How do you debug web applications that are not optimized for search engines or social media?

Let's Imagine your website is like a book, and meta tags are like the book's cover and summary. When people search online, search engines look at your meta tags to quickly understand what your pages are about. For example, if you have a cooking website and your meta tags include "Delicious Recipes" in the title, "Easy and Tasty Meals" in the description, and keywords like "quick dinners" and "healthy cooking," it helps search engines connect your site with those topics. So, when someone searches for "quick and healthy dinners," if your meta tags are well-done, your cooking website is more likely to show up higher in the search results, making it easier for people to discover and visit your site.

Debugging web applications that aren't optimized for search engines or social media can be challenging, but here are some general steps you can take: Check the HTML Structure: Ensure that your HTML is well-formed and includes relevant meta tags. Look for any issues with the structure that might hinder search engine crawlers. Use Browser Developer Tools: Inspect the elements on your pages using browser developer tools to identify potential issues with the rendering and content. Look for missing or incorrect tags.

Check your meta tags. Test your page speed. Validate your HTML and CSS. Analyze your JavaScript. Review your content. Monitor your analytics. Here's what else to consider.

Slow page speed harms ranking because search engines prefer fast-loading sites. For example, if your website takes too long to load, Google may rank it lower in search results, causing fewer people to find and visit your site. New research by Google has found that 53% of mobile website visitors will leave if a webpage doesn't load within three seconds.

Upgrade yourself on regular basis about the latest CSS and HTML from their official documentation. For e.g. One can use the latest version syntax/ one liner for the class rules or media queries which will be helpful for code readability And may help in fast rendering.

You need to realize that the ideal website in terms of SEO is wikipedia. Zero javascript, lots of text and internal links. You need to catch the balance between UX and SEO goals. Javascript should be as small as possible. In our Unitiki project, we have completely refused to use third-party js libraries and interpreters. All components are written in pure javascript, and this has had an amazing effect on performance and SEO.

Open up your browser’s developer tools to inspect what’s happening with network requests and check the console logs for any issues. Set breakpoints strategically in your code to step through and identify bottlenecks affecting performance. Take advantage of tools like Chrome DevTools to get a closer look at your JavaScript functions, optimize critical paths, and make the overall application more responsive. If you want to be even more precise, consider using code profiling to pinpoint and fix specific performance bottlenecks.

JavaScript makes websites interactive; errors can lead to failures. Tools like JSHint, JSFiddle, or browser tools help fix issues. For a basic example: If a button on your website doesn't work, debugging with Developer Tools can identify and solve the problem.

Funny fact: online tools like GA can slow down you page metric in Lighthouse. The solution is a bit strange, but working: load counters in an asynchronous way + consider about hosting the counters javascript on you private CDN with custom TTL.

Don't use JavaScript if you don't need it. Create a static website (generated by a static site generator like Eleventy or Hugo) if that fulfulls the need. Layer up the things as needed don't use a gun to kill a fly :).

Rather than loading all scripts during page load, consider loading them on demand or when they're actually needed. Take Google ReCAPTCHA, for instance. It's only necessary when a form is loaded. If the form isn't displayed right away, you can defer the loading of ReCAPTCHA until it's needed, improving overall performance. There's also a neat trick for YouTube. Instead of loading the entire iFrame at once, you can initially display only the thumbnail image. The actual YouTube iFrame is loaded only when the user clicks on the thumbnail, enhancing the user experience by minimizing unnecessary initial loading.

1. Identify the root cause of the issue by analyzing the code & logs 2. Use web analytics tools such as Google Analytics to identify the pages that are not optimized for search engines or social media. 3. Optimize the content of the pages by using relevant keywords, meta tags, and descriptions. 4. Use social media optimization tools such as Open Graph and Twitter Cards to optimize the pages for social media. 5. Use schema markup to provide additional information about the content of the pages to search engines. 6. Use a sitemap to help search engines crawl and index the pages of your website. 7. Test your pages using tools such as Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool to ensure that they are optimized for search engines and social media