techniques
ISR (Incremental Static Regeneration)
Static pages that re-render on a schedule — best-of-both: fast like SSG, fresh like SSR.
Definition
Incremental Static Regeneration pre-renders pages at build time then re-renders them in the background on a configured interval (Next.js: `export const revalidate = 3600` for 1-hour). First request after the interval triggers regeneration; subsequent requests get the fresh cached version. AI crawlers see fast static HTML with fresh data.
Example
Next.js page with revalidate=21600 (6h) for a leaderboard. Static for performance, refreshes every 6h for accuracy.How to optimize
Use ISR for content that changes hourly or daily but doesn't need real-time freshness. Pair with on-demand revalidation (revalidatePath/revalidateTag) for instant invalidation when data changes.