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Website Javascript to make better sites

What is JavaScript SEO?

JavaScript SEO is a branch of search engine optimization (SEO) that focuses on making sure websites built with JavaScript are easy for search engines like Google to understand and rank.

Since JavaScript is used to create interactive and dynamic websites, it can sometimes make it harder for search engines to see your content or follow links if not implemented correctly. JavaScript SEO ensures your site is accessible to both users and search engines.

As a business you need paying customers to continue to operate, Google is the holder of the keys to getting free customers on their Google search platform. The alternative is paying for adverts to get new customers. Only the websites that are optimised with good SEO show up on the first page of Google search results. Thats why this matters.

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How Search Engines Handle JavaScript

Search engines follow three main steps when they visit your website:

  1. Crawling: Finding your pages.
  2. Rendering: Running the JavaScript code to see the content.
  3. Indexing: Adding your pages to the search engine database for users to find.

The tricky part is the rendering stage because running JavaScript can slow down how quickly search engines understand your page. If rendering fails, your content might not get indexed properly.

Key Issues with JavaScript for SEO

  1. Delayed Content: If content is loaded after the page initially loads (e.g., through JavaScript), search engines might not wait to see it.
  2. Broken Links: JavaScript-generated links might not be visible to search engines if they aren’t formatted properly.
  3. Poor Performance: Heavy JavaScript can slow down your page, which hurts SEO.
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Best Practices for JavaScript SEO

  1. Use Server-Side Rendering (SSR): Render your content on the server before sending it to the browser. This ensures that search engines can see the content immediately without running JavaScript.
  2. Optimize Dynamic Content: If you’re using client-side rendering (CSR), make sure critical content is loaded quickly and visibly.
  3. Test with Google Tools:
    • Mobile-Friendly Test: See if your site works well on mobile devices.
    • URL Inspection Tool: Check how Google sees your page.
    • Lighthouse: Analyze your site’s performance and SEO issues.
  4. Use Search-Friendly URLs: Avoid links or URLs generated by JavaScript that search engines can’t follow. Use plain, clean URLs whenever possible.
  5. Pre-rendering: For complex JavaScript apps, use a pre-rendering service to create static HTML versions of your pages specifically for search engines.

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Use standard format links

Links to other pages should be in the web standard format. Internal and external links need to be an <a> tag with an href attribute. There are many ways you can make links work for users with JavaScript that are not search-friendly.

Good:

Bad:

Button, ng-click, there are many more ways this can be done incorrectly.

In my experience, Google still processes many of the bad links and crawls them, but I’m not sure how it treats them as far passing signals like PageRank. The web is a messy place, and Google’s parsers are often fairly forgiving.

How to Check Your JavaScript SEO

  • Use Google Search Console: It shows any errors in indexing your site.
  • Use tools like Semrush auditor or Ahrefs Site Audit or Screaming Frog: These can crawl your site and identify issues like missing content or broken links.
  • Disable JavaScript in your browser: Check if important content is still visible without JavaScript enabled.

Why It Matters

If search engines can’t read your site’s content, you’ll lose out on traffic, visibility, and rankings. By making your JavaScript site search-engine-friendly, you’ll ensure users and search engines both have a great experience.

Its not good having a kick ass SaaS business if no one can find your product, Ive worked with hundreds of tech companies that are asleep at the wheel with this stuff, they miss out on millions of dollars by not having an SEO focused developer on the website.

Look at your websites SEO and make it something that search engine solve to show off. This will be a game changer for your business. Good luck out there friends.

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