The long-held belief is false. JavaScript doesn’t harm rankings if rendered correctly. Back in the early days, SEOs were right to be cautious. But Google has been rendering JavaScript since 2014, and they’ve gotten pretty good at it. In 2019, they announced that Googlebot uses the latest version of Chromium for rendering, meaning that if your browser can render it, Googlebot probably can do it too.
When your content only loads after the browser has finished loading and runs large JavaScript bundles, search engine crawling becomes slower and less reliable. Google’s crawling consumes more resources, which can delay indexing, result in incomplete indexing, or prevent indexing altogether.
That’s why the best websites don’t hide their content behind scripts. They use server-side or hybrid rendering, so the key content is already in the HTML, and JavaScript simply layers on the experience. Here’s what that looks like in practice.
- Critical Content in Initial HTML
Make sure critical content like headlines, main body text, and key links exist only in the initial HTML response. Google’s JavaScript crawling works well, but social media crawlers do not, so headers/meta tags must be rendered by Server-Side Rendering (SSR).
- Internal Linking Structure
Dynamic links may not pass link equity as traditional HTML links do. Use proper <a href> tags for important navigation, not JavaScript click handlers or spans pretending to be links.
- Rendering Budget Considerations
Google doesn’t render every page immediately. For massive sites, this can delay indexing content. Implement SSR (static site generation) for priority pages and client-side rendering for less critical features.
- The Modern JavaScript SEO Framework
Mix and match the rendering methods. Here’s a rule of thumb to follow:
- Server-side rendering (SSR) for critical landing pages and blog posts
- Client-side rendering for interactive features and personalized content
- Static generation for content that doesn’t change frequently
- Progressive Enhancement
Build your site to work without JavaScript, then enhance it later. Core content should be accessible in HTML.
- Structured Data and Metadata
Include structured data markup in your initial HTML, not just in JavaScript-rendered content.
Avoiding JavaScript for SEO in 2026 is like avoiding email because of spam. Modern websites require JavaScript to deliver competitive user experiences and sophisticated interfaces. Make critical content accessible, maintain clean internal linking, optimize for performance, and test your implementation regularly, and you’re good to go.
Read more: How to do MERN/MEAN stack SEO for web apps