We are going to run through a series of tests looking to determine what Google can and can’t handle when it comes to code generated content. In this test, we will look at basic JavaScript and if Google is able to render, parse, and credit JavaScript.
Test Downloads
Transcription Below
Everybody that has done SEO for a minute knows that JavaScript is a problem. It has been a long-term problem with Google that things what are in JavaScript often aren’t processed and read properly by Google. Google has claimed that they have come a long way and can do a lot of that. This is the first test in a series where we are going to see what Google can and can’t render, parse, and credit. One thing that I want to mention is I barely know what those terms mean if I misuse a term, I apologize. Don’t worry about correcting me, I don’t care. What I do care about is if Google can read content that is in regular, kind of basic, JavaScript. If you are not sure what JavaScript is in the first place, I put a link in here which is a good read. It is from Mozilla and it is their developer web docs and it really helped me figure out what I could and could not test, even. I highly recommend reading that if you are not that techy and unsure of what JavaScript may or may not do.
In running the test, the script generates the part at the bottom of the page. The top section is all html and the bottom section is generated by JavaScript. There is a keyword placed within the JavaScript. It is not anywhere in the static area or the regular html, it only exists when rendered by JavaScript. The idea is if Google can read this, then the test page will index for that particular fake keyword. I ran this test a couple of times and the page indexes. Google is actually able to pull it out of the JavaScript and put it into the description. You can see that it is bolded here in the description area in the SERPs so Google is not only able to render it, index it, even pull content from it and put it in the description area.
The other thing that I wanted to look at is if it will show up in Search Console and it does. When you go to fetch and render in the Search Console, you can actually see it and you get two versions – one is how Googlebot saw the page and the other is how visitors see the page – you can see that in both instances, fetch and render is able to see this. This is good news. This is a very basic JavaScript, it is very standard, but Google is able to handle it. Not just handle it, but handle it very well. It is rendering it in Search Console. I was pleasantly surprised that it was pulling it in the SERPs and into the description area. It is able to process the JavaScript, render it, see it, and grab content out of it in order to throw it on. This is very good news if you are using any kind of JavaScript that might actually be impactful on your pages, on the ranking factors that you are optimizing, you can then probably optimize them within JavaScript. That is what we are going to do in this very simple JavaScript next – we are going to see if it is counted the same, if you will. If we can have Htags in here or other signals within the JavaScript that would impact rank, that it is credited the same. Cause you would hear that from time to time – Google might be able to render it but it doesn’t count it – you can see that it is definitely counting it cause this page indexed but now we will see if there is a difference in the strength of putting signal areas within JavaScript.
What is interesting is that JavaScript is client-side meaning it is run on the site. We are going to look at Ajax which is run somewhere else, often in a server or on another site and information is pulled. We will see how Google handles that, as well.