At a recent Google Search Center SEO office hour meetup, a question was submitted to Google’s search advocate, John Mueller, asking whether it was harmful for sites to rely on JavaScript for basic functionality.
Will this negatively affect Googlebot in terms of crawling and indexing?
Mueller observed that this might be fine, but also suggested steps to ensure Google and users don’t have any issues with the site.
Without JavaScript, the website is not user friendly
The person asking the question pointed out that many of the site’s functionality relies on JavaScript and was concerned about the impact on user-friendliness and SEO-friendliness.
Here is the problem:
“Our website is not very user friendly if JavaScript is turned off.
Most images are not loaded. Unable to open popup menu.
But the Chrome Inspect feature, all the menu links are in the source code.
Could our reliance on JavaScript still be Googlebot’s problem? “
The “Chrome Inspect feature” the person said was probably Chrome’s built-in View Page Source code inspection tool.
So what they mean is that while the link is inaccessible when JavaScript is turned off in the browser, the link still exists in the HTML code.
Mueller recommends field testing
Mueller’s answer acknowledged that Google may have dealt with the site.
But what’s not said is that many of the website’s functionality relies on JavaScript, and the experience of the person asking the question is pretty normal.
Visiting most websites with JavaScript turned off on the browser, many images will not load, layouts may be broken, and some menus will not work.
Below is a screenshot of the SearchEngineJournal viewed with JavaScript disabled:
While Mueller alluded to this fact in his answer, it should probably be put at the forefront of the answer that most websites are not user friendly without JavaScript enabled on the browser, and the person asking the question The experience is not uncommon but is actually quite common.
Mueller conceded that everything could be all right.
He said:
“And, from my perspective…I’ll test it.
So probably everything will be fine.
Maybe, I’ll assume that if you use JavaScript in a sensible way, if you don’t do anything special to block JavaScript on your page, then it might work. “
Test to see how your site performs
Next, Mueller encouraged the person to test to make sure the site was running optimally, and mentioned that “we” had tools, but he didn’t mention specific tools.
Presumably he’s talking about the tools available on Google Search Console that provide feedback on whether Google is able to crawl pages and images.
Mueller continued his answer:
“But you’d better not just trust me and try it out with a test kit.
Our available testing tools are well documented.
If you run into problems, we suggest a lot of…changes in terms of improvement.
So I’d go through our guidelines on JavaScript and SEO and consider if you can…try them out, make sure they actually work the way you want, and then use them to improve your site overall. “
User-friendly website experience
Mueller went on to discuss user-friendliness, as the person who asked the question mentioned that the site was not user-friendly with JavaScript turned off.
The vast majority of websites on the Internet use JavaScript. W3Techs publishes statistics 97.9% of websites use JavaScript.
HTTPArchive, which uses actual Chrome user data from selected users Notes in its annual report on JavaScript usage The median number of JavaScript downloads on mobile devices is 20, with a whopping 33 first-party JavaScript and 34 third-party scripts in 90% of websites.
HttpArchive further states that, for the median average of sites, 36.2% of the JavaScript force-loaded onto site visitors’ browsers is not used, which is just a waste of bandwidth.
As you can see, the problem is not that users with JavaScript turned off visit the site, as the person asking the question is concerned. Their worries are superfluous.
The real problem centers on users encountering a website that forces too much JavaScript on site visitors, creating a poor user experience.
Mueller did not mention how the man’s concerns were misplaced. But he does recommend some useful ways to determine if a user is having a negative experience due to JavaScript issues.
Mueller continued his answer:
“You mentioned about the user-friendliness of JavaScript, so from our point of view, the guidance that we have is very technical in nature, because we need to make sure that Googlebot can see content from a technical point of view, and it can see from a technical point of view Angular view links on your page.
It mainly doesn’t care about user-friendliness.
However, of course your users care about user-friendliness.
This is where it makes sense to do more so your users can really ensure a good experience on your page.
This is usually not just a matter of a simple test harness.
Instead maybe you have to do small user research or interview some users, or at least do a survey on your site to understand where they are stuck and what kind of problems they are facing.
Is it because of these…you mentioned the fly out menu. Or where they see the problem might be completely different, maybe the text is too small, or they can’t click the button properly, those things that don’t really align with the technical issues but more, kind of, the user side of things, if you can Improve these, and if you can make your users happier, they’ll stick around, they’ll come back, and they’ll invite more people to your site. “
test user and google
Mueller does not explicitly cite any tool to perform any of the recommended tests. Clearly, Search Console is the best tool for diagnosing problems with Google’s crawling. For example, Search Console will alert publishers how many URLs have been discovered.
As for UX tools, one of the best tools is free Microsoft Clear User experience analysis tool. This GDPR-compliant analytics tool provides insight into how users experience your website and signals when users experience a poor experience.
Therefore, it is very useful for diagnosing possible site problems discussed by John Mueller.
Citation
Watch John Mueller at 10:23 minutes:
Featured image: Ellie Aon/Shutterstock
