Single-page applications (SPAs) are notoriously known for not being SEO-friendly. SPA content often experiences poor SEO performance, affecting content visibility on SERPs.
In this blog post, we dive deep into SEO for single-page applications: what they are, why they cause JavaScript SEO issues, and how to optimize SPA for improved SEO and rankings.
Why SPAs Affect SEO Performance
Before we learn why SPA can jeopardize your SEO efforts, let’s cover the basics: what is a single-page application (SPA)?
SPA is a JavaScript-based web application that dynamically updates an existing page, as opposed to fetching complete new pages from the server.
Unlike traditional applications (common websites) that store separate pages as distinct HTML files, SPAs utilize one single-page template to render dynamic web pages through AJAX calls. Hence, the name, single-page application.
Since SPA uses a single-page template to house all your content, it eliminates the need for additional page loads after the initial loading process. Consequently, this contributes to a more seamless and responsive user experience (UX) and faster page loading time. However, this reliance on JavaScript comes at a cost. SPAs inherit the crawling and indexing challenges of JS, causing some SEO problems.
Pro tip: Learn how Google and other search engines index JavaScript pages in this blog.
Why SPAs Cause JavaScript SEO Problems
For a search engine to crawl a page, it must first discover the page, render and crawl the content to understand it, and then index it.
The problem with SPA indexing is that SPAs only display page content and elements through a dynamic API call. This means crawlers only see an empty container when they visit SPAs. And without any content to crawl, there’s nothing to index, and your page won’t show up on Google SERPs.
Here is what an SPA page looks like from the user side:
Here’s what Googlebot would see when accessing the page:
While SPAs have significant benefits, they won’t bring you traffic if you don’t know how to optimize SPA. Luckily, we’re here to show you exactly how to make the SPA pages 100% crawled and indexed.
3 Solutions to Improve SEO Performance of Single-Page Applications (SPAs)
1. Server-Side Rendering (SSR)
Server-side rendering (SSR) refers to a rendering technique where all the rendering process happens on the server before sending it to the client (browser). How does this affect SPA websites in terms of crawling and indexing?
With SSR, SPAs will render the JavaScript files on the server. When search engine crawlers request a page, the content is passed to the browser and reads as a fully rendered static HTML page. This results in a much faster loading time, as well as faster crawling and indexing time. And since the browser gets the content quicker, your rankings will also be boosted.
However, while SSR is a great way to optimize single-page application websites, there’s a significant reason why it’s not widely used: it’s expensive and difficult to implement. For SSR to work, you must invest around $120k upfront in servers, engineering hours, and expertise. Then there’s still the problem of scalability and maintenance. SSR may be a good way to optimize SPA, but it’s not a fix-all solution.
2. Implement SEO-friendly URLs
Another technique on how to optimize SPAs is implementing SEO-friendly URLs. This method provides search engine crawlers with clear paths by offering a structured and easily navigable hierarchy. Because of this, the crawling process is streamlined, ensuring that search engines can efficiently explore all elements of your single-page application website.
To create SEO-friendly URLs, it is fundamental to set up your URL router properly. If your router operates in hash mode, it appends #hash fragments to your home page URL. This will cause crawlers to ignore different app views of your SPA because the crawlers see hashed URLs as different parts of the same page.
To achieve clean and SEO-friendly URLs while mitigating the risk of 404 errors, it’s essential to establish a fallback route on your server. This route redirects requests to your index.html page, where your app resides. Although this involves additional steps, popular JavaScript frameworks and libraries offer options for implementing this redirect.
A common mistake some SPAs make is using a single URL for everything on the app. This is a bad practice. When there’s just a single URL for everything, crawlers only see the home page and will not understand what the whole site is about. Therefore, you must treat views as URLs and change the URL anytime the app view changes.
3. Dynamic Rendering with Prerender.io
Dynamic rendering provides a static HTML version of your pages for search engine bots and dynamic JavaScript content for human users. One of the top solutions available on the market is Prerender.io—a much more cost-effective alternative to options like in-house server-side rendering.
Since Prerender renders your website pages in advance, it’s able to deliver your pages within 0.03 seconds on average, dramatically improving your server response time. Clients also see other SEO benefits from Prerender, including improved crawl budget management, better PageSpeed scores, and more organic traffic.
Check out the results from Haarshop—a brand with 35,000+ products—after installing Prerender:
Related: read on to see how Prerender works or watch the video below.
Solve Your Single Page Application SEO Problems With Prerender
By eliminating the requests between the server and browser, SPAs can greatly enhance PageSpeed and UX. As the internet continues to evolve, SPAs will likely become one of the most popular types of web applications.
We’ve gone over important tips for optimizing SPAs in this blog. While all three methods will yield significant SEO results, the most resource-efficient strategy is setting up a pre-built rendering system with Prerender. Trusted by 75,000+ brands worldwide and known for its easy installation, our platform can help your SPA see better SEO within weeks.
Think it might be right for you? Sign up today and get 1,000 free renders.
FAQs
Are There SEO Advantages to Using a SPA Over a Traditional Multi-Page Application?
When implemented correctly and well-optimized for search, SPAs can offer several SEO advantages:
- Faster perceived page loads after initial load, potentially improving user engagement metrics
- Easier implementation of dynamic content updates without full page reloads
- Improved UX, which can indirectly benefit SEO through better engagement metrics
- And the potential for better mobile performance
However, these only apply if the SPA is well-optimized for search engines. Without proper optimization, traditional multi-page apps can have a leg up regarding crawlability and indexability. The key is to leverage the benefits of SPAs while ensuring they’re fully accessible to search engine bots.
How Do Search Engines Handle JavaScript in SPAs?
While search engines have improved their ability to render JavaScript, they still face challenges with complex SPAs. Google, for instance, uses a two-wave indexing process: the first wave crawls the initial HTML, and the second wave renders JavaScript. However, this process can be resource-intensive and it might not always capture all of your dynamic content. Other search engines might have more limited JavaScript rendering capabilities, while some can’t render JavaScript at all. This is why optimization techniques like server-side rendering or pre-rendering are crucial for ensuring all content is crawlable and indexable for search engines.
Further Reading on SEO for SPAs
If you’d like to learn more about how to improve your SEO for your single-page application, take a look at these resources:
