Programmers and web developers are forever looking out for new techniques and tools that will allow them flexibility and enable them to improve the performance of their websites. Simultaneously, they are also conscious of the need for websites to be SEO-friendly to ensure that the businesses that use them are competitive. This means that they prefer the websites to be easy to streamline for search engine optimization so that they get good ranks on the SERPs and can generate adequate website traffic. JavaScript is already a very popular programming language for web development. According to statistics, some 1.6 billion websites exist globally, and JavaScript powers more than 95% of them. This also means that virtually all devices that are capable of accessing the Internet are also JavaScript compatible.
Since its introduction in 2006, jQuery, which is an open-source cross-browser JavaScript library, has grown to be extremely popular among web developers because of its ability to make it far easier to use JavaScript for website development. It also makes it very simple things that were hitherto quite complicated like DOM manipulation and AJAX calls. It is quite evident that considering the huge volume of deployment across the world, jQuery is today perhaps the most preferred web development software. However, as a programming environment, both JavaScript and jQuery have some severe shortcomings regarding search engine optimization that has made developers scramble for effective solutions to overcome the deficiency.
Important Reasons behind the Popularity of jQuery
Unlimited tutorials: Professionally designed learning tutorials are extremely important for knowing how to start programming in JavaScript and using the jQuery library. Now there is no more need to pore over thick books on programming techniques because developers can learn straight from the tutorials. Since there are plenty of plugins for all conceivable functionalities, even novices find it very easy to start designing smart web pages. Even debugging codes has become much easier with the use of debugging tools available in the plugins.
Elimination of cross-platform/browser issues: Unlike the earlier versions of JavaScript libraries, jQuery is fully compatible with all web browsers, which is a major relief for web developers because now they do not have to fret about the efficiency standards regardless of whether they are coding for Chrome, Firefox, or Opera.
The simplicity of development: While novice programmers appreciate stuff that can be learned quickly, even old hands love programming tools that are developed keeping the simplicity of use high on the agenda. jQuery scores are very high on this factor as it is developed not only to extend APIs but also to enable the delivery of great user experience. The functionality and ease of use are possibly the biggest reasons why it has emerged to a favorite with web developers the world over.
Fast and light: Developers are delighted with jQuery because the bandwidth occupied is just a paltry 24KB with the removal of certain main functions from the library and their conversion to jQuery plugins. Now the development platform is super light and easy to handle making the development process far less tiresome.
Quick coding: it is not uncommon for web developers to be able to commence coding within half an hour of starting off using JavaScript along with jQuery. The coding tools and documents are the most required are very well packaged to give easy access so that the learning curve is greatly shortened compared to the available alternatives like Prototype.
Techniques for Making jQuery Websites SEO-Friendly
Despite its many advantages, JavaScript and jQuery usage come with its own set of negatives that can seriously impact on the SEO performance of the website. In the modern competitive context, this can significantly erode the performance of the website especially about its online visibility, traffic generation capabilities, and profit potential, according to a leading New York SEO company. This makes it essential to execute strategies to ensure that the use of jQuery does not lead to sub-par SEO performance. According to the HuffPost it is important to execute a thorough SEO performance audit of the website before starting to tweak it for better page rankings.
Reduce HTML tagging to the maximum: There are two fundamental techniques of ensuring that web developers have only as many HTML tags as are necessary. The first method is by dynamically adding the code that is required to make the web page function properly after loading fully to result in smooth user experience. The second method is to remove all redundant auto-generated coding to the maximum extent.
Avoid creating blank links: Very commonly, the trigger or button used for a jQuery tag is just an anchor tag that does not point anywhere. This kind of blank links should be carefully avoided.
Offer a static non-JavaScript version of content pages: Since the very nature of JavaScript and jQuery forces the search engines crawlers to skip the content of the pages, the content is not indexed and hence not picked up for page rankings. By offering a non-JavaScript version of the page that is static, this problem can be worked around very effectively as the search engine bots have now no issues of indexing at all.
Do not create HTML to fit the website’s jQuery requirements: jQuery must be shut out of HTML pages completely; ideally, you should create a separate external JavaScript file to prevent confusion. Making it a practice to fit the jQuery into the HTML pages will ensure that the users have better access to the web pages.
Conclusion
There are quite a few areas where the impact of JavaScript or jQuery can make search engine optimization potentially useless. One of the most significant areas is the ability of the search engine bot to crawl the website content and index it for factoring into the search engine page rankings. When JavaScript or jQuery is used to develop the website, the ability of the search engine bot to obtain information regarding the context and relevance of the page contents is severely limited due to which, the website may not be picked up at all for ranking. The tips that are discussed here will assist the web developers to avoid making the common mistakes that negatively impact on the SEO performance and boost the SERPs.