Higher ranking solves most of the primary aspects of a website in digital platforms. Most importantly, it enhances traffic, visibility, and engagement, ultimately bringing decent ROI. But for that top spot in browsers, you must make your website SEO-friendly.
Of many, if you are worried about the best JavaScript libraries that can improve your website’s SEO friendliness, React JS is the most dependable option. But why React JS and not any other framework? Let’s find out!
Here we are, with an inside-out explanation of what makes React JS the first choice.
But, before completely jumping into the core discussion, let’s first understand what SPA (single-page apps) is and why React JS is the best choice to build SPA:
SPA Explained
A single-page application or SPA is a web application loaded through a single HTML page. SPAs have been adopted rapidly and have become a significant part of enterprises’ website development due to their quick responsiveness and user-friendliness.
To make Single page web applications or websites SEO-friendly, developers use JavaScript APIs such as XML HTTP Request to update the body content of that single document. But, one thing that brings calmness to making SPAs SEO friendly is that many front-end JavaScript frameworks, such as Angular, ReactJS, and Vue, are available to enhance the development process.
Benefits of Using React JS:
React has many things to offer and is counted as one of the most reliable frameworks for structuring dynamic web applications. In contrast to this blog/article, here we enlisted some key components on why React is more suitable for this prospect.
Coding Stability – The forefront reason behind picking React is its code stability offering. Using React, when you make changes in your code, the changes will only be done in that specific component, and the parent structure will remain unchanged.
Various Toolsets – Don’t worry about simplifying your code while working with React. There are many advanced toolkits available for you to use. With those unified toolkits, the development process becomes more manageable and helps developers save a whole lot of time. You can use the React developer toolkit in Chrome and Firefox, which is available as a browser extension.
Declarative – The DOM in React JS is declarative. You can create interactive UIs and change the component’s state. React JS updates the DOM automatically, which reduces your interaction chance with DOM. However, creating interactive UI and debugging them becomes simple. You must focus on changing the program state and see whether the UI looks good or not. You can make the essential changes without worrying about the DOM.
Quick Development Process – React JS allows developers to use every aspect of their application on both the server and client sides. It helps developers spend less time coding and enhancing website performance. Different developers can work on individual aspects of the app, and the changes won’t disturb the application’s logic.
Core challenges in making React JS website SEO friendly:
Performing high-end React SEO is challenging. But once you understand its core concept and apply the best practice, you can enrich the top spot in Google ranking. Before exploring the SEO best practices, let’s get into some of the challenging prospects of React SEO best practices:
Additional Loading Time – Parsing and JavaScript loading take longer than usual. It is because JavaScript must make necessary network calls to execute the content. In this aspect, the user must wait until he gets help with the requested information. The longer users wait for the vital information on the page, the lower it will get ranked on Google.
Sitemap – Sitemap is a file – you can call it the epicenter of a website where you put all the information about every page of your website. More than that, here you put the information of all those page connections. That information in sitemaps helps Google crawl your website more quickly and accurately. React does not come with a built-in system that creates sitemaps. In any case, if you are using React Router to handle routering, you must find some tools to generate sitemaps. Although it’s a time-consuming process, it needs to be done anyway.
Lack of Dynamic Metadata – Single Page Applications or SPAs are dynamic websites that offer a seamless user experience to users, as it contains all required information under one page. However, SPAs are not compatible with SEO as metadata is not updated on the spot when crawlers click on the SPA link. Thus, when crawling the website, Google bots the empty page because Google bots cannot index that particular file.
The developers can fix this ranking issue by creating separate pages for Google bots. But it comes with another issue. Creating separate pages leads to high-end development costs, and the ranking process gets affected by it.
How can you make your React website SEO friendly?
Well, there are multiple ways and various methods present which have assured successful SEO ranking of React websites in the past. But as Google keeps coming up with the latest and updated SEO updates each fortnight, it is difficult to get stuck with one particular option or method. So for a stable course of high SEO ranking of your React website, here we enlist the best above all options out of many:
Isomorphic React Apps – Isomorphic React applications are like unisex apps that work smoothly on both the client and server sides. Using isomorphic JavaScript, you can comprehensively work with React applications and attach the render HTML file rendered by the browser. The attached HTML file is being executed for everyone who searches for the specific apps, along with Google bots. The application uses this HTML file in the client-side scripting and continues its operation on the browser. The data can be added using JavaScript if required without changing the active status of the isomorphic app.
When JavaScript stays deactivated, the code is rendered on the server. Later, the browser adds all the meta tags and text in CSS and HTML files. However, building real-time isomorphic applications is a daunting task. But, with Gatsby and Next.js, you can enhance the development process and make the process simpler and quicker.
Server-side rending with Next.js – If a single-page application is your ultimate with a good ranking position, server-side rendering is the best way to reach that goal. As you know, Google bots index and rank server-rendered pages easily. For easy and quick server-side rendering, you can implement Next.js – a react framework generally designed for server-side. It converts JavaScript files to HTML and CSS files, enabling Google bots to fetch the data. Later, it put it on view on the search engines to complete the request from the client side.
Server-side Rendering PROS:
-> It quickens the availability of your website’s pages to users on the internet.
-> Along with Search engines, it optimizes web pages and social media.
-> It enhances your application’s UI.
Server-side rendering CONS:
-> It slowdowns page transition
-> It is costlier than pre-rendering
-> It comes with higher latency
-> It has complex catching
Pre-rendering – Another vital option you can opt-in to increase your page’s visibility with a higher ranking on browsers. It’s the process that fetches the HTML pages from the server side. The pre-renderers ascertain in advance if the search bots or crawlers detect your web pages, providing a cached static HTML version of your site. Once done, the standard page gets loaded upon receiving the user’s request. With Pre-rendering, you can transform any JavaScript code into basic HTML. But remember, if the data changes frequently, it might not work correctly.
Pre-rendering PROS:
-> Easier to implement.
-> Ensure smooth running of JavaScript file by transforming it to static HTML.
-> It requires minimal changes in the codebase
-> Shows excellent compatibility with trending web novelties
Pre-rendering CONS:
-> Don’t come with a FREE or trial basic plan. You have to pay for its services
-> Not an ideal option for the pages that get frequent data update
-> If your website is extensive and consists of multiple pages, then its loading time gets extended by a decent margin
-> You must develop a pre-rendered page every time you update the content of your page
Both these two options are beneficial for you. At last, you need to choose which is best suited to your budget and requirements.
Best practice to make your React website SEO-friendly:
So, finally, we have come to the soul of this blog/article on what should be an ideal procedure that makes any React website SEO friendly. So, here we go:
Build Static or Dynamic Web Applications – Google finds it difficult to fetch SPAs for SEO. This is where static or dynamic web apps come to the rescue, using server-side rendering. The server-side rendering helps Google pods crawl your website smoothly.
F.e, if every page of your website contains valuable information for the user, then you must opt for a dynamic website. And if your primary focus is to promote only your landing pages, then you should prioritize a static website.
URL Case – Google bots act and treat URLs differently, depending on their lowercase or uppercase (/Invision and /Invision). Consider generating your URL in lowercase to avoid these common blunders and make it reliable for Google bots.
404 Code – Regardless of the page engagement and visibility score, if it contains any error in the data, they will run a 404 code. So, set up files in server.js and route.js at the earliest. Updating the files with route.js or server.js can augment your web app or website traffic.
Avoid using hashed URLs – This doesn’t belong to the significant issue category, but the Google bot doesn’t see or catch anything after the hash in URLs. F.e., https:/domain.com/ is enough for the Google bot to crawl it.
Use <a href> if necessary – A standard error with SPAs is whether to use a <button> or a <div> to change the URL. This problem doesn’t occur in React but in how the library is used. However, the real issue consists of the search engines. Google bots process a URL and search for more URLs to crawl within <a href> elements. If no <a href> element is found, Google bots will not crawl the URLs and pass PageRank. In such cases, you can define links with <a href> for the Google bot to see the fetch of the other pages and go through them.
Conclusion:
Pulling out the best React SEO strategy and practice is hard for all prospects. You simply can’t make a React website SEO friendly from scratch without proper information and planning. However, experienced and energetic React JS Developers beside you can overcome all those obstacles holding your website from becoming a top-rank website in search engines. Our React JS developers will help you with result-oriented strategies and take care of your website’s technical aspects while ranking your website higher on search engines. You can hire React JS developers from us now according to your need and budget.
