How Google handles JavaScript throughout the indexing process MERJ and Vercel's research to demystify Google's rendering through empirical evidence. Understanding how search engines crawl, render, and index web pages is crucial for optimizing sites for search engines. Over the years, as search engines like Google change their processes, it’s tough to keep track of what works and doesn’t—especially with client-side JavaScript. We’ve noticed that a number of old beliefs have stuck around and kept the community unsure about best practices for application SEO: “Google can’t render client-side JavaScript.” “Google treats JavaScript pages differently.” “Rendering queue and timing significantly impact SEO.” “JavaScript-heavy sites have slower page discovery.” To address these beliefs, we’ve partnered with MERJ , a leading SEO & data engineering consultancy, to conduct new experiments on Google’s crawling behavior.…