Leveraging Server-side Rendering for SEO: Enhancing Your eCommerce Rankings

When it comes to eCommerce SEO, there are several ranking factors that matter in 2022. While keyword analysis and Mobil formatting are some of the factors that probably come to mind, server-side rendering always plays a considerable role in a company’s search engine optimization strategy. This post is dedicated to the top 5 reasons why doing a server-side rendering for SEO boosts your eCommerce Google rankings. 

What is server-side rendering?

Server-side rendering (or SSR) refers to displaying the web page on the server side rather than directly on the browser whenever a user makes a request. This gives that certain application the ability to send HTML files to the client-side as fully rendered pages. The browser requests information from the server and is instantly met with an already rendered page to show to its users, minimizing loading times and improving the browsing experience. 

5 reasons why you should use server-side rendering for SEO 

Server-side rendering improves your LCP metrics.

If your company wants to improve its site’s Google rankings, all posted content should follow the Web Core Vitals guidelines and score the necessary points for optimal ranking. Lucky for you, that’s an area where server-side rendering for SEO can make a significant difference to your site’s scores. Server-side rendering specifically benefits the LCP metric (Largest Content Painful), meaning the loading times of the largest visual elements on the pin will be considerably reduced. A better LCP score will help you get a positive assessment by Web Core Vitals, therefore improving your eCommerce Google rankings. 

No need to depend on Google bots for rendering. 

Through server-side rendering for SEO, the web page’s content is already there before the site loads into the user’s browser. This takes away the task of rendering the content from Google bots, improving the loading speed and your Web Core Vitals metrics in the process. Taking into account that the ideal website loading time should be less than 2 seconds, rendering all content right on your servers before users need it is the right eCommerce Google ranking strategy. 

Crawlers are free from running the codes. 

Because the content is already rendered, crawlers are free from running through the codes and searching for keywords and other data from unrendered HTML files. This also clears the path for search engines to crawl and index website content since it’s all rendered before the page is loaded for the user. These two advantages of server-side rendering for SEO benefit both your overall Google ranking strategy and your site’s Mobile-First Indexing metrics. It also lowers the risk of partial indexing!

End-user devices no longer determine the usability of your site. 

Even if the client-side rendering of your website was conducted at top-notch speed and all features were designed to fit multiple screens, there could still be rendering issues. This is due to the nature of client-side rendering, as the end-user devices could be too old for some elements to load properly into the browser. With server-side rendering, you’re not reliant on the user’s devices and minimize the probability of information not getting processed as it should. 

It allows you to take advantage of metadata. 

Another one of the main benefits of server-side rendering for SEO is the opportunity to take advantage of metadata content to improve your eCommerce Google rankings. This metadata usually comes in the form of a FAQ schema, reviews of the site under the name on Google search results, and contact information. 

But SEM bots can’t yet run JavaScript for media objects, resulting in a lack of crawling of any metadata within your posts/product pages if you stick with client-side rendering. On the other hand, if the server already shows the bots a fully rendered page instead of different HTML files, the metadata is picked up by Google bots and taken into account for your site’s rankings. 

Are you looking for SEO-friendly eCommerce development services? 

At Resolve Digital, we understand that developing a server-side rendering strategy for SEO can be quite the undertaking after the many 2022 Google page algorithm updates. Still, the benefits of SSR outweigh the cons and make it a very convenient plan for those wanting to improve the totality of their online business. Thanks to our custom eCommerce development services, we can help you build the perfect system of server-side rendering for SEO. Contact us today to learn more about our services!