How to Make Your React Website SEO-Friendly In 10 Steps

React is now one of the most popular web development frameworks. React is used by about 40.58% of developers for app development. However, when designing websites with this framework, it is critical to prioritize SEO. React is frequently seen as difficult for SEO. However, with some optimization, it is possible to answer like how to make your React website SEO-friendly.

SEO has become an essential component of any Internet-based online application. It not only controls the overall performance of a product or service in the market but it also directly or indirectly reduces the profitability and effectiveness of any business owner. As a result of the same factor, when it comes to Search Engine Optimisation, React for websites suffer huge challenges. One major reason is that most React JS engineers and development firms concentrate on client-side rendering, whereas Google concentrates on server-side rendering. This presents significant issues for SEO in React. In this post, we’ll look at methods for enhancing the SEO of React websites.

What Exactly Is React?

Before stepping into the complex part, first it is critical to understand what React apparently is.

So, It is an open-source JavaScript library for developing mobile and web applications. React is a popular JavaScript library for generating interactive and dynamic user interfaces. By taking proper tips to become a better React JS Developer you can learn how to create well-organized code, improve your debugging skills, and more. The library first appeared in May 2013 and is now one of the most commonly used front-end libraries for web development. It has been the go-to solution for building online and mobile applications after being developed and maintained by Facebook. However, when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO), delivering visitors to a React-based web app might be difficult.

Challenges In Implementing SEO For React Web Pages

There are several obstacles that come between React and SEO. Some of the top challenges are to creating React web pages are:

• JavaScript-heavy: The foremost challenge in React SEO is javascript heavy, this is because React web apps rely significantly on JavaScript, and search engines may struggle to render and index the information appropriately. This is due to the fact that search engines frequently have difficulty reading JavaScript.
• Client-side rendering: This is because React is a JavaScript library for client-side rendering, the majority of the code is executed in the client’s browser. As a result, search engines may have difficulty interpreting and indexing the page’s information.
• Single-page application and dynamic content: React is often used in the development of single-page applications (SPAs). All of the pages in this type of software are added in a single HTML file. The page’s content changes dynamically in response to the client’s activity. This makes it difficult for search engines to maintain track of the content, perhaps resulting in poor indexing and ranking.

How to make React websites SEO-friendly

Here are some React JavaScript best practices to optimize React apps for search.

1. Server-side rendering (SSR)

SSR is a mechanism for rendering the initial state of a React JS web application on the server before rendering it on the client. It allows search engines to readily index the content of a web page, boosting the app’s SEO performance. SSR generates the initial HTML and JavaScript code for the React web page on the server and sends it to the client. This allows search engine crawlers to read and understand the page’s content even if JavaScript is not executed on the client’s device.

We can utilise frameworks like Next.js, which is specifically developed for developing React applications using SSR, to implement SSR. They give developers with a simple and user-friendly API and automatically manage the complexity of SSR.

Furthermore, SSR can help improve web application performance because the initial HTML and JavaScript code is already loaded on the client’s device when they visit the page. This can shorten the time it takes to start painting and improve the user experience. It should be noted that deploying SSR can be complicated and may necessitate additional resources and server-side infrastructure. Furthermore, it may not be necessary for all types of web applications and should be examined before to implementation.

2. Pre-rendering

Pre-rendering is a technique that involves the client-side production of basic HTML and JavaScript code for a React web page before it is rendered on the user’s device. The main goal is to improve the performance of React online apps, especially in terms of SEO.

One of the primary advantages of pre-rendering is that it allows search engine crawlers to readily access and interpret the content of a web page, even if it is a React-based SPA. By pre-rendering the page’s initial state, search engine crawlers can index the material, increasing the page’s visibility in search results.

Pre-rendering React web pages can be accomplished in two ways.

• The first method is known as static pre-rendering, in which HTML and JavaScript code are generated during the build process and sent to the user’s browser as a static HTML file.
• The second method is called dynamic pre-rendering, and it involves generating HTML and JavaScript code on the fly each time a user requests a page.

There are several libraries and tools available to help in pre-rendering React web pages, including React-snap and React-static. They can be used to pre-render the initial state of a page, making it more SEO-friendly and improving user performance. It is crucial to highlight that pre-rendering may not be appropriate for all types of web applications and should be used with caution.

3. Selective pre-rendering

Selective pre-rendering is a technique that allows you to pre-render only specific parts of a React web application rather than the full application. This is very useful when specific areas of the program are more important for SEO or performance.

Libraries like as React-snap and React-static can be used to do selective pre-rendering. They provide a way for determining which routes or components should be rendered on the client side and which should be rendered on the server side.

Because the critical elements of the application are pre-rendered and easily indexed by search engines, this can improve the program’s performance as well as its SEO. For example, if a React online application has a few pages that are more important for SEO than others, selective pre-rendering can be utilized for the static version of a React web application. They can be supplied to the user’s browser without requiring server-side rendering or complicated client-side JavaScript configuration.

This makes it an excellent choice for creating React SEO-friendly web apps. SSG allows search engine crawlers to simply access and interpret the information of a web page, resulting in increased visibility in search results.
SSG is implemented by building the react application as a set of static files and then deploying it to a web server or a content delivery network (CDN). Because the pages do not need to be created on demand by a server, this strategy has advantages such as faster load times and enhanced security server.

SSG for React web projects can be aided by a number of libraries and technologies, including, Next.js, and React-static. These tools offer a comprehensive set of functionality for building and delivering React web apps as static webpages, such as hot-reloading, code splitting, and data management.

4. React Helmet

React Helmet is a library that allows for the dynamic manipulation of a web page’s document head. It lets you to change the title, meta tags, and other information in the document’s head. This is advantageous for improving the react SEO-friendly web application.

When search engines crawl a web page, they utilise the information in the document head to understand the content and calculate its relevance to a particular search query. Developers may easily update the head of the document as the user interacts with the application by employing React Helmet. This guarantees that the data offered to search engines is correct and up to date.

5. Create dynamic or static web apps

From the usage of server-side rendering, static and dynamic apps make it easier for Google bots to access the pages. Fortunately, single-app pages aren’t necessary for most online businesses, and you don’t have to use them all of the time.

Most marketplaces have dynamic websites, but their landing pages are static. Single-page web apps are ideal for creating evolving platforms with limited data volumes, such as Google-like services.

6. Optimizing speed

When assessing a page’s ranking, search engines analyse the speed of the website. A slow-loading page gives users an unfavorable impression and can harm the website’s search engine rating. Take a look over some easy tips to improve your website’s loading speed without spending much time and money.

Tools like Lighthouse can be used to identify and repair performance issues in a React web application to improve its speed. Furthermore, approaches such as code-splitting and lazy loading can aid in loading only the components required for a certain page rather than the full application at once.

7. Meta tags and structured data

Meta tags and structured data are essential for increasing the visibility of a React-based web application in search engine results. Meta tags provide information about the web page to search engines, such as the title and description, whereas structured data provides additional information such as reviews, ratings, and other metadata.

By incorporating these aspects into a React web app, we may boost its exposure and ranking in search engine results, resulting in more visitors to the site.

8. Using responsive design

As the use of mobile phones and tablets for internet access grows, it is critical that a React app is completely responsive and accessible across devices. A responsive design can be achieved by utilising CSS frameworks such as Bootstrap, as well as adding media queries.

9. SEO-friendly URLs

The usage of SEO-friendly URLs is another critical part of optimising a React web app for SEO. This requires using clear and descriptive URLs that appropriately reflect the page’s content.

10. Regularly fixing the broken pages and links

Monitoring and repairing broken links in a React web project is critical for both user experience and search engine results. Broken links can disrupt the user’s trip and diminish a site’s reputation with search engines. There are many of broken link checker programmes available freely on online which can assist you in identifying and resolving these issues.

Summary:

Finally, developing a React SEO-friendly web app that is optimized for search engine visibility necessitates a diverse approach. We can ensure that an app is easily discoverable by search engines and provides an excellent user experience across devices by applying techniques like as SSR, pre-rendering, selective pre-rendering, SSG, and so on.

Remember that SEO is an ongoing process that may take time to see results. By following these best practices and continuously optimizing your React application, you can improve its visibility and organic search traffic. React SEO is a crucial component of modern web development. Improving search engine visibility and user experience requires optimising React web applications for SEO. The above article demonstrates how to Make Your React Website SEO-Friendly for search engines crawlers to improve its visibility and attract more visitors.

Contact us if you want to Hire React Developer for any of your ReactJS and React Native development needs. With our professional services, you may increase your internet presence and bring more visitors to your website.