In the last post, we talked about JavaScript for SEO. Let’s discuss how different events in JavaScript can affect SEO.

Load Events

When the website is entirely loaded, then the browser fires up the load event. The load event is crucial for search engine bots as it helps them to inspect the rendered content and capture its snapshot. If an event is loaded after the load event, it will not be assessed for crawling, which also means that it cannot be indexed.

User Events

More JavaScript events are triggered after the load event. For instance, the on-click events are user events that are used for interactive navigation or restricting the content of the website. However, search engines don’t index these events as they are initiated after the load events.

What Should You Avoid?

In the majority of cases, improper implementation is the root cause of an SEO issue with JavaScript. Some of these errors are listed below:

1.     Indexable URLs

Each site needs distinct URLs to make indexing easy. However, JavaScript’s pushState does not create a URL. Hence, you need a web document with the capability to provide a status code 200 OK so the server can send this response to a bot inquiry or a client. All the JavaScript-based sections have to be integrated with a server-side URL for indexing purposes.

2.     pushState Issues

JavaScript URLs are changeable, thanks to the pushState method. Make sure that the server-side support is used to relay the original URL or else you may risk content duplication, an issue that can damage your SEO efforts.

3.     Incomplete Meta Data

Sometimes, SEO professionals or webmasters lose track of SEO basics and fail to use metadata in the JavaScript for the bot. As we discussed in the last post, you have to use the same SEO practices for JavaScript that you used for HTML. Therefore, fill all the title, descriptions, and alt tags.

4.     Img src

Search engine bots need hyperlinks that can redirect it to other websites. Hence, use href and src attributes in your JavaScript code as well.

5.     Generate Unified Versions

The preDom and postDOM versions are initiated when JavaScript is rendered. Keep a watchful eye so contradictions can’t emerge such as between the paginations and canonical tags. Such a practice can also help you to prevent cloaking.

6.     Robots File

Since it is necessary for the Googlebot to crawl your JavaScript code, ensure that the directions are included in the robots.txt file.

7.     Work with a Current Sitemap

To inform Google that you may modify or change anything in your JavaScript code, go into your XML sitemap and ensure that the attribute named “lastmod” is updated to current.

JavaScript cannot only significantly enrich the user experience of your website, but when used shrewdly, it can also drive more traffic to your website. Call us today if you need any help with the JavaScript of your website.