A few common questions I’m asked is which SEO friendly javascript framework should our company use for our site?
My 10 years in the SEO industry and the last 3 years working heavily with JavaScript frameworks have proven that there really is no “best” framework. There are advantages to each JavaScript framework out there and they will greatly affect load times, however more importantly, many frameworks will positively or negatively affect your website’s ability to be indexed in Google.
Meaning, even though search engines such as Google have increased their ability to index client side web apps, in many cases Google is not able to properly crawl certain sections of your website, therefore it will impact your search results.
To put it lightly, my team and I have been working with Technical SEO for a while, If you need a hand with Javascript SEO, Feel free to reach out, we are here to help.
That being said, let’s break down some frameworks worth considering.
Best Javascript Framework for SEO
Going off of the fact that there is no current leading framework for improving SEO, you need to make your decision based off the needs of your product and customers. We lean heavily towards frameworks that support server-side rendering for advantages in load experience and more clear crawling by search engines which leads to your site being placed higher among results.

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Remix JS
Remix (2019) is a newly created open-source React framework that can be used for server-side rendering and building both frontend and backend applications. Reviews from developers are positive and they speak to the ease of development, speed, scalability, and the ability to create modern, elegant, and seamless user interfaces.
This framework aims to get rid of spinners and loading within website components by loading all data in parallel on the server and sending a fully formed HTML document instead of having individual components of your website load their data individually after they render like traditional frameworks do (React, Angular, etc.).
Is this framework ideal for SEO?
Although you’ll likely run into early configuration issues, this framework leverages server side rendering.
Currently, this is what our developer friends love to use and we are in early stages of testing this framework for SEO purposes.
Next JS
Next.JS is also a framework built on top of React, making development and scaling possible with the ability to create websites that are both server and client side rendered. Although, it provides limited functionally with external JavaScript plugins.
This option does come with a price commercially, but is supported and used by the likes of Github, Netflix, and Twitch to give you a reference of it’s community and reputation. This framework also has development advantages that allow for rapid feature development which can influence time-to-market. In short its leverages a lot of Isomorphic React principles out of the box.
Is this framework ideal for SEO?
Next JS SEO leverages server side rendering and is a scalable web application. Therefore it is worth testing and considering for any SEO related content.
Gatsby JS

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Gatsy is an open-source framework that allows development of applications that get to utilize the best parts of other frameworks such as React, Webpack, and GraphQL. Gatsby combines the speed of a server rendered site with complex interactions by only using static files and converting the website code into a single HTML file with static assets.
Gatsby also provides a noteworthy public documentation for anyone interested and has evidence to show that they provide some of the fastest site load speeds on the internet. Gatsby also has a large ecosystem of plugins and templates for developers to get their feet on the ground rather quickly.
Is this framework ideal for SEO?
Gasby is similar to a static HTML generator. HTML is highly crawlable by Google and all other search engines.
The developers we currently work with tend to use this for smaller projects.
Node.js (Express js etc.)
Node.JS is a widely popular open-source JavaScript runtime environment built on Google’s V8 JavaScript engine. It is said to have high performance due to it’s event-driven approach at development and works well with building quick and scalable network applications.
Many startups lean towards utilizing Node for its exceptionally fast or multi-user concurrent data interactions and is easy to learn due to its simplicity. Companies such as Linked, Netflix, and Uber use it because it is best suitable for streaming apps, messaging apps, multiplayer games, etc. Another quality it shares amongst others in this list is its fast time to market, and has allowed for the success of many companies.
Node alone doesn’t provide a frontend solution since its server-side, but there are a plethora of plugins & NPMs that support dynamic applications with a strong community which supports its maintenance.
Is this framework ideal for SEO?
Assuming it aligns with your development process and which templating engines you choose, yes it’s likely okay for SEO purposes.
Since the application originates from the server, it meets the majority of our search engine criteria.
What about the More Popular JS frameworks? React, Vue, Angular etc?

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React, Vue, Angular, etc. are all examples of widely adopted Javascript frameworks, yet they still function with client-side rendering.
While Google currently has the ability to index client side web applications, many search engines do not. Bing is just starting to be able to crawl such websites, DuckDuckGo likely cannot, etc.
A lot of alternative search engines actually benefit your Google results. Google favors websites that generate traffic from alternative sources.
Meaning, if BingBot can’t access or crawl your site, you’ll hinder your results in Google.
In addition it has been reported that during major updates Google disables its Javascript rendering abilities. So… if you make a major update to your website (ie content for the holidays, etc) you may have to wait many months for Google to enable its rendering abilities.
Even without the holidays or time sensitive events, Google disabling SEO updates for your website is never a good thing.
Prerender Popular Javascript Frameworks
If your development team has already built an application, we recommend SEO testing with Prerender.io or rendertron.
They are both middleware that will serve a static HTML version of your page when crawlers, such as Googlebot crawl your website. Generally the middleware is installed on your server.
The general concept is that Googlebot and other search engines will be able to more easily crawl your website and index all content.
Final Thoughts
Whenever you work with any type of custom application that is a search engine facing, you will likely run into roadblocks.
This is especially true when you work with Single Page applications, there will almost always be some kind of issue you will have to troubleshoot.
Frankly, frameworks that are more established and originate from the server (ie PHP, Ruby, Python, etc) are a lot easier to work with for SEO purposes. Quite frankly, these frameworks & languages just have it a lot more figured out.
If you are struggling with any type of technical SEO or javascript issues, we are more than happy to lend a hand. Contact us today.
I am using eleventy for a blog? , Is that good or should I build my Blog on next.js or Gatsby regarding SEO
As long as it renders service side it should be good to go.