Crafting Stunning Websites with Gatsby.js Templates - A Designer's Guide by Sumeet Shroff

1. What is Gatsby.js?

Before we start working with themes, let's learn how to use Gatsby.js. Gatsby.js is an open-source web development platform that is small, can be changed, and is easy to use. It is made with the strong and famous React library. Gatsby.js is a great choice for building modern websites because it can make flat pages with little server load.

What are the advantages of Gatsby.js

When web workers and designers use the famous and powerful static site generator Gatsby.js, they get a number of benefits. Using Gatsby.js has many advantages, some of which are mentioned below.

1. Blazing Fast Performance

Gatsby.js makes static web pages, which means that your site's pages are built ahead of time while the site is being built. This makes your site run very quickly. As a result, start times are super fast, which makes for a great experience all around. Search engines also give pages that load quickly more weight.

2. SEO-Friendly

Gatsby.js was made from the ground up to work well with search engines. Your site is more likely to rank high in search engine results if it has pre-rendered pages, meta tags, and speed that has been improved.

3. Excellent Developer Experience

Gatsby.js is a popular choice among coder because it has great performance. This is because it uses the React library. It gives developers a full platform that makes development easier and a rich experience with features like hot-reloading and a large library of plugins.

4. Great for Content-Heavy Sites

Blogs and news sites, which depend a lot on their content, will gain a lot from using Gatsby.js. It could build flat pages by reading data from other places, like Markdown files, APIs, or databases, which would make it easier to change the content.

5. GraphQL Integration.

Gatsby.js makes it easy to use GraphQL for data searches. By only getting the information needed for a given page, you can speed up the process and avoid asking for extra data.

6. Scalability

Gatsby.js is flexible, which means that it can be used to build anything from a small personal blog to a huge online store. Since it uses static generation, the speed of your site won't change as you add more people.

2. Getting Started with Gatsby.js Templates

Gatsby.js uses templates a lot, just like any other web building platform. They give you a way to organise your website's style and content in a way that is both effective and consistent. Using themes in Gatsby.js to make parts of your site that can be used again and again could save you a lot of time and work in the long run.

In this chapter, we'll start from scratch with a new Gatsby.js project and look at how it's put together. With what you've learned about making and managing templates, you'll be able to keep your coding clean and organised right from the start.

1. Create a Layout Component

First, let's create a layout component. This component will serve as the overall structure for your website. You can name it something like Layout.js. In this component, you typically include elements that are consistent across all pages of your site, such as the header, navigation menu, and Footer.

Here's a simple example of what your Layout.js component might look like:

// src/components/Layout.js
import React from 'react';
import Header from './Header';
import Footer from './Footer';

const Layout = ({ children }) => {
return (

		<Header />
		<main>{children}</main>
		<Footer />

);
};

export default Layout;

In this example, the Layout component wraps the Header, the main content ({children}), and the Footer. This structure ensures that these components appear on every page.