How to optimize ISR for daily updated content?

Discussions
1

Hi everyone,

I recently launched a small side project a daily hints site for the NYT Connections game. It’s built with Next.js and hosted on Vercel. Everything’s working fine, but I’m wondering if anyone has tips on improving performance or SEO specifically for small static sites like this that update daily.

Website Link: https://connections-hints.today/

Also, I’m using ISR for the daily hints — just curious if others here have used it for similar daily-updated content and how it’s worked out for you in terms of caching and freshness.

Plz give you honest suggestions. Thanks in advance

3

For daily content, ISR is a great fit. Set revalidate to match your update cadence e.g. revalidate = 86400 for 24 hours or use revalidateTag() / revalidatePath() when new content is published for on-demand freshness.

Use next/image for automatic image optimization, add proper meta tags and a sitemap for SEO, and use generateStaticParams for predictable daily routes. Here’s a simple example:

export const revalidate = 86400; // 24 hours

export async function POST() {
  revalidateTag('daily-hints');
  return Response.json({ revalidated: true });
}

A countdown or “next hint preview” can also keep users engaged between updates.