10 Mistakes I Made While Learning Next.js – So You Don’t Have To

Introduction: The Day I Met Next.js (and Got Intimidated)

I still remember the day I heard about Next.js for the first time.

It was during a casual team call. One of the senior devs casually said,

"For this new feature, we’re moving from CRA to Next.js."

At that time, I was pretty confident with React. I’d built a few decent apps, knew how useState and useEffect worked, and thought I had a grip on frontend development. So naturally, I assumed learning Next.js would be like switching from a bike to a scooter—same balance, just faster.

I was wrong. It was more like switching from a bike to a spaceship... without reading the manual.

Next.js came with its own way of doing things—file-based routing, server-side rendering, image optimization, API routes... Honestly, it felt like React on steroids, and I wasn’t ready for it.

So I did what many devs do: I winged it. And in the process, I made some dumb mistakes that cost me hours (sometimes days), caused frustration, and made me question if I was even a “real” developer.

But the truth is—mistakes teach you faster than success ever can.So here’s me laying it all out—not as a tutorial, but as a friend who's been through the mess and came out a little wiser.

Mistake #1: Treating Next.js Like Plain React

When I started my first Next.js project, I didn’t bother reading the docs. I just jumped in and created components like I did in any other React app.

It looked something like this:

function Home() {
  return <div>Welcome to my app</div>
}
export default Home

Felt good. Familiar. Simple. I was like—"Okay, this is React. I got this."

But as soon as I needed routing, I reached for react-router-dom out of habit.

When I needed to fetch data, I used useEffect.

When I wanted to build an API, I set up a separate Express server.

Basically, I ignored everything that made Next.js... Next.js.

And because of that, I was adding complexity where Next.js was trying to simplify it.

It took me a while to understand that Next.js isn’t just a React framework—it's a different way of thinking. You don’t need react-router. You don’t need a separate backend. You don’t need to fetch everything client-side.

Next.js gives you all of that, but only if you stop treating it like Create React App in disguise.

Mistake #2: Ignoring File-Based Routing

The first time I saw this in a tutorial:

/pages/about.js → route: /about
/pages/blog/[slug].js → dynamic route: /blog/my-first-post

I thought it was cute. Then I ignored it.

"How hard can routing be? I’ll just make components and link them manually," I told myself.

So I created a components folder, dropped files in there, and tried to manage routing myself. I even tried nesting folders in weird ways just to make things “organized.”

But it quickly became chaos.

• Some links worked, some didn’t.
• Dynamic routes became an unpredictable mess.
• SEO? Broken.
• Deep linking? Forget it.

I spent more time debugging my routing than building features. All because I refused to accept how elegant and powerful file-based routing actually is.

Once I embraced it, life got easier.

Now, if I need a new page? I just create a file in /pages.

If I need a dynamic blog post? I use [slug].js and export getStaticPaths.

It’s simple. Clean. And it works—without installing anything extra.

⚠️ Mistake #3: Not Learning SSR/SSG at the Start

When I first saw the terms getServerSideProps and getStaticProps, I thought—“Ah, that’s advanced stuff. I’ll deal with that later.”

Big mistake.

I was working on a blog project. Simple idea: fetch content from a CMS and display it. Naturally, I did what I was used to—set up a useEffect, fetched the content from the client side, and rendered it once the data came in.

It worked. At least, in dev mode.

But then two things hit me:

1. The content wasn’t showing up immediately on slower connections.
   • Users saw a blank screen for a moment before the data appeared.
2. Google couldn’t crawl my blog posts properly.
   • The SEO was practically nonexistent. My blog wasn’t showing up anywhere.

That’s when I realized—I had misunderstood one of the most important powers of Next.js: Server-Side Rendering (SSR) and Static Site Generation (SSG).

Here's what I learned—after stumbling:

• getStaticProps is for static generation. It fetches data at build time. Perfect for blogs, portfolios, or anything that doesn't change every minute.
• getServerSideProps is for server-side rendering. It runs every time the user visits the page. Great for dashboards, user profiles, or dynamic content.

I wish I’d taken the time early on to really understand these rendering methods. Because once I did, everything clicked.

My pages loaded faster. My SEO improved. And I finally felt like I was building in sync with what Next.js is actually meant to do.

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