Building a High-Performance Contractor Website with React, Gatsby, and SSR

A deep dive into building “The Best Piling Contractors in Ash Vale: McCance Group” website using modern frontend technologies.

🏗️ Project Overview

In the competitive construction sector, having a fast, SEO-friendly, and visually appealing website is non-negotiable. The McCance Group, known for its premium piling services in Ash Vale, needed a digital presence that matched its reputation. This blog walks through how we built their website using React, Gatsby, and Server Side Rendering (SSR) to maximize performance, SEO, and user experience.

---

🛠️ Tech Stack

• React: Component-based UI library

• Gatsby v5+: React-based static site generator with support for SSR

• GraphQL: Data querying for content

• Styled Components / TailwindCSS: For styling

• Netlify / Vercel: Hosting

• Headless CMS (e.g., Contentful/Sanity): Optional for dynamic content

---

🌐 Why Gatsby for McCance Group?

Gatsby provides the best of both worlds: static site generation and SSR. Since SEO and fast load times were top priorities, Gatsby was chosen for:

• ⚡ Lightning-fast performance (static pre-rendered pages)

• 🔍 Built-in SEO optimization

• 🔌 Rich plugin ecosystem

• 🔄 Server-side rendering support for dynamic parts like service listings

---

🧱 Step-by-Step Implementation

1️⃣ Initialize Gatsby Project

bashCopyEditnpm install -g gatsby-cli
gatsby new mcance-group-site
cd mcance-group-site

2️⃣ Configure Project Structure

bashCopyEdit/src
  /components
    Layout.js
    SEO.js
    Header.js
    Footer.js
  /pages
    index.js
    services.js
    about.js
    contact.js
  /templates
    service-template.js

---

3️⃣ Add Styling (TailwindCSS example)

bashCopyEditnpm install -D tailwindcss postcss autoprefixer
npx tailwindcss init -p

Update tailwind.config.js and import styles in gatsby-browser.js.

---

4️⃣ Add SEO Support

Create an SEO component using Gatsby’s Helmet plugin.

jsxCopyEdit// src/components/SEO.js
import React from "react"
import { Helmet } from "react-helmet"

const SEO = ({ title, description }) => (
  <Helmet>
    <title>{title}</title>
    <meta name="description" content={description} />
  </Helmet>
)

export default SEO

---

5️⃣ Static Pages

Use pages/index.js for the homepage:

jsxCopyEditimport React from "react"
import Layout from "../components/Layout"
import SEO from "../components/SEO"

export default function HomePage() {
  return (
    <Layout>
      <SEO title="McCance Group | Best Piling Contractors in Ash Vale" />
      <section className="text-center py-10">
        <h1 className="text-4xl font-bold">Welcome to McCance Group</h1>
        <p className="mt-4">Expert Piling Solutions in Ash Vale</p>
      </section>
    </Layout>
  )
}

---

6️⃣ Dynamic Content with SSR

For services that are updated often (e.g., “Mini Piling”, “Basement Foundations”), we use SSR.

Enable SSR in gatsby-config.js:

jsCopyEdit// gatsby-config.js
module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    `gatsby-plugin-react-helmet`,
    `gatsby-plugin-postcss`,
  ],
  // Enable SSR for dynamic routes
  flags: {
    DEV_SSR: true,
  },
}

Create SSR page in /src/pages/services.js:

jsxCopyEditexport async function getServerData() {
  const res = await fetch("https://api.mcancegroup.com/services")
  const services = await res.json()
  return {
    props: {
      services,
    },
  }
}

export default function ServicesPage({ serverData }) {
  return (
    <Layout>
      <SEO title="Our Piling Services" />
      <h1 className="text-3xl font-bold">Our Services</h1>
      <ul className="mt-4">
        {serverData.services.map((srv) => (
          <li key={srv.id} className="mt-2">
            <h2 className="text-xl">{srv.title}</h2>
            <p>{srv.description}</p>
          </li>
        ))}
      </ul>
    </Layout>
  )
}

---

7️⃣ Contact Form Integration

Use a Netlify function or form handling service like Formspree:

jsxCopyEdit<form method="POST" action="/success" netlify>
  <input type="text" name="name" required />
  <input type="email" name="email" required />
  <textarea name="message" required></textarea>
  <button type="submit">Send</button>
</form>

---

🚀 Deployment

Deploy to Netlify or Vercel:

bashCopyEditnpm run build

Push to GitHub → Connect repo to deployment platform → Set SSR routes if needed.

---

🧠 Tips for Success

• Use gatsby-plugin-image for optimized image loading

• Cache heavy API calls when possible

• Use Lighthouse to monitor performance and SEO

• Always include structured data for local business (JSON-LD schema)

---

✅ Final Output

The final site:

• Loads in under 1s on 4G

• Renders pages from server when content is dynamic

• Is fully SEO-optimized (meta tags, semantic HTML, sitemaps)

• Looks modern and professional across devices

Visit: https://mcancegroup.com (hypothetical link)

---

📦 Source Code

You can find the GitHub repository here:
👉 github.com/yourusername/mcance-group-gatsby

---

🏁 Conclusion

With Gatsby SSR and React, building a performant, SEO-friendly website for contractors like McCance Group becomes efficient and scalable. This architecture ensures visibility on search engines, rapid load times, and great UX – crucial for local business success.