Comparison

Static Site Generation (SSG) vs Dynamic Rendering (SSR/ISR)

Compare static site generation and dynamic rendering for SEO. Learn how SSG, SSR, and ISR affect Core Web Vitals, crawlability, and search rankings.

Static Site Generation (SSG)

Marketing sites, blogs, documentation, and content that doesn't change frequently

5 pros4 cons

Dynamic Rendering (SSR/ISR)

E-commerce, user-generated content, frequently updated data, and large-scale sites

5 pros4 cons

Detailed Comparison

Static Site Generation (SSG) Pros

Fastest possible TTFB
Excellent Core Web Vitals
CDN-cacheable globally
No server processing delay
Highly secure (no server runtime)

Dynamic Rendering (SSR/ISR) Pros

Always fresh content
Works with real-time data
ISR combines static + dynamic benefits
Personalization possible
Scales to millions of pages

Static Site Generation (SSG) Cons

Build times grow with page count
Content updates require rebuild
Not suitable for real-time data
Dynamic personalization limited

Dynamic Rendering (SSR/ISR) Cons

Server processing adds latency
Higher hosting costs
More complex infrastructure
Cache invalidation complexity

Our Verdict

For SEO, static generation (SSG) with ISR is often the best choice - you get static performance with dynamic freshness. Pure SSG works great for smaller sites. Use full SSR when you need real-time data or heavy personalization. Modern frameworks like Next.js let you mix approaches per page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Google has no preference - both are fully crawlable and indexable. What matters is performance (Core Web Vitals) and content quality. Static pages often have better performance, but well-optimized SSR pages rank equally well.

Pure client-side rendering (like traditional SPAs) is problematic for SEO. Google can render JavaScript but it's slower and less reliable. Always server-render or pre-render content you want indexed. Use CSR only for authenticated/personalized content that doesn't need indexing.

ISR serves cached static pages to users and crawlers (fast performance), while regenerating pages in the background after a set time. Googlebot sees fast-loading static HTML. New content appears within your revalidation window (e.g., every 60 seconds).

It depends on how fresh content needs to be. News sites might use 60 seconds. E-commerce product pages might use 1 hour. Blog posts might use 1 day. Balance freshness needs against server load. For SEO, anything under a few hours is typically fine.

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