynamically build the webpage using a predefined template.

A static site, on the other hand, has these pages already “pre-built”. There are no slow running scripts, database queries, or the need to dynamically build the page each time the page is requested. This means there’s no lag time as there are no server tasks being executed other than the requesting of the entire page load – as it’s already there and ready to be served.

Due to the diverse data requirements from our clients, we’ve pioneered a way to display a mix of both static and dynamic content. We are able to fetch this dynamic content (such as live data etc), and display it on the pre-built static page. 

 Why else is a Gatsby-built website better? 

There are many options for static-site generators, but Gatsby makes the websites we build rise above the rest. Here’s why:

1.   Better SEO rankings. 

Google rewards faster sites with a jump in their SEO ranking. Thanks to Gatsby’s performance optimizations, these sites get bumped to the top of Google’s search results.

2.   Higher user engagement. 

A faster site encourages longer visits, (on average sites that load within 5 seconds have 70% longer sessions) which means more engagement and a greater chance of conversion.

3.   Significantly lower bounce rates. 

Slow sites = user frustration = bouncing to find a faster site. The quicker the load time, the lower the bounce rates. 53%  of all mobile websites are abandoned if they take longer than 3 seconds to load, and 47% of all online shoppers expect a webpage to load within 2 seconds.

4.   Scalable as your business grows. 

Gatsby’s serverless architecture scales automatically as your usage or user base extends, so you can scale your app or site without hassle.

5.   Plays well with others. 

Gatsby sites have better integration with other services like WordPress, headless Shopify, WooCommerce, Gravity Forms, Yoast and Salesforce, to name a few. At Jambaree we’ve also adapted many of the world’s most popular WordPress plugins to integrate seamlessly with Gatsby. To learn how and why we integrate Gatsby with headless WordPress and its most popular plugins, go here. 

In essence, Gatsby web development gives you all the benefits and functionality of dynamic sites with the security and speed of a static one.

If you’re ready to increase the speed, stability, and usability of your website (and in turn decrease bounce rates and increase engagement and conversions), contact us now for a free consultation.