How I Built 1,182 Pages of Free Time Tools with Next.js 16

Cyril Yevdokimov — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 23:21:45 +0000

I'm a product designer and developer. A few months ago I decided to build a side project - a comprehensive collection of free time tools that could generate organic traffic through programmatic SEO. The result is Timerjoy — 1,182+ pages across 37 categories, all statically generated with Next.js 16.

Here's how it works and what I learned.

The Concept

Take a category like "timers" and generate pages programmatically. A 1-minute timer, 5-minute timer, 25-minute timer - each with unique metadata, JSON-LD structured data, and actual functionality. Now multiply that across 37 categories:

Timers — 1 second to 12 hours, visual, classroom, Pomodoro
Breathing exercises — Box Breathing, 4-7-8, Wim Hof
Fitness timers — HIIT, Tabata, Boxing rounds
Chess clocks — Blitz, Rapid, Classical
Sunrise/sunset — for 348 US cities
Moon phases — current phase + monthly calendar
64 holiday countdowns — Christmas, Ramadan, Diwali, and more
Date calculators, world clock, caffeine calculator, tea timer, meditation timer...

Every page is a real, working tool — not SEO filler.

The Stack

Layer	Technology
Framework	Next.js 16 (App Router)
Language	TypeScript
Styling	Tailwind CSS 4 + custom design system
Deployment	Vercel (Edge Network)
Rendering	Static Generation (SSG)

How 1,182 Pages Get Built

The core of programmatic SEO in Next.js is generateStaticParams():

Define data arrays (348 cities, 64 holidays, timer presets, etc.)
Each array feeds a dynamic route like /sunrise-sunset/[city]
Next.js generates all pages at build time
Every page gets unique metadata, structured data (JSON-LD), and content

The result: 1,182 fully static HTML pages, served from Vercel's edge network. Average page load: under 200ms.

Adding a new category is straightforward — define the data, create the route, and the build system handles the rest. When I added sunrise/sunset data for US cities, it generated 348 new pages automatically.

The Design System

I wanted something that felt different from the typical SaaS look. The entire UI is inspired by vintage Braun products — Dieter Rams' "less, but better" philosophy.

The design system has a few core components:

braun-panel — light outer container with subtle shadows
braun-display — dark screen area, like a calculator LCD
braun-btn-orange — the iconic Braun orange accent
Indicator dots — tiny LED-style state indicators

Everything uses a warm cream palette (#f4f4f2), deliberate spacing, and minimal typography. No gradients, no glassmorphism — just clean functional design.

Building a consistent design system early on was one of the best decisions. Every new tool uses the same components, so adding features takes hours instead of days.

SEO Infrastructure

Each page gets:

Dynamic <title> and <meta description> — unique per page, keyword-targeted
JSON-LD structured data — WebApplication, FAQPage schemas
Canonical URLs — preventing duplicate content
Automatic sitemap — generated at build time
Cross-links — related tools link to each other, building internal link structure

The sitemap alone is massive — 1,182 URLs that Google needs to discover and crawl.

Early Results

The site launched recently. First week in Google Search Console:

27,900 impressions — Google is showing pages in search results
Sunrise/sunset and moon phases are the strongest categories so far
Most pages are still in Google's crawl queue — with 1,182 URLs, it takes time

The foundation is there. As Google indexes more pages and the domain builds authority, traffic should compound.

Lessons Learned

1. Static wins for tools. Users want instant results. Static pages load faster than any server-rendered alternative. The tradeoff (longer build times) is worth it.

2. Design systems compound. Investing in a consistent component library early meant every new tool category was fast to build and visually consistent.

3. Programmatic SEO is a long game. Google doesn't index 1,182 pages overnight. Patience and proper technical SEO (sitemaps, structured data, canonicals) matter more than content volume.

4. Zero-friction UX matters. No sign-up walls, no cookie banners, no "subscribe to continue" popups. Just tools that work. Users stay longer when there's nothing in their way.

What's Next

PWA support (install as app)
Custom timer presets
Sound themes
More international holidays
Multi-language support

Try It

Timerjoy is completely free — no accounts, no ads. The project overview is on GitHub.

I'd love to hear feedback — what would you add to a tool like this?

Forem: Cyril Yevdokimov