SEO Basics in MERN Applications

The MERN Stack is a popular open-source JavaScript software stack for building fast, scalable, and robust web applications. It is composed of MongoDB, Express, React, and NodeJS. MongoDB provides the database and data storage functionality, Express handles the server and routing, React manages the user interface and frontend rendering, and NodeJS executes server-side logic. By leveraging JavaScript for both frontend and backend development, MERN offers a streamlined and consistent full-stack solution. Users praise MERN for its simplicity, flexibility, performance, and scalability in building modern single-page applications and websites.

While the MERN stack provides many advantages for building fast, dynamic web apps, it requires some extra SEO considerations compared to traditional server-side rendered sites. In this post, we’ll go over some SEO best practices specifically for MERN web apps.

We will discuss about the SEO basics in MERN.

1. Use Semantic HTML

Like any website, MERN apps should use proper HTML semantics to make content easy for search engines to understand. This includes using heading tags (H1, H2, etc.), paragraph tags, proper image alt attributes, and semantic elements like header, footer, nav, etc. Avoid generic div and span tags where more specific elements will do. React’s JSX syntax makes it very easy to incorporate semantic HTML in your components.

Example: Below is an example of using smanatic HTML. When Google indexes your MERN site, this semantic structure will allow it to better interpret the content.

HTML

<header>
    <h1>Page Title</h1>
    <nav>
        <ul>
            <li><a href="/">Home</a></li>
            <li><a href="/about">About</a></li>
        </ul>
    </nav>
</header>
<main>
    <h2>Main Section Heading</h2>
    <p>Page content...</p>
</main>
<footer>© 2021 My Website</footer>

Output:

Output

2. Server Side Rendering

Since MERN apps run client-side after initial load, search engine crawlers may have trouble indexing all your content. To solve this, use server rendering. With NodeJS on the backend, you can pre-render components into static HTML for the initial visit. Popular React frameworks like NextJS make server rendering easy to implement.

For key pages and content you want indexed, pre-generate the static HTML at build time. Then search engines will be able to crawl your site without needing to execute any JavaScript. Your app can still switch to client-side rendering for subsequent interactions.

3. Dynamic Content

Of course much of a MERN app’s content is dynamic, loaded asynchronously from the database. For this content, you’ll need to find ways to either pre-render or server render pages.

For example, you can create static versions of product or article pages that query the database at build time. Or use server rendering to fill templates with data for the initial visit. You essentially want to provide HTML snapshots of your dynamic content for search engines.

After the initial load, your React app can take over with client-side routing and interactivity. But search engines will be able to index the pre-rendered content.

4. Optimize Images

Using large, unoptimized images can lead to a sluggish website and result in a subpar user experience. They can also hamper your SEO rankings. Use responsive images in your React components by providing multiple sized sources. The browser will load the best size for each device and scenario.

<img 
    src={imageS} 
    srcSet={`${imageM} 1000w, ${imageL} 2000w`}
    sizes="(max-width: 600px) 90vw, 600px"
    alt="Image description"
/>

Also compress images and convert formats where possible. Use Next Gen formats like WebP and AVIF that offer better compression. Lazy load any non-critical images below the fold to improve payload size. Tools like React Lazyload make this easy. Optimize the backend too by caching compressed images and serving them from a CDN.

5. Minify and Compress

Minification and compression should be part of your React build process. Use tools like webpack to minify and bundle JavaScript. Enable gzip compression on the server. This reduces payload sizes and improves site performance. Faster load times directly correlate with better SEO and user experience. Every little bit of optimization helps. Even removing whitespace and comments from your JS/JSX code will minify it a bit more.

6. Use a Content Delivery Network

CDNs improve site performance by caching assets and serving them from data centers closer to users. This provides huge loading speed improvements. For MERN apps, look for CDNs that can cache and serve your React build files, as well as static assets like images. Popular options include Cloudflare, AWS CloudFront, and Vercel Edge Network. Faster worldwide load times from CDNs result in better SEO and conversion rates.

7. Write Optimized Content

No SEO strategy is complete without optimizing your actual page content as well. Follow these best practices for writing SEO-friendly content:

• Conduct keyword research to find terms and phrases people search for in your niche. Incorporate these keywords naturally into your content.
• Craft compelling title tags and meta descriptions using target keywords. Keep title tags under 60 characters.
• Include keywords in headings (not just H1) and image alt text.
• Create useful, engaging content that solves reader problems. Avoid keyword stuffing.
• Include relevant internal links to point search engines to important pages.
• Format content well with paragraphs, lists, images, etc to improve readability.
• Produce new, high-quality content regularly to give search engines fresh pages to index. Blog posts, case studies, and tutorials are great for MERN sites.
• Focusing on keyword-optimized, valuable content will boost your SEO regardless of how you build your site. Combining solid content with technical SEO creates a powerful one-two punch.

8. Setup Proper Sitemaps

Sitemaps are XML files that list all the pages on your site to help search engines properly crawl and index. Be sure to generate and submit sitemaps for optimal indexing. For static MERN sites, standard sitemaps work well. But for complex web apps, you may need to build dynamic sitemaps that ping search engines when content changes. Look into advanced sitemap generators to create these automatically. Submitting a sitemap directly to Google Search Console helps ensure your new pages get discovered efficiently.

9. Measure and Improve

Implementing SEO best practices is an ongoing process of measurement and improvement. Use tools like Google Analytics, Search Console, and PageSpeed Insights to track your site’s performance. Analyze which pages get crawled, which rank well, and where users come from. Experiment to find the right mix of technical and content optimizations for your site. Keep researching emerging SEO techniques. Refresh old content, add new pages, and expand your keyword targets. SEO is never “finished”!

10. Social Media Integration: Boosting Visibility Beyond Search Engines

Leverage Open Graph and Twitter Card meta tags to optimize your MERN stack application’s appearance when shared on social media platforms. Social media signals indirectly contribute to SEO, so make your content easily shareable.

• Schema Markup: Structured Data for Enhanced Visibility: Implement schema.org markup to provide structured data to search engines. This additional layer of information helps search engines better understand the context and relationships within your content, potentially leading to rich snippets in search results.

• Analytics and Monitoring: Data-Driven Optimization: Utilize tools like Google Analytics to monitor and analyze your MERN stack application’s performance. Track user behavior, traffic sources, and other relevant metrics to make informed decisions and continuously improve your SEO strategy.