Getting to Know JavaScript SEO: A Tool for Making SEO More Effective

Successful SEO depends on many factors, whether it is the quality of the content, the user experience, the security of the website, or even the behind-the-scenes of how the website is built, which also includes the programming language used to write the website. JavaScript is considered one of the most popular languages in use, because it is a language that Googlebot can process, analyze, and rank in the search results pages.

JavaScript SEO is the process of improving a website written in the JavaScript language in order to increase the chances of the website ranking high on Google's search results pages. It is considered a key strategy that has helped many websites succeed at SEO. In this article, Relevant Audience will help you decode what JavaScript SEO is, including the most commonly encountered JavaScript SEO problems and how to fix them, so that your website becomes more friendly to search engines.

What is JavaScript SEO?

JavaScript SEO is technical SEO (optimizing a website for search engines) for websites built using JavaScript, such as JavaScript Frameworks and Java Libraries, which helps make it easier for Google to crawl, render, and index the site, increasing the chances of the website ranking high on the search results pages. The general responsibilities of JavaScript SEO include:

Rendering Methods and Their Impact on JavaScript SEO

There are 3 methods of rendering a website, and each one is different, as follows:

1. Server-Side Rendering (SSR)
   Server-Side Rendering (SSR) is the rendering of a website page on the server instead of on the browser, in other words, displaying the page on the server. It helps the content on the website load faster, but it may make interaction with the user slower. It is a rendering method that is well suited to SEO.
2. Client-Side Rendering (CSR)
   Client-Side Rendering (CSR) is the opposite of Server-Side Rendering (SSR). It is rendering on the client side, or rendering on the website page side. The client sends a request to the server, then the server sends the basic structure of the website, or HTML, along with the JavaScript files. JavaScript then takes those files and renders the data further so that the website page is displayed. This helps the website interact better with the user, but it is a rendering method that is not well suited to SEO, because it is suitable for websites that have a complex interface and that emphasize interaction with the user more.
3. Static Site Generation (SSG)
   Static Site Generation (SSG) is a rendering method similar to SSR, but SSG renders the HTML in advance, right from within the process of building the website, making it ready to be used immediately. The advantages are that the website page loads quickly, with no delay, and is secure.

JavaScript SEO Problems and Solutions

In some aspects JavaScript is a language superior to traditional HTML, such as being easy to develop and optimize, but in some aspects JavaScript still has areas that need further development. The commonly encountered JavaScript SEO problems include:

1. Google Cannot See Internal Links
   This problem is often encountered when using JavaScript Frameworks such as Angular, Vue, and React. Although they are sets of tools that make website development easier, if elements that are not suitable for the browser are used, Googlebot will be unable to read the back-end program code in this part. The element commonly used for links connecting to other pages on the website is <a>, which supports use across a wide range of browsers, whether it is Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Firefox, and so on.
   
   
2. Infinite Scrolling
   The problem of scrolling the website page on and on without any endpoint, or Infinite Scroll, is a problem encountered when JavaScript disables the feature for paging. As a result, the website cannot be divided into pages, leading to problems in crawling and indexing on page 2, page 3, and other pages. It is recommended to use Pagination Loading so that Googlebot can view the content, links, or other web pages, and is able to index the content.
3. Incomplete or Missing Content
   When the content on the website is incomplete, or some parts are missing, it may be caused by an error in the related JavaScript code, which can be checked through the "Inspect" feature on Google Search Console (Google's website checking and management tool).
   
   
4. JS Files That Are Large and Not Optimized
   JavaScript files that are too large often make the server's processing slower, resulting in users' downloading of the website page being slower as well, because the browser must render all the necessary JS files (files containing JavaScript code that runs operations on the web page) before displaying the website page to the user. When the website loads more slowly, it affects the User Experience (UX). The approaches to solving this problem are to minify the JS files to make them smaller, defer the downloading of JavaScript so that the browser downloads the HTML and CSS files first, as well as to avoid using unnecessary JavaScript, for example by using CSS to Lazy Load images instead.
5. URL Problems
   When using the JavaScript language, you should be careful in creating the website's URLs, because if overlapping URLs are used for the same content, such as website.com/xyz, website.com/XYZ, or website.com/Xyz, it may cause Google to see them as Duplicate Content and affect search.In addition, URLs that contain symbols such as "#" as an element, for example website.com/#/xyz, are often analyzed by Googlebot as separate website pages and cannot be indexed correctly either.

In order to make a website rank high on the search results pages, you need to consider 2 types of targets: the group of human readers of the content on the website pages, and Googlebot. Therefore, successful SEO must give importance to both types of targets. JavaScript helps improve the quality of the website, resulting in Googlebot being able to read how the website works, analyze it, and rank it on the search results pages efficiently.

SEO Services at Relevant Audience

Relevant Audience is a fully integrated Digital Performance Marketing Agency, SEO Agency and Digital agency, with the main goal of providing digital marketing services to help businesses reach their target audience who are looking for products or services at the right time, place, and device, through various online channels. Our services cover Search Marketing, Social Media Ads, Search Ads, and SEO services (Search Engine Optimization), all the way to Influencer Marketing, and we are also part of the Google Partners program.

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