What’s this about?

Woah Nelly! I am shocked by this…

You mean JavaScript is not the best thing for SEO since sliced bread?

I can’t believe I’m writing this: JavaScript is sometimes readable by Google, but the other search engines?

It’s like they haven’t even heard of JavaScript.

Read the full story from TWIS SEO News & Updates 01 Sept 2017.

#SEO #JavaScript #Googlebot #WebCrawling #Indexation

JavaScript Sites Lose 35% of Search Traffic & Revenue

Summary:

  • We recently reported on the fact that there are JavaScript Issues With Crawling and Indexing when specifically talking about Google.
  • The Polish SEO Goralewicz followed up on the original research by testing whether or not JavaScript can be crawled and indexed on other (relatively) major search engines.
  • In short, it can’t.
  • Google (65% market share) can read and execute the same JavaScript as Chrome 41, something like 20 versions ago now (see: Google Reveals How Googlebot Web Rendering Service Works).
  • Bing, Yahoo!, AOL, Duck Duck Go (35% market share) cannot index content created by JavaScript.
  • If your website is JS-driven, and only available in JS, you are missing out on 35% of available traffic. All other things being equal, ranking on those engines would add 35% to your site’s bottom line.
  • Enabling that would be a KPI-buster.

JavaScript Loses 35% of Search Traffic & Revenue

Actions to take:

  1. Deliver your content in HTML & CSS for maximum traffic and revenue potential.
  2. Or at the very least, still maintain a NOSCRIPT alternative.
  3. If your website is entirely client-side rendered in JavaScript, you need to fix that.
  4. Click here to contact me to chat about when JavaScript should or shouldn’t be used in websites.

Discussion:

I was getting used to JavaScript; getting comfortable with Google being able to read and index it, but still not completely convinced about it. I’ve never liked the idea of putting the emphasis on the client-side device to execute and render my content – you never know what their machines are / are not capable of.

Google likes JavaScript. It thinks it is the way forward, and with its own flavour of JS and its belief in Progressive Web Apps, it is somewhat invested in it. This may cloud its thinking.

If you are solely coding your website to be parsed, executed and rendered on the client-side, you are missing out on a whole chunk of available traffic and revenue. There’s not a lot more to say than that.

More info:

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Mobile First is NOT Mobile Friendly

Google Mobile First Not Mobile Friendly

I recently wrote about how Google’s Mobile First is Not Mobile Friendly. Read it now.

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TL;DR

  • Don’t believe anyone who says “Search engines can read JavaScript now”. They lie.
  • Don’t believe anyone who says “Google can read JavaScript now”. They know now of what they speak.
  • Do continue to code your website in HTML and CSS that doesn’t need a supercomputer to parse, execute and render.
  • Read The State of SEO in mid-2017.
  • Read about how Google’s Mobile First Index is not Mobile Friendly.
  • Finally, get your content ranking well on Google by starting to understand Find Crawl Index.

Thanks for reading. If you would like to discuss what these changes mean for your web property, or would like to know how to implement them, please feel free to contact me.

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