Google’s latest change requires JavaScript-enabled browsers to view search result page content, potentially complicating organic rank tracking, keyword research, and AI visibility. This update aims to protect Google services from bots and “abuse,” but its impact on marketers is uncertain.
Before the switch, web crawlers like Ahrefs and Semrush could scrape and index static HTML pages. However, with JavaScript-enabled pages, crawling has become more complicated. Web-scraping bots must now render the page in a headless browser, wait for dynamic content to load, and parse the resulting HTML.
This change may increase costs for rank tracking tools, which crawl millions of SERPs monthly. Marketers using these tools might face higher prices or reduced accuracy if they don’t update their strategies.
Keyword research is also affected, as identifying relevant keywords could become less precise and more costly. Marketers may need to rely on alternative methods, such as page- or domain-level traffic metrics.
AI models, which previously relied on crawling Google results to discover pages and content, must now spend extra time and computing power to parse JavaScript-driven SERPs. This might impact their accuracy and effectiveness.
As with any Google change, marketers will need to wait and adapt to the new landscape of SEO. The impact of this update is uncertain, but one thing is clear: search engine optimization is evolving.
Source: https://www.practicalecommerce.com/googles-javascript-serps-impact-trackers-ai