Building Your Dream App with React & Server Side Rendering (SSR)

So you finally decided to hire out a dev team to build out your dream. The current popular choice for building a website or web-app frontend is React. But there is some things to know before diving in head first!

The SEO Challenges of Using React

React, a popular JavaScript library for building user interfaces, has revolutionized the way developers create web applications. However, beneath its sleek and efficient surface, React could potential pose a SEO challenge that can hinder a website's visibility in search engine results.

Server-Side Rendering (SSR) and SEO

One of the primary reasons React can be problematic for SEO is its reliance on client-side rendering. By default, React applications render on the client-side, which means that search engines may have difficulty crawling and indexing the content. This is because not all search engines execute JavaScript, and therefore can't render the content of a React application.

To address this issue, developers can use Server-Side Rendering (SSR) to render the initial HTML of a React application on the server. However, implementing SSR with React can be complex and requires additional setup. Moreover, even with SSR, search engines may still struggle to crawl and index dynamic content generated by React.

Dynamic Content and SEO

React's dynamic nature can also make it challenging for search engines to understand the content of a page. When a user interacts with a React application, the content can change rapidly, making it difficult for search engines to determine the most relevant content to index.

For example, if a user clicks on a button to filter search results, the content of the page will change, but the search engine may not be able to detect this change. As a result, the search engine may index the original content, rather than the updated content, which can lead to inaccuracies in search results.

Meta Tags

Ideally your site's "meta" tags will be setup properly, regardless of what is or isn't rendered on the page. Your meta tags in the HTML "head" section is important to get right, as search engines and social media sites rely on the content from the meta tags. Whether those tags are providing a page description, title, or even images that social media posts pull up. Getting the right media associated with your site is important so users can find the content you are sharing.

Conclusion

Ultimately, the choice of framework or library depends on the specific needs of the project. However, by considering the SEO implications of each option, developers can make informed decisions that benefit both their users and their search engine rankings.