Build a Fast and SEO-friendly website using React

As one of the leading JavaScript technologies, ReactJs is known for its ability to make front-end efficient. The popular library has a lot of tools and hidden gems to support the development of fast and SEO-friendly websites.

One thing developers faced in the past was the integration of good SEO features and functions in a website built on React. But with time, the ReactJs development team has made several improvements. Today any ReactJs development company prefers using this technology to build performant and SEO-friendly websites.

More than 16 million websites are powered by React, and this number is going to increase in the future. React is so good for SEO that organizations like Netflix and Airbnb are powered by ReactJs. However, there is some learning curve to using React properly for building a fast and SEO-friendly website. So, in this article, we will learn about combining React and SEO for a fast and SEO-friendly website development exercise.

Must Read: AngularJS vs. ReactJS: Which One to Choose in 2023?

What is ReactJs?

ReactJs is a library developers use to build user interfaces. On the official website, you will read three components of ReactJs, which are also its most prized features;

• Declarative

  Declarative means that React makes it painless to build interactive user interfaces for a digital front. In each state, we can use ReactJs to create simple views within the application. It can update and render the requisite components and make data changes accordingly. Moreover, any technology that is Declarative will make the code more predictable and easier to debug. Simply put, declarative means when the code shows the expected results.

• Component-Based

  With React, you can build components and get them to manage their own state. Moreover, these components can then be collaborated to create complex user interfaces. Using the component-based method makes things easier. Another benefit of this feature is that you can keep the state (or objects) out of the DOM. This happens because the component’s logic in ReactJs is written in JavaScript and not in templates.

• Learn Once Write Anywhere

  ReactJs works on the Learn Once and Write Anywhere system, wherein the developers can develop new features in React without rewriting the existing code.

Working with these features and many more hidden within the structure of ReactJs, the developers are able to create performant and SEO-friendly websites.

React can build high-speed websites; we all know that, and some of use might have been leveraging this capability to create wonders in the development world. A ReactJs development company is ever-ready to showcase their ability to build fast websites to their potential clients because they understand the nuances of this technology. However, building SEO-friendly websites with ReactJs has been a challenge until today.

In the next sections, we will go through how ReactJs can be used to build SEO-friendly websites. But first, an important thing to discuss.

How do Search Engines Crawl and Index Pages?

Search engines like Google crawl, index, and rank web pages. These pages are ranked on a number of factors. Let’s go through the process once.

• The Googlebot is responsible for building a crawl queue, in which it includes all the URLs that need to be crawled (checked) and indexed. Google’s crawlers run tirelessly across the web.
• At a point when the crawler is idle, it takes that time to generate and find a new list of URLs in the queue and makes a crawl request. Then it fetches the HTML of the same URL and parses it.
• Once parsing is done, the Googlebot will decide if it has to execute the JavaScript and render the content accordingly. In case the Googlebot has to execute the JavaScript, it will add the URL in the render queue.
• Furthermore, after the Googlebot executes JavaScript to render the page, it will send the rendered HTML content back to the processing unit. Here, the processing unit will extract all the URL tags mentioned on the page and add them to the queue list.
• Finally, the content is then added to Google’s Index. From here, the bot will determine which pages are suitable and can satisfy the user’s request. Based on the results, Google and other search engines will show the results to the users.

It is here that good SEO plays a crucial role. Google does not only consider SEO for rankings, but SEO is an important part of this entire exercise. Not having the right SEO structure, keywords, and other components means your URL can be left behind in the race.

Now that you know the crawling, indexing, and ranking system to some extent, let’s move on to the next part. We are not going into the nuances of the ranking process because it’s a lengthy process. However, we are a ReactJs web development company with experts of this field who can easily go into the details and help your React websites perform better.

However, the question still remains, why is SEO challenging in ReactJs.

Let’s Know the Challenges of SEO in ReactJs

• Problem with Crawling

  One of the first issues with React is that the crawlers will first scan the HTML content. With websites built on ReactJs, the content does not show until it is rendered since ReactJs uses an app shell model.

  Due to this, Googlebot and other crawlers won’t see anything in the first pass. Only when the content is rendered can Google and other search engines see something. Plus, when the website has several pages, it is going to delay the indexing process.

• Extended Load Time

  Another issue arises when fetching, parsing, and executing JavaScript is time-consuming. JavaScript also makes network calls to fetch the content. This means that the users trying to access the website might have to wait until the requested information is processed and shown.

  Google is pro-user and wants them to have the next browsing experience. Quick load times is also a ranking criterion at Google. Hence, when pages take longer time to load, it can affect the user experience, which also means low rankings for a website.

• Adapting Metadata is Hard

  For the same reason, as we discussed above in rendering content with ReactJs, it is difficult for a crawler to identify the meta tags. These tags are important from an SEO perspective and for the search engine to understand the page layout and information.

  A website relies on Heading tags to show the requested information. As React renders all the content added in these tags on the client, the app shell remains the same for every website and application.

• Sitemap

  Google and other search engine crawlers use the sitemap to understand the entire website’s structure, files, images, and other content on the URL. The crawlers get this information from a file. However, working with React means there isn’t a built-in way to create sitemap files. You can generate a sitemap with ReactJs, but it will need some extra work and time.

These are the major reservations search engines have with ReactJs’ structure and development system. Facing these issues, the developers are not able to execute the required functions effectively. Hence, SEO-friendly website development with React is relatively difficult.

Let’s Talk About the Solution | How to Build SEO-Friendly Website with React

There are a few things you can do to build SEO-friendly websites with ReactJs. As a client, you can take these solutions as a parameter to check whether the so-called top ReactJs development company you want to hire, understands the solution or not.

• Isomorphic React Applications

  An isomorphic React application has the potential to run on the client and server side. As a result, this type of React solution can fetch the rendered HTML on the same lines as it is rendered by the browser. This HTML file can be read and rendered by everyone, including Googlebots.

  Talking about the client side, this type of solution can use HTML as a base to operate on the browser. However, it is essential that the browser has to render the solution first. Because an isomorphic solution is dynamic, additional data can be added with JavaScript.

  Basically, what isomorphic does is that it renders the React application and sends the rendered version to the users and the search engines. Due to this, both of these entities can view the content instantly.

  This makes React fast and SEO-friendly at the same time. However, when using isomorphic ReactJs for web development, note that the isomorphic components are different from conventional React components.

• Work with Server-Side Rendering

  Another solution to solve the challenge is using server-side rendering. This works exceptionally well for a single-page application as it ensures higher visibility on the search engines. In addition to using ReactJs, you must use NextJs for server-side rendering to make the rendering process easier.

  In this method, a request is sent to the Next.Js server, and here it is matched to a React component. When the React component requests data from the database or the API, the same is sent to the server. In the next step, an HTML and CSS file is generated and sent to the Next.Js server, followed by forwarding it to the browser.

• Prerendering

  The third solution to make React websites and SPAs visible to the crawlers is using Pre-renders. You can use some specific pre-renderers to detect Googlebot requests. As they get the request of the bot that will crawl the website, the pre-renderer will provide the bot with a static HTML version of the website or application.

  This means that the crawler can now easily index the website. The HTML static pages are preloaded and ached in the Headless Chrome. Headless Chrome is a tool developers, and software engineers use to work with different server environments.

  Hence by opting for pre-rendering, the developers working in a ReactJs development company won’t have to make changes to the existing codebase. Also, these pre-renders can transform the JavaScript code into a static HTML file.

Using these elements, you can make a ReactJs website or application SEO-friendly. No doubt, it will need some learning and trying, but once you understand the work required, it will become easier.

Conclusion

ReactJs is an amazing and intelligent framework used for building static and dynamic web solutions. Creating websites with ReactJs is gaining prominence despite the SEO challenges a ReactJs development company faces while developing. In this article, we tried to give you another way to build websites with React and ensure that they satisfy the SEO requirements.

At Mobmaxime, we have the expertise to build React websites and applications that satisfy the SEO requirements expected by search engines. We have a rich portfolio of creating advanced solutions for our clients. Get in touch to know more about our expertise in creating ReactJs solutions.