The Ultimate Guide to JavaScript SEO

What is JavaScript SEO? 

The Web is in the golden age of front-end development, and JavaScript and technical SEO are experiencing a renaissance. JavaScript SEO is a part of technical SEO (Search Engine Optimization) that aims to make JavaScript-heavy websites easy to crawl, index, and searchable. The goal is to make these websites find and rank higher in search engines. 

Is JavaScript good or bad for SEO?  

It Depends On The Situation! JavaScript is essential for the modern web. It makes the built website scalable and easier to maintain. However, certain JavaScript implementations can be detrimental to search engine visibility. 

How does JavaScript affect SEO? 

JavaScript can affect the following page elements and ranking factors that are important to SEO: 

•  Content rendering 
•  Links 
•  Image lazy loading 
•  Page load time 
•  Metadata 

How to make your site JavaScript SEO friendly?

Many processes are similar to SEO and have been used to, but there may be subtle differences. 

 On-page SEO 

All normal page SEO rules such as content, title tags, meta descriptions, Alt attributes, robot meta tags, etc. Continue to apply. Several problems that we repeatedly see when using JavaScript websites are that the title and description can be reused, and the alt attribute in the image is rarely set. 

Allow crawling 

Do not block access to resources. Google needs to be able to access and download resources so that they can render the page correctly. 

URLs

Change the URL when the content is updated. You might be aware about the History API, but you should also know that for JavaScript frameworks, they will have a router that will allow you to map to a clean URL. You might also not want to use hash (#) for routing. 

 Duplicate content 

When using JavaScript, the same content can have multiple URLs, which can cause duplicate content problems. This may be due to the case, ID, parameters with ID, etc. So all of these can exist: 

•  domain.com/Abc 
•  domain.com/abc 
•  domain.com/123 
•  domain.com/?id=123 

The solution is simple. Choose a version you want to index and set canonical tags. 

SEO plug-in options 

For JavaScript frameworks, these are often referred to as modules. When looking for frameworks + module names (like “React Helmet”), you will find versions of many popular frameworks (like React, Vue, and Angular). The meta tags, Helmet, and Head are all popular modules with similar functions, allowing you to configure many popular tags required for SEO. 

Error page 

Because JavaScript frameworks are not server-side, they can’t really throw server errors like 404. There are several different options for the error page: 

• Use JavaScript to redirect to a page that responds to 404 with a 4444 status code.
• Add a noindex tag to the failed page and display an error message such as “404 page not found”. This will be considered a soft 404 because the actual status code returned will be 200 okay. 

Sitemap 

The JavaScript framework usually has routers that map to clean URLs. These routers usually have an additional module, and site maps can also be created. You can find them by searching your system + router site map, such as “Vue Router Sitemap”. Many rendering solutions may also have sitemap options. Once again, just search for the system you are using and Google system + site map, such as “Gatsby Site Map”, you will definitely find an existing solution. 

Redirects 

SEO is used for server-side 301/302 redirects. But Javascript usually runs on the client side. This is good because Google processes the page according to redirects. Redirection still passes all signals, such as PageRank. You can usually find these redirects in the code by searching for “[removed].href”. 

Internationalization 

Generally, different frameworks have some module options that support some features required for internationalization, such as hreflang. They are usually suitable for different systems, including i18n, intl, or many times the same module used for header tags (such as Helmet) can be used to add the necessary tags. 

Lazy loading 

usually has modules that handle lazy loading. If you haven’t noticed, there are modules that can handle almost everything you need to do when using JavaScript frameworks. Lazy and Suspense are the most popular lazy loading modules. You will need to delay loading images, but be careful not to delay loading content. This can be done with JavaScript, but it may mean that search engines cannot detect it correctly. 

Final thoughts 

JavaScript is a tool to use wisely, not something to worry about. We hope this article helps you understand how to best use it, but don’t be afraid to contact the developers and work with them and ask them questions if you’re a total newbie in this field. We at Whitehat Codes also provide services for JavaScript SEO and if you want our help, we’d be glad to hear from you soon. You can visit our website to know more about us and our services.