What is Static Site Generation? - Explanation & Meaning

Definition

Static Site Generation (SSG) is a method where all pages of a website are generated as static HTML files during the build process, then served lightning-fast via a CDN.

Technical explanation

With SSG, pages are rendered during the build phase by a static site generator that fetches data, processes templates, and generates an HTML file for each route. This happens once, not on every user request. Frameworks like Next.js provide getStaticProps and generateStaticParams to fetch data and define dynamic routes at build time. Astro optimizes further by shipping zero JavaScript to the client by default and only hydrating interactive islands. Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR) in Next.js allows individual pages to be regenerated after deployment with a configurable revalidation interval, keeping content fresh without full rebuilds. The generated files are uploaded to a CDN that distributes them globally with cache headers for maximum speed. Build-time data can come from APIs, databases, CMS systems, Markdown files, or any other data source. The separation between build-time and runtime provides inherent security: there is no server that can be attacked. Modern SSG tools also support on-demand revalidation via webhooks, so content changes go live within seconds.

How MG Software applies this

MG Software uses SSG with Next.js and Astro for marketing websites, documentation portals, and knowledge bases. We generate hundreds of pages during the build that are served via Vercel's edge network. With ISR and on-demand revalidation, we ensure content is always current without sacrificing speed.

Practical examples

• A corporate website with hundreds of pages statically generated during each deployment and loaded via Cloudflare CDN within 50ms regardless of the visitor's location.
• A technical documentation site built with Astro that converts Markdown files from a Git repository into a complete, searchable documentation portal without any client-side JavaScript.
• A blog with thousands of articles served via ISR, where popular pages are revalidated every five minutes and new articles are generated on-demand upon publication.

Related terms