SEO
Looker Studio (New Google Data Studio): The In-Depth Guide
If you haven’t heard, Looker Studio has replaced the well-known Google Data Studio brand.
While Google Data Studio made reporting easier for many marketers, it certainly had its limitations.
As a brand’s marketing strategy evolves and becomes more complex, so does the sophistication of its reporting needs.
If you’re anything like me, you’re likely tired of spending hours updating the same spreadsheets each month.
Sometimes, more time is spent pulling a report than providing actual insights.
When this happens, we’re doing a disservice by spending more time “doing” and less time actually analyzing the data.
There has to be a better way, right?
This in-depth Looker Studio guide will teach you how to create and customize action-oriented reports based on your own data.
What Happened To Google Data Studio?
Originally introduced in beta mid-2016, Google Data Studio is a free data visualization tool.
Many marketers have used this tool for years to unify and visualize data sets from multiple channels.
But now, you’ll notice that Data Studio is no longer referenced. Where did it go?
Google officially rebranded its Data Studio product to be named Looker Studio in October 2022.
In their official announcement, Google stated:
“We are unifying our business intelligence product family under the Looker umbrella, bringing together Looker, Data Studio, and core Google technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). Looker Studio is still free, and has the same features as Data Studio.”
What Is Google Looker Studio?
Google Looker Studio (formerly Data Studio) syncs all of your data sources into one unified reporting experience.
It enables users to create informative and visual dashboards that are easy to interpret, share, and customize.
Essentially, Looker Studio helps go beyond data visualization. It’s aimed to help marketers make more data-driven decisions for their clients and brands alike.
Currently, Looker Studio supports over 800 different data sources, along with 600+ data connectors.
Looker Studio Vs. Data Studio
While Looker Studio touts many of the same features as the former Data Studio, the new name also brings new features.
- Free version and Pro version (paid).
- Different modeling method (LookML).
- Looker integration with Google Sheets.
- More flexible data modeling features.
- Supports 50+ SQLs and databases.
- Merging features from different data sources.
One of the key differences between Looker and Data Studio is the way data is modeled. Looker Studio uses LookML (Looker Modeling Language).
The second key difference that most marketers will benefit from is the new and improved data merging features from Looker.
In Data Studio, it allowed for data sources to be blended.
However, the biggest downside of this was that the blending feature was based on a left outer join and often didn’t blend data in a way that marketers needed.
It was a tedious process that left many to spend more time manually importing their data into a Google Sheet, then connecting that source to Data Studio.
Sounds frustrating, right?
Looker Studio, on the other hand, requires SQL databases to integrate any source. This means that raw data is passed into a database, making it much easier for Looker to merge data from different sources.
The result? A faster, more meaningful way to visualize data from all your different marketing sources in an easy-to-digest format.
Getting Started With Looker Studio
There are a few key areas to ensure your first Google Looker Studio report is a success. These include:
- Choosing a template or dashboard.
- Connecting data sources.
- Choosing metrics that matter.
- Sharing reports.
Looker Studio Templates
The first thing to do is to choose a template.
To access Looker Studio, visit Looker Studio using your preferred Google Account. This should be the account that you access your Google Analytics, Search Console, Google Ads, etc.
Looker Studio provides a wide variety of templates to get you started.
If you’re new to Looker Studio, it is important to choose a template based on the type of data being portrayed.
With any template, you have the ability to customize items and fonts to create a more consistent report.
The beauty of these reports is that multiple pages can be added.
Don’t feel like your entire marketing story needs to be shown on one page!
Every client has different needs, and their reporting should be no different.
The most efficient route I have found is to use and tweak different dashboards based on who the intended audience is.
For example, I may create a different dashboard or report page if I’m talking to a CMO vs. a Product Marketing Manager. Why?
Depending on the role of who you’re talking to, they will understand and interpret data in different ways.
A CMO, for example, doesn’t need to know the “in the weeds” data. They want to know what channels are working, what’s not, and if they’re on track to meet their goals.
Connect A Data Source
Now that you’ve selected a template, it’s time to connect your data sources.
To add a connector to your template, go to Resource at the top navigation, then click Manage added data sources. Then, you’ll click + Add A Data Source.
There are currently 24 different Google connectors, such as Google Analytics, Google Ads, Google Sheets, BigQuery, and more.
However, you’re likely using other platforms like social media, third-party tools, CRM systems, and more.
For those non-Google connectors, Looker Studio can connect over 650 different data sources from their partner connectors!
By using the connectors, it takes the manual tasks and syncs all data for you!
It’d be impossible to list all the available data sources here, but some of the main ones I’ve used in the past include:
- Supermetrics connectors for:
- Facebook + Instagram Insights.
- Microsoft Advertising.
- Ad + Google Analytics Data.
- Position Tracking.
- And many more.
- SEOMonitor.
- CallRail.
- Salesforce.
- HubSpot.
Most of these data sources come from third-party connectors. Keep in mind that many of them:
- Additional cost.
- Can slow down reports.
- Metrics are sometimes deprecated, meaning it is vital to stay on top of any changes to your report and rebuild metrics if needed.
When adding a data source, you’ll be asked to authorize the connection between accounts.
Choosing Metrics That Matter
Speaking of metrics – they matter.
Let’s be real, the worst is when clients open reports and see a complete data dump.
While Looker Studio is completely customizable, this does not mean we should be showing all metrics available.
Does your client care about return on advertising spend (ROAS)? Be sure to include metrics such as spend and revenue.
How about overall brand awareness? Include pre-click metrics such as impressions, clicks, CTR, view rate, etc.
By conveying the proper metrics and insights based on goals, it shows the client that you are listening to them. A win-win for everyone!
How To Edit A Report
Now that you’ve connected your data sources, it’s time to customize that report!
Let’s review this Google Ads template as an example.
First, you’ll want to make sure you’re in the “Edit” mode and not “View.”
You can start customizing your report by utilizing the data field sets on the right-hand side.
If you’ve chosen a template like the one above, the first step is to change the data source for each chart you wish to choose.
From there, you can choose from any of the different data fields from your chosen data source to change any visualization.
Not only can you create and edit charts and tables in Looker Studio, but the ability to choose the look and feel of a report is a game-changer for clients.
It gives a sense of consistency across an organization.
A few ways to personalize the style of your report include:
- Font and background color.
- Changing comparison metric colors.
- Text padding to align either left, center, or right.
Pro tip: If you want to change all scorecards or charts at once, simply select all at the same time before.
The style changes will apply to all selections. Another time-saver!
In this example, I changed the report background, scorecard colors, and label fonts to create brand standard consistency:
If you’re new to Looker Studio, it will take time, trial and error, and patience to create a report visual that meets your reader’s expectations. Don’t get discouraged along the way!
Adding Report Filters
An efficient way to group multiple visualizations together is by adding report and page filters.
For example, if you wanted all tables and charts to change when editing the date range, you could add a Date Range icon and set it to “Report Level.”
This means that if the report is comprised of multiple pages, whenever the date range is updated, all chart data updates alongside it.
For example, if you wanted to dive into Campaign Type performance, there’s a filter for that!
Simply navigate to the toolbar and choose Add a control > Drop-down list and add the Control field of “Campaign type” as your filter.
This allows you to filter the data on that particular page by campaign type.
For example, if you wanted to show how Search performs compared to YouTube, you’d choose from the dropdown in that filter.
By default, filters added are at a page level.
If you wish to make the filter report-level (meaning the filter would appear on each page of your report), simply right-click the filter and choose Make report-level.
Create A Chart
If you’ve gotten comfortable with your Looker Studio experience, let’s dive into how to create a chart from scratch.
The advantage of creating a custom chart is that you’re in full control from the beginning of visualizing exactly what matters most.
The first step is to consider who will be reading this report. Remember to include what data is important to them.
Your chart should tell a story, and it’s up to you to visualize that successfully.
For example, you may want to add an “Overview” table that encompasses the main metrics or key performance indicators (KPIs) that matter to them.
To create a chart, click on “Insert,” which will show you all the different charts to choose from. These include:
- Time series.
- Bar chart.
- Pie chart.
- Tables.
- Scorecards.
- Bullet charts.
- Much more.
In this example, I want to choose a simple bullet chart to add to my CMO Overview page. The goal of this chart is to show if we met our monthly goal of app installs.
The first step is to choose the metric you’re measuring. In this case, I chose “Installs.”
To make this bullet chart effective, you need to add your target/goal. Make sure to check the box that says “Show Target.”
Then, I input different range limits to show the progress.
I kept the last range the same as the target value. You can also put the last range as a higher value than your target, especially if you exceed that target value.
So, what does this chart say? It portrays that our goal was 5,500 app installs for the month of November.
According to the bullet chart, they were close to hitting their goal but didn’t quite make it.
Sometimes simple charts are all you need to represent the necessary data.
Like all other elements of Looker Studio, you can modify the style of any chart, table, or element as I did above.
Sharing Reports
The following options are available for sharing a Looker Studio report:
- Invite people.
- Schedule email delivery.
- Get report link.
- Embed report.
- Download report.
If you want to invite people to access the report in real time, it’s important to check the share settings.
To add someone via email, it must be a Google account email. They can be added as a “Viewer” or an “Editor.”
Another data safety measure Looker Studio added was how links to the report can be shared.
You can choose from:
- Restricted. Only people who you have shared the report with can open the link.
- Unlisted. Anyone on the internet with the link can view (or edit – choose this setting carefully).
- Public. Anyone on the internet with the link can find and view (or edit – choose this setting carefully).
Another cool feature Google added is the option to limit sharing in the following options. In the share settings, click on the “gear” icon in the right-hand corner:
- Prevent editors from changing access and adding new people.
- Disable downloading, printing, and copying for viewers.
I typically recommend checking the first box to prevent editors from changing access or adding new people.
By doing so, it allows us to maintain control of the report settings and the integrity of report changes.
Get Started With Looker Studio Now
Hopefully, this introduction to Google Looker Studio will empower you to feel more confident in creating personalized reports for your clients and brands.
More Resources:
Featured Image: RomanR/Shutterstock
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SEO
Boost Your Local SEO with the Google Local Guide Program
If you manage a Google my Business account, you may have seen a few reviews from users with a star symbol right by their name – and you may have even noticed the title “Local Guide.” This is a feature called the Google Local Guide Program, and it’s something your business can tap into.
What is the Google Local Guide Program?
The Google Local Guide program is an initiative by Google, designed to incentivize users into contributing information about local businesses, attractions, and places they’ve visited and engaged with.
Users who participate in this program are called Local Guides, and they’re users who actively share the knowledge and experiences they’ve had with local businesses. They also engage with other users by answering questions about various locations on Google Maps.
It’s made to improve the accuracy of business information other people can find through GMB and Google Maps, and also so that other users can see first-hand accounts of what a local business is like.
Local Guides earn points for their work – the more they contribute, the higher their level becomes within the program. High level contributors are rewarded with benefits and perks, like early access to new Google features, exclusive events, and special promotions.
How You Become a Local Guide?
Here’s the good news: anyone with a Google account can become a Local Guide. You just need to sign up. But keep in mind that this program is only open for individual users, and you cannot sign up using a business account.
Start by opening Google Maps either on desktop or on your mobile app. Then, tap on the three horizontal lines on the top-left corner to open the user menu.
Scroll down the menu until you see the option “Your contributions.” Click on that, then click on “Join Local Guides.” This starts the application process, which can be finished in minutes.
You can also sign up for the program through the official Local Guides link.
Google’s Local Guide System
There’s tons of ways to earn points in the Google Local Guide program, and a tier system which unlocks new benefits for users. All users have to do is keep contributing, and the amount of points they earn is already set per contribution type:
- Review: 10 points per review. If the review is more than 200 characters long, there is an extra 10 points.
- Rating: 1 point per business or location rating.
- Photo: 5 points per photo. Multiple photos uploaded per business or location will lead to multiplied points.
- Photo tags: 3 points per tag.
- Video: 7 points per video. Multiple videos uploaded per business or location will lead to multiplied points.
- Captions added to photo updates: 10 points per caption
- Answer: 1 point per answer.
- Respond to Q&As: 3 points per response.
- Edit: 5 points per edit to a business or location listing.
- Place added: 15 points per place added.
- Road added: 15 points per road added.
- Fact checked: 1 point per checked fact.
Each contribution does go through a review and verification process, so earning points doesn’t happen immediately.
As users earn points, they also level up. Levels in the Google Local Guide program go from 1 to 10, with higher levels having more benefits. At level 4, users earn a “Local Guides” badge, which is the star icon you may have seen by some user’s names before.
How the Local Guide Program Affects Your Local SEO
Google Local Guides push users to keep contributing to listings on Google My Business, and locations on Google Maps. This makes both platforms, which are very useful ways to discover local businesses, work better.
If you want your Google My Business profile to outrank your competitors, then you need to tap into the Local Guide Program, and make sure your profile is comprehensive, helpful, and engaging to users.
Because Local Guide reviews tend to show up at the top of your business reviews, they will be the most viewed parts of your profile. Plus, reviews from these users tend to be longer, more detailed, and with photos and/or videos attached to them, since this earns them more points. Getting impressive reviews from these users is a great way to boost your brand’s reputation online.
Plus, whether they leave a review, photo update, an answer in your Q&A section, contributions from a Local Guide will positively impact your business locations’ local SEO performance. The more contributions you get from them, the more detailed your business profile will be, and the more likely it is that you rank higher in local search results.
Author’s Note: If you haven’t created your business’ profile yet, follow my guide to setting up a Google My Business Account. I also have another guide to local link building strategies you can follow to level-up your local search visibility.
How to Use the Local Guide Program to Improve Your Local SEO
The amount of reviews you get from local Guides can work in your favor, and boost your online reputation – a must for brand recognition and improving your rankings. Here are some of the ways I have encouraged more and more reviews from Local Guides:
Keep Your Google My Business Profile Updated
Be sure that Google My Business has all the information a user needs to know about your business. Aside from the basics, such as your address and operating hours, consider if they need to know what kind of facilities you have at your location, additional services you provide, links to your menu and social media profiles, and so on.
Make it a point to review and update your profile every so often as your business grows. The more descriptive your Google My Business profile is, the more likely you are to be discovered and reviewed by other users (Local Guides included).
Respond to Your Reviews–Even the Bad Ones
Customers, in general, want to feel that businesses care about their experience–which makes responding to their reviews a must. BrightLocal’s survey on customer reviews shows findings which should really drive this point home:
- “89% of consumers would be ‘likely’ or ‘highly likely’ to use businesses that respond to all reviews”
- “59% of users said they are fairly likely to use a business that responds to all reviews”
- “52% said they would use a business if a merchant responded to only negative reviews”
- “22% say they’re ‘not likely at all’ to use businesses that don’t respond to any reviews”
So yes, you should reply to all the reviews on your profile, even the bad ones. It will show future customers who look you up online that you do care about their experience.
Don’t Buy Reviews
It might be tempting to reach out to Local Guides and incentivize them to leave a review or contribution to your Google My Business profile, but it’s something I strongly do not recommend. The best engagement happens organically – plus, buying reviews violates Google’s review policy.
Instead, encourage engagement with your profile by adding its link to your other platforms and focus on building up an authentic relationship with your customers.
Use Feedback for Insights
Local Guides are more likely to come back and continue engaging with your business if you’re using their feedback to improve your business. Don’t ignore reviews from other customers either – each contribution will give you valuable insights on your customer experience.
So reply and thank them for their feedback, and take note of any actionable points that they provide in their comments.
Key Takeaway
Understanding the Local Guide Program and how it affects your business is crucial if you’re working on improving your presence online. Remember, brand reputation and SEO go hand-in-hand. When a trusted source like them engages with your Google my Business, it doesn’t just boost your online credibility within your industry, it’ll also benefit your ranking on the search results.
Having a solid plan for responding to and generating reviews not only helps retain existing customers but also attracts new ones. Use this guide to build up social proof, increase customer engagement and experience, catch the attention of Local Guides, and ultimately climb up local search results.
SEO
Google Revamps Entire Crawler Documentation
Google has launched a major revamp of its Crawler documentation, shrinking the main overview page and splitting content into three new, more focused pages. Although the changelog downplays the changes there is an entirely new section and basically a rewrite of the entire crawler overview page. The additional pages allows Google to increase the information density of all the crawler pages and improves topical coverage.
What Changed?
Google’s documentation changelog notes two changes but there is actually a lot more.
Here are some of the changes:
- Added an updated user agent string for the GoogleProducer crawler
- Added content encoding information
- Added a new section about technical properties
The technical properties section contains entirely new information that didn’t previously exist. There are no changes to the crawler behavior, but by creating three topically specific pages Google is able to add more information to the crawler overview page while simultaneously making it smaller.
This is the new information about content encoding (compression):
“Google’s crawlers and fetchers support the following content encodings (compressions): gzip, deflate, and Brotli (br). The content encodings supported by each Google user agent is advertised in the Accept-Encoding header of each request they make. For example, Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate, br.”
There is additional information about crawling over HTTP/1.1 and HTTP/2, plus a statement about their goal being to crawl as many pages as possible without impacting the website server.
What Is The Goal Of The Revamp?
The change to the documentation was due to the fact that the overview page had become large. Additional crawler information would make the overview page even larger. A decision was made to break the page into three subtopics so that the specific crawler content could continue to grow and making room for more general information on the overviews page. Spinning off subtopics into their own pages is a brilliant solution to the problem of how best to serve users.
This is how the documentation changelog explains the change:
“The documentation grew very long which limited our ability to extend the content about our crawlers and user-triggered fetchers.
…Reorganized the documentation for Google’s crawlers and user-triggered fetchers. We also added explicit notes about what product each crawler affects, and added a robots.txt snippet for each crawler to demonstrate how to use the user agent tokens. There were no meaningful changes to the content otherwise.”
The changelog downplays the changes by describing them as a reorganization because the crawler overview is substantially rewritten, in addition to the creation of three brand new pages.
While the content remains substantially the same, the division of it into sub-topics makes it easier for Google to add more content to the new pages without continuing to grow the original page. The original page, called Overview of Google crawlers and fetchers (user agents), is now truly an overview with more granular content moved to standalone pages.
Google published three new pages:
- Common crawlers
- Special-case crawlers
- User-triggered fetchers
1. Common Crawlers
As it says on the title, these are common crawlers, some of which are associated with GoogleBot, including the Google-InspectionTool, which uses the GoogleBot user agent. All of the bots listed on this page obey the robots.txt rules.
These are the documented Google crawlers:
- Googlebot
- Googlebot Image
- Googlebot Video
- Googlebot News
- Google StoreBot
- Google-InspectionTool
- GoogleOther
- GoogleOther-Image
- GoogleOther-Video
- Google-CloudVertexBot
- Google-Extended
3. Special-Case Crawlers
These are crawlers that are associated with specific products and are crawled by agreement with users of those products and operate from IP addresses that are distinct from the GoogleBot crawler IP addresses.
List of Special-Case Crawlers:
- AdSense
User Agent for Robots.txt: Mediapartners-Google - AdsBot
User Agent for Robots.txt: AdsBot-Google - AdsBot Mobile Web
User Agent for Robots.txt: AdsBot-Google-Mobile - APIs-Google
User Agent for Robots.txt: APIs-Google - Google-Safety
User Agent for Robots.txt: Google-Safety
3. User-Triggered Fetchers
The User-triggered Fetchers page covers bots that are activated by user request, explained like this:
“User-triggered fetchers are initiated by users to perform a fetching function within a Google product. For example, Google Site Verifier acts on a user’s request, or a site hosted on Google Cloud (GCP) has a feature that allows the site’s users to retrieve an external RSS feed. Because the fetch was requested by a user, these fetchers generally ignore robots.txt rules. The general technical properties of Google’s crawlers also apply to the user-triggered fetchers.”
The documentation covers the following bots:
- Feedfetcher
- Google Publisher Center
- Google Read Aloud
- Google Site Verifier
Takeaway:
Google’s crawler overview page became overly comprehensive and possibly less useful because people don’t always need a comprehensive page, they’re just interested in specific information. The overview page is less specific but also easier to understand. It now serves as an entry point where users can drill down to more specific subtopics related to the three kinds of crawlers.
This change offers insights into how to freshen up a page that might be underperforming because it has become too comprehensive. Breaking out a comprehensive page into standalone pages allows the subtopics to address specific users needs and possibly make them more useful should they rank in the search results.
I would not say that the change reflects anything in Google’s algorithm, it only reflects how Google updated their documentation to make it more useful and set it up for adding even more information.
Read Google’s New Documentation
Overview of Google crawlers and fetchers (user agents)
List of Google’s common crawlers
List of Google’s special-case crawlers
List of Google user-triggered fetchers
See also:
Featured Image by Shutterstock/Cast Of Thousands
SEO
Client-Side Vs. Server-Side Rendering
Faster webpage loading times play a big part in user experience and SEO, with page load speed a key determining factor for Google’s algorithm.
A front-end web developer must decide the best way to render a website so it delivers a fast experience and dynamic content.
Two popular rendering methods include client-side rendering (CSR) and server-side rendering (SSR).
All websites have different requirements, so understanding the difference between client-side and server-side rendering can help you render your website to match your business goals.
Google & JavaScript
Google has extensive documentation on how it handles JavaScript, and Googlers offer insights and answer JavaScript questions regularly through various formats – both official and unofficial.
For example, in a Search Off The Record podcast, it was discussed that Google renders all pages for Search, including JavaScript-heavy ones.
This sparked a substantial conversation on LinkedIn, and another couple of takeaways from both the podcast and proceeding discussions are that:
- Google doesn’t track how expensive it is to render specific pages.
- Google renders all pages to see content – regardless if it uses JavaScript or not.
The conversation as a whole has helped to dispel many myths and misconceptions about how Google might have approached JavaScript and allocated resources.
Martin Splitt’s full comment on LinkedIn covering this was:
“We don’t keep track of “how expensive was this page for us?” or something. We know that a substantial part of the web uses JavaScript to add, remove, change content on web pages. We just have to render, to see it all. It doesn’t really matter if a page does or does not use JavaScript, because we can only be reasonably sure to see all content once it’s rendered.”
Martin also confirmed a queue and potential delay between crawling and indexing, but not just because something is JavaScript or not, and it’s not an “opaque” issue that the presence of JavaScript is the root cause of URLs not being indexed.
General JavaScript Best Practices
Before we get into the client-side versus server-side debate, it’s important that we also follow general best practices for either of these approaches to work:
- Don’t block JavaScript resources through Robots.txt or server rules.
- Avoid render blocking.
- Avoid injecting JavaScript in the DOM.
What Is Client-Side Rendering, And How Does It Work?
Client-side rendering is a relatively new approach to rendering websites.
It became popular when JavaScript libraries started integrating it, with Angular and React.js being some of the best examples of libraries used in this type of rendering.
It works by rendering a website’s JavaScript in your browser rather than on the server.
The server responds with a bare-bones HTML document containing the JS files instead of getting all the content from the HTML document.
While the initial upload time is a bit slow, the subsequent page loads will be rapid as they aren’t reliant on a different HTML page per route.
From managing logic to retrieving data from an API, client-rendered sites do everything “independently.” The page is available after the code is executed because every page the user visits and its corresponding URL are created dynamically.
The CSR process is as follows:
- The user enters the URL they wish to visit in the address bar.
- A data request is sent to the server at the specified URL.
- On the client’s first request for the site, the server delivers the static files (CSS and HTML) to the client’s browser.
- The client browser will download the HTML content first, followed by JavaScript. These HTML files connect the JavaScript, starting the loading process by displaying loading symbols the developer defines to the user. At this stage, the website is still not visible to the user.
- After the JavaScript is downloaded, content is dynamically generated on the client’s browser.
- The web content becomes visible as the client navigates and interacts with the website.
What Is Server-Side Rendering, And How Does It Work?
Server-side rendering is the more common technique for displaying information on a screen.
The web browser submits a request for information from the server, fetching user-specific data to populate and sending a fully rendered HTML page to the client.
Every time the user visits a new page on the site, the server will repeat the entire process.
Here’s how the SSR process goes step-by-step:
- The user enters the URL they wish to visit in the address bar.
- The server serves a ready-to-be-rendered HTML response to the browser.
- The browser renders the page (now viewable) and downloads JavaScript.
- The browser executes React, thus making the page interactable.
What Are The Differences Between Client-Side And Server-Side Rendering?
The main difference between these two rendering approaches is in the algorithms of their operation. CSR shows an empty page before loading, while SSR displays a fully-rendered HTML page on the first load.
This gives server-side rendering a speed advantage over client-side rendering, as the browser doesn’t need to process large JavaScript files. Content is often visible within a couple of milliseconds.
Search engines can crawl the site for better SEO, making it easy to index your webpages. This readability in the form of text is precisely the way SSR sites appear in the browser.
However, client-side rendering is a cheaper option for website owners.
It relieves the load on your servers, passing the responsibility of rendering to the client (the bot or user trying to view your page). It also offers rich site interactions by providing fast website interaction after the initial load.
Fewer HTTP requests are made to the server with CSR, unlike in SSR, where each page is rendered from scratch, resulting in a slower transition between pages.
SSR can also buckle under a high server load if the server receives many simultaneous requests from different users.
The drawback of CSR is the longer initial loading time. This can impact SEO; crawlers might not wait for the content to load and exit the site.
This two-phased approach raises the possibility of seeing empty content on your page by missing JavaScript content after first crawling and indexing the HTML of a page. Remember that, in most cases, CSR requires an external library.
When To Use Server-Side Rendering
If you want to improve your Google visibility and rank high in the search engine results pages (SERPs), server-side rendering is the number one choice.
E-learning websites, online marketplaces, and applications with a straightforward user interface with fewer pages, features, and dynamic data all benefit from this type of rendering.
When To Use Client-Side Rendering
Client-side rendering is usually paired with dynamic web apps like social networks or online messengers. This is because these apps’ information constantly changes and must deal with large and dynamic data to perform fast updates to meet user demand.
The focus here is on a rich site with many users, prioritizing the user experience over SEO.
Which Is Better: Server-Side Or Client-Side Rendering?
When determining which approach is best, you need to not only take into consideration your SEO needs but also how the website works for users and delivers value.
Think about your project and how your chosen rendering will impact your position in the SERPs and your website’s user experience.
Generally, CSR is better for dynamic websites, while SSR is best suited for static websites.
Content Refresh Frequency
Websites that feature highly dynamic information, such as gambling or FOREX websites, update their content every second, meaning you’d likely choose CSR over SSR in this scenario – or choose to use CSR for specific landing pages and not all pages, depending on your user acquisition strategy.
SSR is more effective if your site’s content doesn’t require much user interaction. It positively influences accessibility, page load times, SEO, and social media support.
On the other hand, CSR is excellent for providing cost-effective rendering for web applications, and it’s easier to build and maintain; it’s better for First Input Delay (FID).
Another CSR consideration is that meta tags (description, title), canonical URLs, and Hreflang tags should be rendered server-side or presented in the initial HTML response for the crawlers to identify them as soon as possible, and not only appear in the rendered HTML.
Platform Considerations
CSR technology tends to be more expensive to maintain because the hourly rate for developers skilled in React.js or Node.js is generally higher than that for PHP or WordPress developers.
Additionally, there are fewer ready-made plugins or out-of-the-box solutions available for CSR frameworks compared to the larger plugin ecosystem that WordPress users have access too.
For those considering a headless WordPress setup, such as using Frontity, it’s important to note that you’ll need to hire both React.js developers and PHP developers.
This is because headless WordPress relies on React.js for the front end while still requiring PHP for the back end.
It’s important to remember that not all WordPress plugins are compatible with headless setups, which could limit functionality or require additional custom development.
Website Functionality & Purpose
Sometimes, you don’t have to choose between the two as hybrid solutions are available. Both SSR and CSR can be implemented within a single website or webpage.
For example, in an online marketplace, pages with product descriptions can be rendered on the server, as they are static and need to be easily indexed by search engines.
Staying with ecommerce, if you have high levels of personalization for users on a number of pages, you won’t be able to SSR render the content for bots, so you will need to define some form of default content for Googlebot which crawls cookieless and stateless.
Pages like user accounts don’t need to be ranked in the search engine results pages (SERPs), so a CRS approach might be better for UX.
Both CSR and SSR are popular approaches to rendering websites. You and your team need to make this decision at the initial stage of product development.
More resources:
Featured Image: TippaPatt/Shutterstock
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