So I’ve been reading up on JavaScript SEO, and it seems like a lot can go wrong, especially if the whole page is built with JavaScript. Does anyone have experience with this? How does Google handle it? Should I be worried if my site uses JS for everything?
Yeah, there are a few things you gotta watch out for, like making sure Google can actually see your content. If your content is loaded after a click or something, Google might not catch it. You can check if your content shows up by searching for a snippet of it in quotes on Google.
@kyle
Exactly! I’ve seen this happen with stuff hidden behind dropdowns or accordions. Google doesn’t interact with the page like users do, so anything that requires a click can go unseen. I usually tell my devs to make sure all important content is loaded into the DOM by default.
@Bobby
Makes sense. So basically, if it’s not in the DOM right away, Google won’t see it?
pesh said:
@Bobby
Makes sense. So basically, if it’s not in the DOM right away, Google won’t see it?
Exactly, that’s the gist of it. Google can only see what’s loaded in the DOM when it first renders the page. If content is loaded later, like after a click or scroll, Google will miss it unless you handle it right.
One thing that trips people up is duplicate content from URLs that have minor differences, like capitalization or trailing slashes. Make sure you canonicalize properly or set up redirects to avoid SEO issues.
@Zack
Good point! I’ve seen sites where URLs like example.com/Page and example.com/page both exist, which confuses Google and splits ranking signals. You gotta pick one version and stick to it.
KevinHarris said:
@Zack
Good point! I’ve seen sites where URLs like example.com/Page and example.com/page both exist, which confuses Google and splits ranking signals. You gotta pick one version and stick to it.
Wait, what’s canonicalization? I’ve heard it mentioned a lot, but I’m still not sure how it works.
@DanBurn
It’s just a way to tell Google which URL is the main one you want indexed if you’ve got duplicates. So if you have multiple URLs with the same content, you set the canonical tag on the versions you don’t want indexed, pointing to the one you prefer.
@Zack
Got it, thanks! Sounds like it helps with ranking too, since all the signals point to one version.
Another big thing is making sure your title tags and meta descriptions are unique, especially if your site uses JavaScript templates. It’s easy to end up with the same title across multiple pages if you don’t set it properly.
@Raymond
For real. I’ve seen sites where every page had the same title because they used the same template. It’s bad for both users and SEO.
Claire said:
@Raymond
For real. I’ve seen sites where every page had the same title because they used the same template. It’s bad for both users and SEO.
I had that issue before. It’s a simple fix, though. Just use something like React Helmet to set custom titles and meta descriptions for each page, and you’re good to go.
@Wyatt
Yeah, Helmet’s great for that. Just make sure to test how it looks both in the raw HTML and after it renders, so you don’t get weird flashing titles in browsers.
I’ve run into issues with JavaScript redirects too. I’ve read that they’re not ideal for Google. Anyone know why?
Stanley said:
I’ve run into issues with JavaScript redirects too. I’ve read that they’re not ideal for Google. Anyone know why?
It’s because JavaScript redirects are processed client-side, which means Google has to render the page to see them. Server-side redirects (like 301s) are processed right away, so Google doesn’t have to do the extra work. JS redirects still work, but they’re not as efficient.
@pesh
Got it. So if I have a choice, I should use a server-side redirect, but JS redirects will do the job if I can’t change it?
Stanley said:
@pesh
Got it. So if I have a choice, I should use a server-side redirect, but JS redirects will do the job if I can’t change it?
Exactly. Google will handle them, but it’s just not as quick or ideal as a good ol’ 301.
Anyone have experience with Googlebot not seeing images on JS-heavy sites? I noticed that some of my images weren’t indexed.
kyle said:
Anyone have experience with Googlebot not seeing images on JS-heavy sites? I noticed that some of my images weren’t indexed.
Yeah, that can happen if you don’t set alt attributes or if images are lazy-loaded with JavaScript. Google needs to crawl the images to index them, so make sure your lazy load setup is working right and that you aren’t blocking the image files in your robots.txt.