Creating a feature-rich blog is a great way to improve your web development skills.
We just posted a course on the freeCodeCamp.org YouTube channel that will teach you how to create a blog that is not just visually appealing but also SEO-optimized for higher Google rankings. Codebucks created the course.
The course leverages the power of several modern tools and frameworks to build the blog. This includes Next.js for the core application, Tailwind CSS for styling, Contentlayer to render Markdown blogs seamlessly, Supabase for counting and displaying blog page views, Lottie Animation for interactive animations, React hook form for form functionalities, Next Sitemap for creating a sitemap, and Google's structured json-ld schema for enhancing SEO.
The course covers a bunch of topics:
- Set up a static blog with Next.js and explore the new Next.js App router.
- Design an engaging homepage that captivates readers instantly.
- Create detailed blog and category pages to present your content effectively.
- Share your story or mission on an informative About page.
- Engage with your audience through an interactive contact page.
- Boost your site's visibility with powerful SEO techniques.
- Provide user-friendly dark and light themes.
- Guarantee an impeccable mobile experience with full responsiveness.
- Showcase your markdown blogs in style and explore methods to highlight code blocks with various themes.
There are already a bunch of blogging platforms but building one from scratch offers an unparalleled understanding and flexibility. Through this course, not only do you gain the skills to construct a blog, but you also grasp how to make it stand out in the vast digital landscape with top-tier SEO practices. And the inclusion of both dark and light themes ensures your readers get the best reading experience, tailored to their preference.
Here is a list of sections in the course:
- Intro + Demo
- Setup and Installation
- Tailwind CSS Setup, Dark Mode and project files
- Adding Fonts
- Navbar Component
- Setup Contentlayer
- How to render a Blog
- Creating Home Cover Section
- Featured Posts Component
- Recent Posts Component
- Footer Component
- Blog Page
- Creating TOC Component
- Category Page
- About page
- Contact page
- Insights Component
- Store blog views using Supabase
- Adding SEO
- Adding Dark Mode
- Making it Responsive
- Adding Sitemap
- Image Optimization
- Adding Favicon and manifest file
- Adding google's structured json-ld for SEO
You can watch the full course on the freeCodeCamp.org YouTube channel (6-hour watch).