Services

Headless Architecture Consulting for Next.js and Modern CMS Platforms

This sits above day‑to‑day CMS troubleshooting and focuses on the decisions that shape editorial speed, preview trust, metadata control, cache behaviour, and delivery complexity later.

Bring in headless CMS consulting when CMS architecture, SEO controls, preview trust, or revalidation decisions are about to lock in operational pain.

Where this fits

  • CMS and front‑end architecture decisions for headless builds.
  • Preview, revalidation, content modelling, and editorial workflow design.
  • Planning support before teams commit to a CMS and delivery model.

Common engagements

  • Discovery and architecture sessions before implementation.
  • Rescue work where editorial flows or preview behaviour are failing.
  • Cross‑team advisory support between engineering and content teams.

Related hubs

  1. Hub

    Headless CMS Integration

    Choose the right CMS operations fix when preview, freshness, or editorial performance has stopped being trustworthy.

  2. Hub

    Migrations to Next.js

    Choose the right Next.js migration path when an older front end, legacy platform, or hard‑to‑maintain site needs a cleaner architecture and safer migration plan.

Related scenarios

  1. Scenario

    WordPress to Next.js Migration

    Move a WordPress‑led front end to Next.js when speed, scale, and maintainability all need to improve without losing URLs, preview trust, or editorial continuity.

  3. Scenario

    Drupal to Next.js Migration

    Move a Drupal‑led estate to Next.js without losing aliases, preview behaviour, or SEO continuity on content‑heavy routes.

  4. Scenario

    Headless CMS SEO Gaps

    Fix the missing metadata, canonicals, sitemaps, schema, and internal‑link controls that often get left out of a headless CMS build.

Related project experience

  1. Boohoo
    Group

    The migration of several individual Group brand e‑commerce websites onto a newly developed, unified, React‑based platform. Enabling shared functionality and customisable components.

    Screenshot of the Boohoo Group website; part of John Kavanagh's development portfolio.

  2. Condé Nast
    Style.com

    A fashion and technology‑led e‑commerce marketplace by Condé Nast. Built in Clojure (and ClojureScript), its key feature was tight integration with the wider Condé Nast publications.

    Screenshot of the Style.com website; part of John Kavanagh's development portfolio.

  3. HSBC Corporate
    Banking

    Lead UI developer on a set of digital transformation projects at the world's local bank. Includes the ground‑up rebuild of their commercial banking application using Node.js and React.

    Screenshot of the HSBC Corporate Banking website; part of John Kavanagh's development portfolio.

  4. LEGO

    Senior developer producing an all‑new e‑commerce platform with React. Designed to handle high traffic volumes and support multi‑language and multiple currencies.

    Screenshot of the LEGO website; part of John Kavanagh's development portfolio.

  5. MOSCOT
    Eyewear

    Senior front‑end developer responsible for producing a library of static components and page templates for integration into this Shopify website and e‑commerce platform.

    Screenshot of the MOSCOT Eyewear website; part of John Kavanagh's development portfolio.

  6. Nando’s

    Senior software engineer on the UK and Ireland replatform, migrating Nando’s customer‑facing websites from legacy Drupal to a unified headless platform built with Next.js and Storyblok, with a focus on performance, accessibility, and SEO.

    Screenshot of the Nando’s website; part of John Kavanagh's development portfolio.

  7. Polestar

    Senior developer working on this highly animated, interactive website and automotive configurators for Polestar, once Volvo's fledgling go‑faster brand, now turned EV company. Built with Gatsby, React, and TypeScript.

    Screenshot of the Polestar website; part of John Kavanagh's development portfolio.

  8. Red
    Central

    A bold, media‑led website to bring the passion and personality of this digital design studio online. Built using Gatsby, TypeScript, GraphQL, and Contentful.

    Screenshot of the Red Central website; part of John Kavanagh's development portfolio.

  9. ToyBoxX

    'The Jewel of the North', ToyBoxX is a hyper‑creative recording studio that needed a hyper‑creative website to attract talent to their state‑of‑the‑art recording facility.

    Screenshot of the ToyBoxX website; part of John Kavanagh's development portfolio.

  10. Virgin Atlantic
    & Holidays

    Lead engineer on this massive replatforming project, unifying twelve disparate applications under a new headless architecture with React and Next.js.

    Screenshot of the Virgin Atlantic & Holidays website; part of John Kavanagh's development portfolio.

  11. IMG
    Licensing

    An all‑new identity and website. Making careful use of their extensive library of client imagery, this was a ground‑up build using Gatsby, Contentful, and Netlify for this world‑leading licensing company.

    Screenshot of the IMG Licensing website; part of John Kavanagh's development portfolio.

  12. Wreel
    Agency

    Technical director and lead developer for this digital‑centric design agency. A vibrant, animated, and engaging website developed using Gatsby, React, TypeScript, and Contentful.

    Screenshot of the Wreel Agency website; part of John Kavanagh's development portfolio.

Supporting technical articles

  • Building a Headless CMS-Powered Site with Next.js

    01 September 2025

    Build a headless CMS-powered Next.js site with stronger content modelling, preview support, and data boundaries that scale well.

  • Preview Mode in Next.js with a Headless CMS

    15 March 2021

    Preview Mode in Next.js explained with a headless CMS, draft content workflows, preview cookies, and how editors can see unpublished pages safely.

  • All about headless CMSes

    24 October 2021

    Websites have not been set-and-forget for a long time now, and without the technical know-how to update a static site, CMSes are a key part of web development.

Also relevant

  1. Secondary service

    Technical writing and documentation

    Technical documentation, implementation notes, and delivery‑facing writing that helps teams keep platform decisions usable after handover.

  2. Secondary service

    Partnership and advisory support

    Senior technical partnership for teams that need ongoing judgement on architecture, delivery trade‑offs, and platform direction.

Show me what's not working

Send me the affected page or route, point me at the code if that helps, and tell me what you expected to happen versus what is happening now. If this connects to a Next.js migration, technical SEO drop, performance issue, launch, or platform move, include that context too. I'll come back with the clearest next step.

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