When Google Gets JavaScript and When It Doesn’t
When SEO feels like a game of Jenga!
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As a curious SEO, I was looking at some of the technical SEO issue on reddit and how are they handled. And of course JavaScript comes to mind. Did a simple JavaScript audit by turning off JS on the page and reloading it.
I first searched for “best running shoes” and went to the reddit results in SERPs, there has to be one right? Do you see the text highlighted below? when I clicked read more, it was a reply on the post… it was not the main post.
So this shows that Google can read the replies right? here’s where it gets interesting, I used the “Toggle JavaScript” toggle chrome extension to turn off Javascript on that reddit post URL:
and to my surprise, all the comments disappear from the page:
Somethings Worth Noting
I haven’t dug into this fully yet, but is this tied to the Reddit–Google content-licensing partnership, or is Google just giving preference to sites it considers highly authoritative or particularly helpful?
The reason I’m saying this is:
I’ve seen smaller and newer websites struggle with getting their pages indexed when they have a JavaScript situation like the one I described above.
I wrote about this back in 2022 actually and Martin Split left the comment below:
which basically means: JavaScript will not impact the speed of indexability but rather URLs with JS may take longer time to be discovered and crawled.
I also plugged the reddit URL into the rich results test tool and then clicked on “VIEW TESTED PAGE”, and ya Google can read the comments on the page with no issues whatsoever.
So what now, Sara?
A JavaScript audit is important, but it becomes more important if:
The site is smaller, newer, or carries less established authority.
If your URLs are taking way too much to get picked up by Google.
If you discover that part of your content is not indexed.
It’s less important if everything is working just fine and as it’s supposed to.
Am I saying we should not raise JavaScript issues to devs?
Nop! Definitely do, it’s always better to follow best practices and google general guidelines, but maybe this would be mid to low priority item given the impact/effort of addressing JavaScript issues.
Another example that explains the mindset shift I’m suggesting in this blog is how Google comments on using JavaScript to insert the Canonical tag. We all know this is a no no in SEO, however, it’s still possible to use it in Google’s own words:
So my recommendations is: YES FOLLOW JS BEST PRACTICES, but prioritize them accordingly and give your dev team a break from having to fix every single thing.
And That’s a Wrap (Almost 😄)
It’s easy to throw a list of technical recommendations at your developers 😄😄😄 but let’s resist the urge 😄
To be a good technical SEO, you don’t just need to learn the guidelines, you also need to:
know when things matter and when they don’t, and HOW MUCH DO THEY MATTER.
give developers options. Especially at the enterprise level, technical infrastructures are complex, and presenting a single “this is the only way” solution is rarely realistic or helpful. Good technical SEO work accounts for constraints and offers viable alternatives, not ultimatums.
That’s that for today folks and see you next newsletter!
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Disclaimer: LLMs were used to assist in wording and phrasing this blog.