Site Dependence On JavaScript A Problem For Googlebot? - Search Engine Journal

Google's John Mueller answers question about the impact of JavaScript on Googlebot and recommends testing to find out what's really happening

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In a recent Google Search Central SEO office-hours hangout, a question was submitted to Google’s Search Advocate John Mueller asking if it’s a bad for a website to be dependent on JavaScript for basic functionality.

Might this have a negative effect on Googlebot when it comes to crawling and indexing?

Mueller observed that it’s probably fine but also suggested things to do to make sure that both Google and users have no problems with the site.

Site Is Not User Friendly Without JavaScript

The person asking the question noted that a great deal of functionality of the site depended on JavaScript and was concerned about the impact on both user-friendliness and SEO-friendliness.

This is the question:

“Our website is not very user friendly if JavaScript is turned off.

Most of the images are not loaded. Out flyout menu can’t be opened.

However the Chrome Inspect feature, in there all menu links are there in the source code.

Might our dependence on JavaScript still be a problem for Googlebot?”

What the person means about the “Chrome Inspect feature” is probably the View Page Source code inspection tool built into Chrome.

So what they mean to say is that, although...

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