JavaScript SEO in 2024 with Patrick Hathaway

Patrick Hathaway makes his triumphant return to the show to discuss the Sitebulb JavaScript SEO Report.

This episode delves into the internet's growing reliance on Javascript, the importance of understanding Google's indexing & rendering processes and the growth of technical skills gaps in the SEO industry.

Sitebulb JavaScript SEO Report https://sitebulb.com/javascript-seo/report/

Follow Patrick & Sitebulb:

• Patrick on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickhathaway/
• Sitebulb on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sitebulb/ 
• Patrick on Twitter: https://x.com/HathawayP
• Sitebulb on Twitter: https://x.com/sitebulb
• Website: https://sitebulb.com/

Sponsors

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠This week's episode is sponsored by AlsoAsked - the best way to access People Also Ask data at scale.⁠⁠⁠⁠
• Keep up with the latest SEO news and tips by subscribing to CoreUpdates.

Chapters:

• 00:00:00 - Intro

• 00:02:40 - Sponsor: AlsoAsked

• 00:04:25 - Sponsor: Core Updates

• 00:05:43 - Welcome back, Patrick Hathaway

• 00:07:17 - What was the inspiration for this JavaScript SEO study?

• 00:10:07 - A two part study combining the survey & Sitebulb data

• 00:11:12 - The JavaScript skills gap in SEO

• 00:12:48 - The evolution of JavaScript and the internet

• 00:14:55 - Why JavaScript is popular for new developers

• 00:16:32 - Google’s JavaScript documentation

• 00:18:04 - The anti-JavaScript movement in SEO

• 00:20:03 - The opacity of fixing JavaScript problems

• 00:20:30 - Google has improved their JavaScript rendering

• 00:22:00 - How important is it to understand JavaScript for SEOs?

• 00:23:45 - Why SEOs should learn how to use DevTools

• 00:27:05 - Communicating with developers

• 00:28:32 - Don’t be afraid to ask developers questions

• 00:30:35 - Be honest if you don’t know

• 00:31:15 - A third of SEOs don’t feel comfortable investigating JavaScript issues

• 00:33:07 - How to communicate the value of technical SEO fixes

• 00:36:28 - How to reduce the JavaScript SEO skills gap

• 00:39:57 - We should communicate more interdisciplinarily

• 00:42:40 - Understand when key elements are being changed by JavaScript

• 00:46:37 - Sitebulb’s hints and resources are great

• 00:48:43 - A JavaScript horror story with Squarespace

• 00:50:00 - More people are using Sitebulb’s Chrome crawler than ever before

• 00:51:30 - The problem with plugins

• 00:53:10 - Where to follow Patrick & Sitebulb

• 00:55:16 - Outro

• 00:57:03 - Next week’s guest is SEOJoBlogs AKA Jo Juliana Turnbull!