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Understand the JavaScript SEO basics

developers.google.com

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Re: Understand the JavaScript SEO basics

#5
post #2

Is this the first confirmation from Google that they render JS/SPAs? I've heard rumors before...

You can see the results in 'fetch as Google' and in the structured data tool. Injected JS content is there, including changes to the page title and head.

As always take SEO advice from Google with a grain of salt.

Re: Understand the JavaScript SEO basics

#6
A good search engine shouldn't process JS at all, and index only the content that is reachable via links pulled from HTML (which may, of course, be dynamic).

The processing of JS explains a lot of the sheer garbage that is in the Google results.

I think they do it because it ties into their business model. JS is needed to unearth the kind of crap that a certain segment of the user base is looking for. That certain segment is worth catering to because it consists of users who are likely to click on ads.

Otherwise, nobody in their right mind would integrate JS into a crawler. "I'm going to write a program that automatically finds random source code, much of it malicious, and runs it!" Come on; without a business agenda justifying it, it's a complete non-starter.

Re: Understand the JavaScript SEO basics

#7
For those here to find out how relevant server rendering is for SPAs in light of this, I think the answer is still very much 'better if you do'.

Some relevant excerpts from the article (emphasis mine):

> Keep in mind that server-side or pre-rendering is still a great idea because it makes your website faster for users and crawlers, and not all bots can run JavaScript.

> Once Googlebot's resources allow, a headless Chromium renders the page and executes the JavaScript.

So, there are still no specifics on what extra delays might be involved, but this seems to suggest what I've heard about JS-rendered content still taking much longer than static content to update in the index (i.e. days to weeks) might indeed be the case.

I.e. seems they are implying that while this works, static content is still preferred by them and takes priority.

Re: Understand the JavaScript SEO basics

#8

A good search engine shouldn't process JS at all, and index only the content that is reachable via links pulled from HTML (which may, of course, be dynamic). The processing of JS explains a lot of the sheer garbage that is in the Google results. I think they do it because it ties into their business model. JS is needed to unearth the kind of crap that a certain segment of the user base is looking for. That certain se…

This is so out-of-touch with the modern web. Lots of totally legitimate websites, including major news outlets and Wikipedia, render their web pages on the client using JavaScript. Whether or not this is a good thing is a separate issue (personally I see nothing wrong with it), but it should be obvious that a useful search engine in 2019 needs to be able to index JavaScript-rendered content.

Re: Understand the JavaScript SEO basics

#9

A good search engine shouldn't process JS at all, and index only the content that is reachable via links pulled from HTML (which may, of course, be dynamic). The processing of JS explains a lot of the sheer garbage that is in the Google results. I think they do it because it ties into their business model. JS is needed to unearth the kind of crap that a certain segment of the user base is looking for. That certain se…

>A good search engine shouldn't process JS at all, and index only the content that is reachable via links pulled from HTML (which may, of course, be dynamic).

A good search engine index based on what humans would consume.

Re: Understand the JavaScript SEO basics

#10
post #2

Is this the first confirmation from Google that they render JS/SPAs? I've heard rumors before...

You can see the results in 'fetch as Google' and in the structured data tool. Injected JS content is there, including changes to the page title and head. As always take SEO advice from Google with a grain of salt.

> As always take SEO advice from Google with a grain of salt.

Why?

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