Case Study: Backlinko achieves 3x faster page loading with Netlify and Next.js

Next.js and Netlify for a better and faster Backlinko website

Backlinko, a leading SEO training website, struggled with a slow, hard-to-maintain monolithic WordPress setup. As the site grew, legacy CSS and JavaScript, hundreds of custom theme components, and long rebuild times made performance and maintenance increasingly difficult, pushing the team to modernize their stack with Netlify and a Jamstack approach.

Netlify helped Backlinko migrate to a headless WordPress + Next.js architecture using WPGraphQL, Netlify Functions, and the Essential Next.js plugin. The new setup improved performance across the board, cut full rebuilds from up to 25 minutes to about 4 minutes, and delivered an overall page loading speed that was 3x faster, while preserving editorial workflows through a seamless preview environment.

Backlinko