Google’s John Mueller responds to a question about JavaScript’s impact on Googlebot, recommending testing to figure out what’s really going on.
Is Googlebot bothered by a site’s reliance on JavaScript?
A question was asked of Google’s Search Advocate John Mueller during a recent Google Search Central SEO office-hours hangout, asking if it’s bad for a website to be dependent on JavaScript for fundamental functionality.
Is it possible that this will have a detrimental impact on Googlebot’s crawling and indexing?
Mueller said it’s probably fine, but he also suggested certain steps to take to ensure that neither Google nor users have any issues with the site.
Without JavaScript, the site is not user-friendly.
The person who asked the question mentioned that JavaScript was used for a lot of the site’s functionality and was concerned about the impact on both user and SEO friendliness.
This is the issue:
“With JavaScript disabled, our website is less user-friendly.
The majority of the photos are not displayed. The flyout menu will not open.
The Chrome Inspect feature, on the other hand, shows all menu links in the source code.
Is it still a concern for Googlebot that we use JavaScript?”
The “Chrome Inspect feature” that the individual is referring to is most likely Chrome’s View Page Source code examination tool.
So they’re saying that even if JavaScript is disabled in a browser, the links are still present in the HTML code.
Mueller advises conducting site inspections.
Mueller conceded in his response that Google could most likely handle the site.
But what was left unsaid is that JavaScript is required for the functionality of many websites, and that the person who asked the question had a very typical experience.
Many graphics will not load, the layout may become broken, and some menus will not operate if JavaScript is disabled in your browser.
A snapshot of SearchEngineJournal with JavaScript disabled is shown below:
A screenshot of SEJ in a browser with JavaScript disabled.
While Mueller alluded to this in his response, it should probably be emphasized that most websites are inaccessible without JavaScript enabled on the browser, and that the experience of the person who asked the question is not unusual but quite common.
Mueller admitted that everything will most likely work out.
He said:
“And, from my perspective…I’d put it to the test.”
So, most likely, everything will be fine.
And, I’m guessing, if you’re using JavaScript in a fair manner, and you’re not doing anything special to prevent JavaScript from running on your pages, it’ll just work.”
Test Your Site’s Performance
Mueller then advised the person to do tests to ensure that the site is working properly, saying that “we” have tools but not specifying which ones.
He’s probably referring to the Google Search Console features that can tell you if Google can crawl your pages and photos.
Mueller continued with his response:
“However, instead of blindly believing me, you should use a testing tool to put it to the test.”
Furthermore, the testing tools that we have are extensively described.
There are numerous…variations on things that we offer for enhancing things if you run across issues.
So I’d double-check our JavaScript and SEO tutorials and consider…trying things out, making sure they perform the way you want, and then using that information to improve your website overall.”
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Sites that are easy to use
Mueller then moved on to the topic of user-friendliness, as the person who asked the question remarked that the site is unusable without JavaScript enabled.
The vast majority of websites on the Internet use JavaScript, according to W3Techs, which claims that 97.9% of websites do.
In its annual study on JavaScript use, HTTPArchive, which uses actual Chrome user data from opted-in users, reports that the median number of JavaScript downloads for mobile devices is 20, with as many as 33 first-party JavaScript and 34 third-party scripts for the 90th percentile of websites.
According to Archive, 36.2 percent of JavaScript loaded into a visitor’s browser goes unused, resulting in wasted bandwidth.
As you can see, the problem isn’t users who visit a site with JavaScript disabled, as the individual who asked the question was concerned about. Their worry was unfounded.
The real issue is that users are facing a site that is putting too much JavaScript on them, resulting in a bad user experience.
Mueller didn’t go into detail about how the individual’s worries were misguided. He did, however, suggest several useful methods for determining whether consumers are experiencing a bad experience owing to JavaScript issues.
Mueller continued with his response:
“And you stated user-friendly in relation to JavaScript, so the guideline we have is essentially quite technical in the sense that we need to ensure that Googlebot can see the content from a technical standpoint, as well as the links on your pages from a technical standpoint.”
It isn’t really concerned with user-friendliness.
However, user-friendliness is important to your users.
And this is something where doing a little bit more could make sense so that your users have a positive experience on your pages.
And this isn’t always something that can be solved with a simple testing instrument.
But rather something where you might need to conduct a little user study, interview some users, or at the very least conduct a survey on your website to figure out where they get stopped and what problems they’re having.
Is it as a result of these…
The fly-out menus were noted. Or is it something completely different where they’re having issues, such as the text being too small or not being able to click the buttons properly, or other user-side issues that, if you can improve and make your users happier, they’ll stick around, come back, and invite more people to visit your website.”
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