If you’re new to digital marketing or barely on the cusp of developing your own website, then you should know that there is plenty to learn about this complex world. One of the toughest concepts to grasp is Search Engine Optimization, otherwise known as SEO.
But SEO consists of more than just one single action. In fact, Google has over 200 SEO factors that they take into consideration when ranking a website (and one of your main goals should be to have a high ranking on Google search results).
That means your website, along with your overall digital marketing strategy, has to hit multiple targets, such as:
- JavaScript standards
- Website security (HTTPS vs. HTTP)
- Mobile-ready website
- Fast web page loading
- Correct website schema markup (coding)
- Quality and length of website content
- Quality social media connections to your website
- Quality backlinks
- Optimized images on the website
- Off-page optimization
- Keyword optimization
- Sitemap optimization
- Quality UX
- Optimized web design
- Quality domain authority
These are but a few components that need to be managed on an ongoing basis.
That’s right. SEO isn’t a one-and-done deal. It’s a process that requires you to remain on top of your game at all times. Google loves to change its algorithm constantly and you need to be aware of these changes in order to make the proper adjustments in your SEO strategy.
Is all this scaring you? Well…it shouldn’t.
While there’s definitely a learning curve to SEO, thankfully, there are quite a few resources available out on the Internet that can get you on the right path.
(Or you can always reach out to your local digital marketing consultant if your looking for a quick start or don’t have the time to handle the complexities of SEO.)
The Basics About JavaScript and SEO
JavaScript (JS) is a frequently used programming language to develop websites. However, there were issues for some time with crawlers being unable to properly index JS websites. When indexing couldn’t be properly completed then a website’s ranking was affected.
Fast forward a few years, however, and Google now has the ability to crawl JavaScript. This has changed digital marketing and SEO. It’s important to be aware, however, that there are certain instances in which a crawler could misinterpret content on your website and thus affect ranking results.
Google is leading the way in terms of successfully crawling JavaScript websites but you should still be wary of developing your entire website using it. It’s better that you use JavaScript for certain elements so that your site can be easily accessed by crawlers.
When it comes to JavaScript and SEO, you should know that:
- JavaScript content must be indexable within the load event.
- Content dependent on user events is not indexable.
- You’ll need an indexable URL with server-side support for your JavaScript site.
- There shouldn’t be any variations between the HTML and JavaScript versions of your website.
- All essential elements or content on your JavaScript website need to load during the load event. Anything loaded after will not necessarily be crawled and indexed.
- You’ll need to allow search engines to crawl your JavaScript, otherwise, they may penalize you.
- Consider doing a manual check to see if your website is “crawlable”.
There’s plenty (and we mean plenty) more that can be said about JavaScript and SEO but the resources below should help you to develop a clearer understanding.
The SEO Resources You Need to Know About
First on our list are the “Beginner Guides and How-To’s” of SEO:
- Beginner’s Guide to SEO (Search Engine Optimization)– Moz
- 5 Must-Dos for SEO Beginners– Search Engine Land
- A Complete Guide to SEO: What You Need to Know in 2019– Search Engine Journal
- The Search Engine Land Guide to SEO – Search Engine Land
- SEO Made Simple: A Step-by-Step Guide– Neil Patel
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Starter Guide– Search Console Help
- Quick Sprout’s Guide to SEO– QuickSprout
What you need to know about JavaScript and SEO:
- JavaScript and SEO: The Difference Between Crawling and Indexing– State of Digital
- Understanding JavaScript Fundamentals– SearchEngineJournal
- Mobile First, Chrome User Experience Report, and JavaScript – Elephate
- The Minimum Viable Knowledge You Need to Work with JavaScript & SEO Today– Moz
- Priorities for diagnosing JavaScript-powered websites– Search Engine Land
- Indexable PWAs, Making Progressive Web Apps Perform for Users and Search Engines– Shopify
- The Ultimate Guide to JavaScript SEO– Elephate
- How Does Google Handle Javascript When Crawling, Rendering & Indexing Pages– Hobo
- Why View Source Still Matters and How to Quickly Compare it to a Rendered DOM– Polemic
- What we’ve learnt so far about using JavaScript for SEO– theWebShed
- How to Crawl JavaScript Websites– Sitebulb
- Google Shares Details About the Technology Behind Googlebot– Moz
- JavaScript & SEO, The Difference Between Crawling and Indexing– State of Digital
- Beyond Google: Are Search Engines Ready for JavaScript Crawling & Indexing?– Moz
- JavaScript & SEO, Making Your Bot Experience As Good As Your User Experience– Moz
- JavaScript and SEO, Best Practice Guide– Ryte
- How to Implement SEO Changes Using Google Tag Manager– Moz
- JavaScript SEO, Crawling, Indexierung & Auditing von JS-Webseiten– Kosch Klink Performance
- Introduction to Crawling JavaScript– Screaming Frog
- How to Combine JavaScript & SEO With Isomorphic JS– Search Engine Journal
- Progressive Web App SEO– Builtvisible
- Auditing JavaScript for SEO– Briggsby
- Core Principles of SEO for JavaScript– Briggs
- JavaScript Framework SEO in AngularJS– Builtvisible
- Angular JS and SEO– DeepCrawl
- Using Google Tag Manager to Dynamically Generate JSON-LD Tags– Moz
- Eliminate Duplicate Content in Faceted Navigation with Ajax/JSON/JQuery– Moz
- Prerender.cloud– Server-side rendering API
- The JavaScript Indexing Drag Race– StrategiQ
- JavaScript vs Crawl Budget– Elephate
- Hacking the Console Log To Spy on Googlebot– CodeSEO
- Googlebot’s Javascript random() function is deterministic– Tom Anthony
- Everything You Know About JavaScript Indexing is Wrong– Elephate
- Some of the things you know about indexing might be wrong– Ohgm
- More JavaScript SEO Experiments with Google Tag Manager– searchVIU
- Serverless-SEO.com– Peter Driessen
- Breaking the Head (Quietly)– Ohgm
- SPA and SEO, Google properly renders Single Page Applications– Lucamug
- Implement Hreflang with Google Tag Manager– searchVIU
- Does Google Use pre or post-DOM HTML for Hreflang?– searchVIU
- Pre-rendering SPA for SEO and improved perceived page speed– Gajus Kuizinas
- Early Results from Split Testing JavaScript for SEO– Distilled
- Can Google Crawl & Index JavaScript Frameworks?– Elephate
- Evidence of the Surprising State of JavaScript Indexing– Moz
- Optimizing AngularJS Single-Page Applications for Googlebot Crawlers– Moz
- Long Term CSS JavaScript Hidden Text Experiment– Reboot
- JavaScript & SEO Backfire, a Hulu.com Case Study– Elephate
- SEO vs React, Web Crawlers Are Smarter Than You Think– Patrick Hund
- SEO and JavaScript Redirects: Evidence they do pass PageRank– Branded3
- SEO friendly React.js app architecture for multimedia content– Builtvisible
- Can You Now Trust Google To Crawl Ajax Sites?– Search Engine Land
- JSCrawlability.com– Growth Gauge
- We Tested How Googlebot Crawls Javascript– Search Engine Land
Google resources you need to know about:
- Google Webmaster Central Blog
- Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide
- Introduction to Indexing
- How Google gets your site content
- Web Development Resources to Create Websites
- How Google Search Works
- Steps to a Google-friendly site
- JavaScript Sites in Search Working Group
- What Crawl Budget Means for Googlebot
- Rendering AJAX-crawling Pages
- Deprecating our AJAX crawling scheme
Websites that can help you on your SEO journey:
- Search Engine Journal
- Search Engine Land
- Search Engine Roundtable
- The SEM Post
- The Moz Blog
- Search Engine Watch
- SEMrush Blog
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