As many of us in the online space already knows, JavaScript is a thing. For those who don’t know, JavaScript is a programming language that you can use to add functionality and interactivity to your website. You may have seen a number of websites that utilizes it to create full, yet simple, games that can be played online, or sites that provide fun hidden ways to interact with the content on the page.
Of course, not all sites that use JavaScript are using it for fun and games. Here are some examples why you would want to use JavaScript on your business website:
- JavaScript can be used to to add image sliders, drop-down menus, and pop-ups, making your site more engaging.
- It can be used to add features to your website, like form validation, interactive maps, and real-time search results.
- Because JavaScript is a client side programming language, it can be used to offload some of the processing work from the server to the browser on the user’s side.
- It can be used to interact with web APIs, which will let you add even more external functionality to you site. Some examples of this includes social media sharing buttons, weather widgets, or news feeds.
- JavaScript can even be used to create web applications like chat applications, and other productivity tools. Because it’s running on the browser, it’s faster and more responsive compared to other web applications that have to be loaded from the site’s server.
According to Google’s John Mueller, recommended that you keep the <head> HTML element section “clean” so that search crawlers are able to understand your site. This advice was shared on a Reddit thread when somebody asked if HTML code placement could cause problems in terms of SEO.
So, the short answer is, the placement of HTML is important to SEO, especially f it doesn’t appear at the top of the page.
Once the <head> section of your HTML is clear of JavaScript, Mueller said that you should use the rendering tool to se if the page is rendering correctly. This is to make sure everything is running smoothly. The tool can be found in Search Console.
“The html headers (<head>) should be pretty much on top. I’d move any JS to below the HTML headers, and check with the rendering tool in search console that the JS doesn’t mess up the <head> section.”
According to Search Engine Journal, JavaScript can cause poor user experience by delaying the rendering of webpage during load times. This is why moving the JavaScript further down the HTML code is important. You want to let the browser deal with the HTML code first. The page will load first (which will be good for the user), and then the JavaScript after that will be loaded, completing the process.
Source: Reddit and Search Engine Journal