SEO is more
important for web apps as compared to a website. This is because web apps
usually contain a lesser number of public pages and each of those pages need to
be exposed to the fullest. Besides, web apps are likely to possess complex UIs
on account of which search engine crawlers may trip and may exclude the app’s
content from their indexes. And, SEO is hassle-prone, if a front-end technology
like React is being used for web development. Thankfully, such challenges can
be resolved with the use of productive strategies, judicious tweaks, and
effective tools for SEO.
This post
discusses one of the most sought-after queries of entrepreneurs – SEO
strategies for a React app. React is one of the most popular picks for web app
development and is known to fare poorly in terms of SEO. Therefore, this
write-up guides you through the common SEO challenges encountered by a React
app, the best practices for addressing those roadblocks, and the crucial tools
that expedite a React app SEO.
Importance of SEO
How does a search engine function?
When a user types
search keywords on the search box of a browser, the search engine decides the
order in which the web pages are to be displayed. The search engine employs
algorithms for examining the data stored for each webpage. Based on this data,
the algorithms decide which of the web pages’ content is most relevant to the
keywords typed by the user. The pages that are considered to be the most
user-friendly by the ranking algorithms are displayed amongst the top ten. Here are the key steps!
·
Crawling: Crawlers such as Google bots look for new
and updated web pages. This process is conducted by either following links from
known sites or by crawling web host-managed web pages and sites.
·
Indexing: The new pages identified are examined by
Google for understanding their contents displayed through texts, images, or
videos. The content displayed via text – meaningful titles, meta descriptions,
etc. - is understood best by Google.
·
Ranking: Then, Google provides the list of pages
ranked as per the quality of content and the level of relevance to user searches
– most to least relevant.
Role of SEO
It’s highly
desirable for a web page to appear in the top ten of the search results to get
viewed by users looking for similar content. The role of SEO is to convince the
search engine algorithms that a specific webpage is the closest match for the
content a user is looking for. Hence, web developers need to make the
website/web app SEO-friendly by incorporating certain code modifications,
tweaks, and add-ons. You must also pay attention to SEO prerequisites like powerful
keywords, title description, heading tags on pages, alt tags on images,
canonical tags, and OpenGraph information.
SEO Challenges encountered by React
Applications
SPA Usage
The usage of
React-based SPA (Single Page Apps) is preferred for web apps and websites as it
reduces the loading time considerably. SPAs refresh the content when updating
add-ons/changes; instead of the traditional practice of reloading the entire
page. This approach improves the page’s performance and responsiveness, but
poses SEO challenges as given below:
SPAs are likely
to encounter indexing woes. A single-page app can provide the content only
after the page has been entirely loaded and, if the loading is incomplete while
a bot is crawling the page, an empty page will be viewed by the bot. As a
result, a major portion of the webpage will not be indexed leading to a lower
search ranking.
JavaScript usage:
An SPA uses JavaScript for loading content dynamically into the various web
page modules. There’s a high possibility that bots might miss running
JavaScript pages.
Limited Crawling Budget
Crawling budget
refers to the maximum amount of pages on a particular website that can be
processed by search engine crawlers within a given time. The time devoted to
each script is usually five seconds. But, the loading, parsing, and execution
of the script of most JavaScript webpages take more than five seconds for loading.
As a result, the Google bot runs out of its crawling budget for your site and
has to leave it before the indexing is complete.
The Inability of creating built-in
Sitemaps
Google bots need
to assess sitemaps – files containing crucial information about a web page,
video, etc. – for comprehending a web page for being able to crawl it
correctly. But, React is incapable of creating sitemaps within the given
framework.
Meta Tags
For obtaining
higher search engine ranks, a webpage must have unique titles, and descriptions
for every page; if not all pages will end up with the same Google listing. With
React is unable to change the tags.
Less likely to crawl JavaScript pages
Earlier, Google
used to crawl only HTML pages, but now Google claims to run JavaScript pages as
well. But some bottlenecks persist and Google may or may not load JS pages. The
likelihood of JS pages being crawled depends on several factors like the usage
of obscure engines, the manner in which JavaScript is polyfilled or transpiled,
and so on.
Strategies and Tools to Boost SEO for React
Apps
React App SEO Strategies
Isomorphic React Apps
Developing an isomorphic JS technology-based
website/web app in React is a viable solution to boost SEO. This technology
auto-detects whether the client-side has disabled the JS page or not and if
Javascript is turned off, Isomorphic JS renders the code on the server-side and
then sends the webpage content to the client. This way, all the essential
content and other prerequisites including metadata and HTML/CSS tags, are
available to the crawling bots at the time of page loading.
When JS is enabled, the first page gets
rendered on the server. This allows the browser to receive HTML, CSS, and
JavaScript files. Thereafter, JS starts to run and the remaining content gets
loaded dynamically.
Prerendering
Prerendering is
one of the most prominent approaches that is implemented for improving the
SEO-friendliness of single-page apps as well as multi-page web apps. This
approach is leveraged whenever search engine bots or crawlers are unable to
effectively render pages. Prerenders are distinct programs that restrict the
number of requests made to the website. When a crawler sends a request, the
prerenderer sends the webpage/website a cached static version of HTML. And, if
those set of web pages sends the request, the page is loaded normally.
These programs
are effortless to implement, support the most recent web novelties, and
effectively execute various types of latest JS, transferring them into static
HTML. However, such services come with a price, take too long to load in case
of large files, and are less effective for pages that modify data at frequent
intervals.
Server-side rendering
Client-side
rendering is not an SEO-friendly option because bots either cannot detect any
content or receive minimal content leading to improper indexing. But, if you
employ server-side rendering, the browsers/bots receive the HTML files
containing the entire content and hence the page is indexed properly; leading
to higher search engine ranks.
For designing an
SPA that is going to render on the server-side, React developers need to add an extra layer of Next.js while
crafting the web app.
URL case and ‘Href’ Usage
When the URL of a
web page contains the upper as well as the lower case, Google considers them as
separate pages, leading to duplication of pages. So, it is advisable to create
all URLs using the lower case only.
Google bots are
unable to read “onclick” links, and so it is recommended to define web page
links using a “href”. This makes it easier for bots to locate your page and
visit it.
React App SEO Tools
React Helmet
This is a library that enables developers to
set the HTML metadata in the header of a component. With this tool, one can
easily update the meta tags on the client-side as well as the server-side.
React
Helmet supports every
valid head tag including meta, title, script, NoScript, style, link, and base;
server-side rendering; and every attribute for title tags, body, and HTML.
Moreover, it enables callback from tracking the DOM alterations. The nested
components override the duplicate modifications in the head and these duplicate
head modifications are preserved when they are specified under the same
component.
This tool not only makes your web app SEO and
social media-friendly, but also facilitates modifying the title, metadata, and
language of the page. Combine server-side rendering with React Helmet for best
results.
React Snap
This tool is
responsible for pre-rendering a web app into static HTML and employs Headless Chrome for crawling all links that are available
right from the root. Moreover, React
Snap involves a
zero-configuration approach – you need not worry about its functioning or
configuration techniques. Furthermore, it employs a real browser behind the
scenes to avoid any issues regarding unsupported HTML features such as Blobs,
WebGL, etc., and is not dependent on React.
React Router v4
This is a
component for creating routes between the various pages/components and makes it
possible to develop a website having an SEO-friendly structure.
Concluding Words:
I hope my post has
enlightened you on the necessary attributes of SEO and provided ample
information on the best practices and tools that are used by veterans to
accelerate SEO ranking.
For further
assistance in developing an SEO-friendly React app, contact Biz4Solutions, a highly experienced mobile/web app
development company providing top-notch React/React Native app development services to clients around the globe.
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