Say Hello to the New Googlebot!

With the launch of the new Googlebot, Google now claims to be better at understanding more modern, JavaScript-heavy websites. In this article, we’ve compiled valuable information about the update, along with our own thoughts on this highly interesting topic.

Recently, on May 7, 2019 to be exact, Google introduced its new search robot, taking over where its predecessor bowed out after many years of faithful service.

Google has communicated that the new search robot will be “evergreen,” which in this case means that it will stay continuously updated in line with the Chromium browser, the open-source browser that Chrome is built on.

In other words, Googlebot will now be able to see and identify everything that a regular Chromium user experiences, something that—if true—will be a real game changer.

What’s different with the new Googlebot?

This theoretically means that modern websites that used to be an SEO nightmare—particularly those heavily reliant on JavaScript—will now find it much easier to have their content indexed correctly.

That said, Googlebot still won’t be able to crawl, interpret, and index every website perfectly, so there will still be scenarios where you’ll need to review your current web setup.

Google therefore recommends checking out the information on their page about remaining JavaScript issues, as well as their JavaScript and SEO series on YouTube.

Take Google’s words with a grain of salt

Don’t get us wrong—we at Brath are just as excited about the new Googlebot as anyone else. But at the same time, we want to raise a cautionary note: not all the information provided may necessarily be accurate. This wouldn’t be the first time in SEO history that Google’s capabilities have been exaggerated compared to reality.

That’s why we believe it’s still wise to take the above guidelines with a pinch of salt. A healthy dose of skepticism is always useful in the beginning, until it’s confirmed that the new search robot is as powerful as claimed.

That Google is developing its bot in this direction is, however, incredibly welcome. In the long run, this shift should move part of SEO’s focus away from purely technical solutions and more toward creating better, more engaging content.

It will definitely be exciting to see how this plays out—and as always, we at Brath will be following the development closely!