Your homepage appears to be perfect. The product pages are loading without any errors, the navigation on the site works perfectly, and visitors can easily browse everything on their devices.
Then, you check out Google Search Console. And you get a little worried. For starters, some pages are just missing from the index, while important product descriptions don’t even appear in search results. And Google seems to have discovered the URLs, but hasn’t indexed them.
Now, your development team sits down with the website – again, everything appears to be fine in the browser. This is exactly where JavaScript SEO becomes super important.
A site can work perfectly for some visitors while creating issues for crawlers. And the difference generally boils down to how a website delivers its links, content, and page information.
This is where JavaScript steps in to make modern websites interactive. However, considering most sites at present depend significantly on client-side rendering, Google and other search engines might need additional work to gain an understanding of its pages.
And that additional work, in turn, can create problems that usually stay hidden until your organic traffic begins to drop.
This is precisely why JavaScript SEO is relevant in the current evolving SEO landscape. And on that note, it is crucial that we break down JavaScript SEO in detail, highlighting actionable steps for optimizing JS for Google and other search engines.
Stay tuned.
What Is JavaScript SEO? (What’s So Special About It?)
JavaScript SEO falls under the much broader technical SEO category. Its primary focus is to ensure that Google and other search engines can easily crawl, render, or even index sites made with JavaScript.
In this context, the most common tasks include:
- Optimizing your content injected through JavaScript.
- Implementing lazy loading accurately.
- Following best practices while doing internal linking.
- Finding, fixing, and preventing JavaScript issues.
How Does Google Crawl And Index JavaScript?
Google processes JavaScript in three core phases:
- a) Crawling,
- b) Rendering, and
- c) Indexing.
Googlebot, that is, the search engine giant’s web crawler, usually queues web pages for crawling, followed by rendering. And it does crawl every single URL present within that queue.
So, first Googlebot makes requests, followed by the server sending the required HTML document.
Next, the crawler will go on to decide which specific resources it needs for rendering the content of the page.
This basically means it will crawl the entire HTML document. And not CSS or JS files because the rendering of JavaScript does require a lot of resources.
Now take into consideration the computing power that Googlebot will need for downloading, reading, and running JavaScript for approximately trillions of pages – and that too on almost 2 billion sites.
As a result, it is obvious that the search media giant defers rendering JS. In fact, it queues everything unexecuted for processing later when resources become available.
Now, once resources are available, a headless Chromium, that is, your Chrome browser minus any user interface, renders the particular page and moves on to executing the JS.
Then, Googlebot moves on to processing the rendered page for links, queueing the URLs it finds for crawling.
Finally, Google will use this rendered HTML for indexing the page.
Googlebot processes the rendered HTML again for links. It queues the URLs it finds for crawling.
Server-Side Rendering vs. Dynamic Rendering vs. Client-Side Rendering:
Indexing issues with Google JS are primarily based on how a website renders the code – and it could happen in three different ways:
- Server-Side Rendering.
- Dynamic Rendering.
- Client-Side Rendering.
| Comparison Factor | Server-Side Rendering (SSR) | Client-Side Rendering (CSR) | Dynamic Rendering |
| Definition | The server renders JavaScript and sends a fully rendered HTML page to the browser or crawler. | JavaScript is rendered in the browser using the Document Object Model (DOM). | The server detects bots and delivers a server-rendered HTML version while users receive the client-side rendered version. |
| How It Works | The browser requests a page from the server. The server processes the request, renders the content into HTML, and sends it to the browser. | The browser receives a basic HTML document and a JavaScript file. The browser executes JavaScript to render the rest of the page content. | The server identifies whether the visitor is a user or a bot. It serves pre-rendered HTML to bots and the client-rendered version to users. |
| Content Delivery | The server delivers fully rendered HTML. | The browser generates content after executing JavaScript. | Different rendering approaches are used for bots and human visitors. |
| SEO Benefits | Can improve content visibility, reduce the time required to display main content, and minimize layout shifts. | Can support SEO, but search engines may need to execute JavaScript to access the page content. | Helps crawlers that struggle with JavaScript access page content more easily. |
| User Experience | Main content can load faster, but user interactions may take longer to become functional. | Supports complex interfaces and interactive experiences. | Users receive the client-side rendered version of the website. |
| Best Suited For | Pages where SEO and fast content delivery are priorities. | Websites with complex user interfaces and frequent user interactions. | Large websites with rapidly changing content, quick indexing requirements, or crawlers that struggle with JavaScript. |
| Limitations | Implementation can be complex. It can also increase the time required for pages to become interactive. | Search engines must render JavaScript to access dynamically generated content. | Adds complexity and resource requirements. It is not a recommended long-term rendering solution by Google. |
| Popular Tools / Frameworks | Next.js and Gatsby (React), Angular Universal (Angular), and Nuxt.js (Vue.js). | JavaScript frameworks and libraries that render content in the browser. | Requires bot detection and a separate server-rendered version of the website. |
| Google’s Recommendation | A suitable rendering approach for SEO-focused pages. | Google can process JavaScript, but rendering can introduce additional complexity. | Google considers it a workaround rather than a recommended long-term solution. |
Please note (About Dynamic Rendering): Google generally does not consider dynamic rendering cloaking, as long as the content served to bots matches what users can access. However, it is still not an ideal long-term solution.
How Can You Make The JavaScript Content On Your Site SEO-Friendly?
Of course, it isn’t as simple as it might appear on a blog – which is why you need to carefully follow the steps below, ensuring Google and other search engines crawl your site, render it, and finally index your JavaScript content.
Find Errors With The Help Of Google Search Console:
So, Googlebot is entirely dependent on the latest version of Chrome. However, it does not operate in the same way as a browser.
In that case, it means that just launching your website does not guarantee Google will render the content.
That is why, with the URL Inspection Tool in GSC, you can check out whether the search engine giant can actually render different pages on your site.
In this context, here’s how you can use this tool in GSC:
- Enter the page URL that you are going to test at the top.
- Now, click on ‘Enter.’
- Then, tap on the button called ‘Test Live URL,’ located on the right.
- After 60 seconds pass, you will see that the tool is showing you a tab called ‘Live Test.’
- Here, tap on the ‘View Tested Page’ button, and you will be able to check the code on the page with a screenshot.
Also, you can check for discrepancies, including missing content, by just tapping on the ‘More Info’ button.
Having said that, note that one of the most common reasons behind Google not rendering your JS pages is probably because your website’s robots.txt file is blocking the rendering. And this often happens accidentally.
On that note, add the code below to your robots.txt file, ensuring there are no important resources blocked from being crawled.
User-Agent: Googlebot
Allow: .js
Allow: .css
In addition, note that the search engine giant does not index .css or .js files in SERPs. Instead, they are used for rendering a web page.
Also, there is no logical reason for blocking such crucial resources. In fact, doing so will stop your content from getting rendered. That, in turn, will stop the indexing as well.
Find Out Whether Google Is Indexing Your JavaScript Content:
Once you can confirm whether Google is rendering your pages, you need to ensure they are getting indexed.
In order to do this, you can do it directly from the search engine or check the same in Google Search Console.
Now, to check directly from Google, just use the usual ‘site:’ command. So, for instance, the command will look something like this: site:yourdomain.com/page-URL/
If the specific page has been indexed, then Google will show it in its results. However, if Google hasn’t indexed it, then the page won’t show up.
Now, if Google has indexed the page, then you can check whether the JS content sections have been indexed or not.
Again, for this, use the same command with the JS content snippet from the page. For instance:
site:yourdomain.com/page-URL/ “snippet of JS content”
So, if Google has indexed the specific JS content section, then you will be able to see the same.
Also, you can use Google Search Console to check whether Google has crawled your JS content. Again, for this, you can use the URL Inspection Tool.
But instead of opting for the URL live testing, tap on the button labeled ‘View Crawled Page,’ and find out the HTML source code of the page.
Then, just scan the HTML source code of the page – but do it fr specific JS content sections. Now, if you can not see your JavaScript content, then there could be more than one reason:
- The page could have timed out while Google was in the middle of indexing the page content.
- The content simply can’t get rendered.
- The URL can’t get discovered because JavaScript has been coming up with internal links pointing to the same page in case of any clicks.
The Most Common JavaScript SEO Issues (How to Avoid Them)
So, I thought it’s best to touch upon some of the most common issues related to JavaScript SEO and highlight the best practices that can help you avoid making them in the first place.
- Blocking your .js files within the robots.txt file will prevent Googlebot and other crawlers from crawling them. And that basically means the crawler won’t be able to render and ultimately index them. As a result, you should let these files get crawled to avoid facing this problem.
- Frankly, Google or other search engines does not wait very long for rendering of JS content. As a result, due to a small timeout error, your content might not get indexed.
- Search engines, including Google, do not click any buttons. As a result, you need to depend on internal links for helping Googlebot and other crawlers discover your website’s pages.
- While you are lazy-loading any page with the help of JS, do not delay loading the content that should ideally be indexed. Also, it’s best to prioritize images over text-based content when you are doing a lazy-loading setup.
- Google usually ignores hashes. As a result, ensure static URL generation happens for your website’s pages. Also, make sure that the URLs appear like ‘yourdomain.com/web-page.’ Avoid URLs that look like ‘yourdomain.com#web-page’ or ‘yourdomain.com/#/web-page.’
Best Practices For JavaScript SEO:
Of course, there is more than one problem that you can face while practicing JavaScript SEO. And thats’s fine – you don’t need to panic.
It’s essential to remember that not all JS will have the same problems. And even on top of that, generally there’s more than one way to figure it out for both SEO and users alike.
- When it does not add value, you need to avoid using JS. While it isn’t necessarily bad for your website, it is not always an effective solution for managing or adding some accessibility features like responsive menus or dark mode.
- Render crucial content pieces without using JS. By this, I’m trying to say that you need to ensure all important content pieces, such as metadata, links, above-the-fold content, schema markup, and images, are accessible to Google without JS.
- The lazy loading you are using has to be SEO-friendly. Also, opt for progressive enhancement. How? For this, you need to design your site so well that all the basic content on the site loads easily, always, even when JS fails or other assets take time to load.
- Optimize JS for both sustainability and performance. I’ll tell you why – often, large scripts end up slowing down pages and negatively impacting the user experience. Also, this increases your site’s digital carbon footprint. This is why you need to compress and minify your JS files to reduce their loading time and size.
- Monitor for JS errors so that you can fix the rendering problems. So, JS errors can actually break your webpages and, in turn, cause indexing problems. As a result, from a technical perspective, you can check out Chrome DevTools and Google Search Console for identifying errors and debugging JS.
JavaScript SEO: Not A Contradiction
Yes, it is possible that dynamic pieces of content injected by JS can pose challenges for your overall SEO. And this, in turn, can impact how Google crawls, renders, and indexes content generally.
However, best practices like SSR (server-side rendering), lazy loading, JS optimization, careful tracking of errors, and progressive enhancement can actually improve how Google processes your content.
Now, while minimizing dynamic content and JS injection all around can save you some carbon footprints and headaches, many of the best practices I highlighted above can apply to other stuff, apart from JS.
Also, do not let such fiddly bits make you stray: JS can be essential if you are planning to offer an accessible, responsive user experience. Plus, you can optimize it for SEO.
With SEOGrowthEngine, you can check out your site’s technical health for free – check out our tools right now. What are you waiting for? Stop crawling and start running!
