Are the browsers JavaScript friendly?

So, you want to implement JavaScript redirects, but you’re not sure how they work?

Yes, they are more difficult to implement than standard redirects.

Ideally, you should use 301s, 302s, or 307-based redirects for implementation. This is the usual best practice.

But… what if you don’t have that level of access? What if you have a problem with creating default redirects in a way that is beneficial to the site as a whole?

This is where the use of JavaScript redirects comes in.

However, they are not a best practice that you should use exclusively.

But there are some situations where you simply cannot avoid using a JavaScript redirect.

Below is a basic primer on JavaScript redirects, when to use them, how to use them, and best practices you should use when using these types of redirects for SEO.

What Are JavaScript Redirects?

JavaScript redirects, essentially, are one of several methods of informing users and web crawlers that a page is available elsewhere.

They are often used to inform users of URL structure changes, but they can be used for just about anything.

Most modern websites use these types of redirects to redirect to HTTPS versions of web pages.

Then, whenever someone visits the original URL, the browser loads the JavaScript file and executes whatever code is inside it. If the script includes instructions to open a different URL, it will do so automatically.

Making redirects this way is useful in several ways.

For example, you can switch URLs without manually updating every URL on your site. Additionally, JavaScript redirects can make it easier for search engines to find your own content.

A Quick Overview Of Redirect Types

There are several basic types of retargeting, all beneficial depending on your situation.

Server-side Redirects

Ideally, most redirects will be server-side redirects.

These types of redirects originate on the server, and this is where the server decides which location to redirect the user or search engine to when a page loads. And the server does this by returning a 3xx HTTP status code.

For SEO reasons, you’ll probably use server-side redirects most of the time. Client-side redirects do have some drawbacks and are generally suitable for more specific situations.

Client-side Redirects

Client-side redirects are those where the browser decides where to send the user. You shouldn’t have to use them unless you are in a situation where you have no other option to do so.

Meta Refresh Redirects

Meta-update redirection has a bad reputation and a bad reputation in the SEO community.

And for good reason: they are not supported by all browsers and can be confusing for the user. Instead, Google recommends using a server-side 301 redirect over any meta update redirect.

JavaScript Redirects

JavaScript redirects, however, use the JavaScript language to send instructions to the browser to redirect users to another URL. There is a prevailing belief that JavaScript redirects cause problems for SEO.

Although Google has good JavaScript rendering capabilities these days, JavaScript can still have issues. This also goes for other types of platforms such as Spotify and other eCommerce platforms.

If, however, you are in a situation where you can only use a JavaScript redirect as your only option, then you can just use JavaScript.

Additionally, Google’s Gary Illyes stated in 2020 that JavaScript redirects are “probably not a good idea”.

Js redirects are probably not a good idea.

— Gary 鯨理／경리 Illyes (@methode) July 8, 2020

Best Practices For SEO-Friendly JavaScript Redirects

Regardless of whether you’re using traditional redirects or JavaScript redirects, there are several best practices you should follow so you don’t get in the way of SEO.

These best practices include avoiding redirection chains and redirection loops.

Avoid Redirect Chains

A redirection chain is a long chain of redirection hops, referring to any situation where you have more than 1 redirection in a chain.

Redirect 1 > redirect 2 > redirect 3 > redirect 4 > redirect 5

Why are these bad? Google can only process up to three redirects, although it has been known to process more.

Google’s John Mueller recommends less than 5 hops per redirect.

“It doesn’t matter. The only thing I would look at is that you have less than 5 hops for frequently crawled URLs. With multiple hops, the main effect is that it’s a bit slower for users. Search engines just follow the chain of redirection (for Google: up to 5 chain hops per crawl attempt).”

Ideally, webmasters should aim for no more than one hop.

What happens when you add another jump? It slows down the user experience. And more than five introduce significant confusion when it comes to the Googlebot being able to understand your site.

Repairing redirection chains can be a lot of work, depending on their complexity and how you configure them.

But, the main principle that guides the repair of redirect chains is: just make sure you complete two steps.

First, remove the additional hops in the redirect so it’s under five hops.

Second, implement a redirect that redirects previous URLs

Avoid Redirect Loops

Redirect loops, by comparison, are essentially an infinite loop of redirects. These loops happen when you redirect a URL to itself. Or you accidentally redirect a URL within a redirection chain to a URL that occurs earlier in the chain.

Redirect loop example: Redirect 1 > redirect 2 > redirect 3 > redirect 2

This is why monitoring site and URL redirects is so important: you don’t want a situation where you implement a redirect only to find out 3 months later that the redirect you created months ago was the cause of the problems because you created a Redirect Loop. redirect.

There are several reasons why these loops are disastrous:

As far as users are concerned, redirect loops remove all access to a specific resource located at a URL and end up causing the browser to display a “this page has too many redirects” error.

For search engines, redirect loops can be a significant waste of your crawl budget. They also create confusion for bots.

This creates what is called a tracker trap, and the tracker cannot easily exit the trap unless manually pointed elsewhere.

Fixing redirect loops is very easy: all you need to do is remove the loop-causing redirect from the chain and replace it with a working URL 200 OK.

Want To Use JavaScript Redirects For SEO? Not So Fast…

Be cautious when creating JavaScript redirects because they may not be the best solution for redirects depending on what you have access to.

They should not be your solution when you have access to other redirects because those other types of redirects are preferred.

But if they’re your only option, you might not be shooting yourself in the foot.

Featured Image: RoseRodionova/Shutterstock

What are the top 3 SEO strategies?

So, to save you time, I’m going to cover the five most impactful SEO strategies you should focus on when implementing SEO.

• Step 1: Keyword Research. 🇧🇷
• Step 2: Content Marketing. 🇧🇷
• Step 3: On-page SEO. 🇧🇷
• Step 4: Link Building. 🇧🇷
• Step 5: Outsourcing SEO.

Does JavaScript help SEO?

JavaScript SEO is a part of technical SEO (Search Engine Optimization) that seeks to make JavaScript-heavy websites easy to crawl and index, as well as easy to search. The goal is to get these sites found and ranked higher in search engines.

Is JavaScript good for SEO? Long story short, JavaScript can complicate search engines’ ability to read your page, leaving room for errors, which can be detrimental to SEO. When a search engine downloads a document from the web and starts parsing it, the first thing it does is understand the type of document.

Does Google run JavaScript in SEO? While Google Search runs JavaScript with an evergreen version of Chromium, there are a few things you can optimize. This guide describes how Google Search handles JavaScript and best practices for improving JavaScript web applications for Google Search.

Does Google use spiders or crawlers?

User Agent Token	Mediapartners-Google
User-agent full string	Mediapartners-Google

Does Google use spiders? A crawler is a program/algorithm designed by search engines to crawl and crawl websites and web pages as a way of indexing the Internet. When Google visits your site for crawling/indexing purposes, this process is handled by Google’s Spider Crawler.

Does Google use trackers? Most of our search index is created through the work of software known as crawlers. They automatically visit publicly accessible web pages and follow the links on those pages, just as you would if you were browsing content on the web.

Do search engines use spiders?

A web crawler, or spider, is a type of bot typically operated by search engines like Google and Bing. Its purpose is to index the content of websites across the Internet so that those websites can appear in search engine results.

Do spiders help with SEO? Well, for SEO purposes, spiders are essential, but don’t worry, they are nothing like the real thing. A search engine spider, or a web crawler, is simply a bot that search engines use to crawl websites and bring back information to allow Google, Bing, and other search engines to index them.

Is the search engine spider an agent? A search engine spider, also known as a web crawler, is an Internet bot that crawls websites and stores information for the search engine to index. Think of it this way. When you search for something on Google, these pages and pages of results cannot come out of thin air.

Can search engines spider images?

They do not. Although spiders are essentially the eyes of the search engine, they can only see and read text; they are unable to decipher images or gather any information from them.

Can search engines crawl images? Search engines don’t see web pages the way you do. They cannot process images and translate them into content. Search engines crawl your website by reading code created with HTML, ASP, PHP and other code languages. A page made up mostly of images appears blank to a search engine.

What is Google’s crawler called?

Googlebot is the generic name for Google’s web crawler. Googlebot is the general name for two different types of crawlers: a desktop crawler that simulates a user on the desktop and a mobile crawler that simulates a user on a mobile device.

What crawler does Google use? Google’s main crawler is called Googlebot.

What is HTML user agent?

The User-Agent request header is a characteristic string that allows servers and network peers to identify the requesting user-agent application, operating system, vendor, and/or version.

What is a user agent for Chrome? Like all other browsers, Chrome for Android sends this information in the HTTP User-Agent header every time it makes a request to any website. It is also available on the client via JavaScript using the browser. call userAgent.

What is a User Agent Sample? A user agent (abbreviated: UA) is software that communicates with servers on a network. An example would be a web browser that retrieves a web page from a server on the internet and displays it. The user agent acts as a mediator between the user and the web server, just like a human agent.

What is HTTP User Agent? The user agent is an HTTP header that web browsers and other web applications use to identify themselves and their resources. Your web security software captures and records user agent data when users browse the Internet.