Google Search Relations team member Martin Splitt explains how to identify if JavaScript causes a website’s indexing problems, including simple page audit tips every site owner can follow.
Maybe JavaScript isn’t the problem
Google’s Search Relations team recently discussed how overreliance on JavaScript could negatively affect SEO because it is not suitable for AI search crawlers, which could limit a site’s visibility.
Their discussion focused on not overusing the scripting language tool. However, they did not discuss how to determine if JavaScript is causing a site’s indexing issues.
Fortunately, SEJ writer Roger Montii noticed this and wrote about a presentation that Martin Splitt, a member of Google’s Search Relations team, gave to SearchNorwich (a free SEO and search marketing meetup platform) a month ago, in which Splitt says JavaScript rarely causes negative SEO issues but misusing it does.
Splitt begins by telling us he receives hundreds of messages annually, claiming JavaScript causes SEO problems. So far, only one has been a JavaScript problem, and that was actually a bug in Google’s web rendering service.
During his presentation, Split provides tips on debugging JavaScript crawling issues laypersons can use, and website owners with crawling problems originating from their site should watch.
Below are the main takeaways.
Debugging how Google renders your site’s page
Splitt immediately answers the most crucial question, “How do I know if it’s a JavaScript problem?”
Martin advises debugging rendering issues by first checking Google Search Console, which shows what Google saw when it crawled your web page.
Google explains rendering relative to JavaScript as:
- “JavaScript loads additional content when the page is open in a browser. This is called client-side rendering. Google Search sees this content along with the content in the HTML of a website.”
Splitt explains that by using Google Search Console, you can inspect your URL and use the rendered HTML to identify if certain parts of a page don’t render because, as he says:
- “Use that rendered HTML as your source of truth; that’s what Google Search sees when it comes to this URL, and whatever is there is there.”
Martin also advised:
- “If your content is there (Google Search Console) and it’s what you expect it to be, then it’s very likely not going to be JavaScript, which is causing the problem.”
He added:
- “If people were doing that, just that, which I think is very basic, 90% of the people showing up in my inbox would not show up; that’s what I would do.”
Splitt also recommends using Google Rich Results Test and Chrome Dev Tools to debug JavaScript issues.
You can see Martin’s tips for debugging JavaScript in his presentation below.
