What is the JTL dropper?
The JTL Dropper is a very popular plugin among JTL shop owners. Dropper is mostly used to design dedicated landing pages on specific topics or to add specific content to product or category pages. So-called drops are used to integrate this content into the JTL shop. A drop can be simple text (plain), it can be images (image banner), but it can also be a content slider (power slide), and that’s by no means all the possibilities.
Since this is also search engine-relevant content, the question naturally arises as to how SEO-friendly Dropper is. In the following post, I will try to answer this question for you, so stay tuned.
SEO with JTL Dropper: How do I insert these drops into the page? Is JavaScript or something similar used?
The big advantage of the JTL dropper is the simple integration of the drops into your own JTL shop. With the help of the drops, entire pages can be created using the drag-and-drop function without writing a single line of code. But how are these drops inserted into the page? Does Dropper insert the content into the page using JavaScript?
No, the drops are not inserted via Javascript or anything similar. If you insert content (drops) via dropper, these are available in the source text the first time the page is called up and can therefore be read and evaluated by search engines without any problems. It’s almost like writing the content directly into the template’s code.
Dropper SEO Tip 1: Duplicate Content
The JTL Dropper offers the possibility of displaying individual drops on multiple pages using the dropper display filter. This is possible using the so-called characteristic values. This function is interesting, for example, for content such as an FAQ area that is to be displayed on several pages.
However, you have to be careful here since duplicate content will be penalised directly by Google. It would be better to move such content to separate pages and then link to it from article detail pages. A knowledge area within the website, for example, or a separate page for the FAQ area are suitable for this. So you are always on the safe side with SEO.
Dropper SEO Tip 2: What about the JTL Dropper with expandable elements?
In addition to simple text content (plain), Dropper also offers tabs or accordion drops to present content in a structured and tidy manner. From a UX point of view, these are, of course, usually very appealing. From an SEO point of view, however, the question arises as to whether the content that is not visible (closed tabs) is indexed by search engines. Dropper answers this question with a resounding YES! Google also recognises and reads content that is initially invisible to users. The content of the drops is thus also crawled by the search engines.
Dropper SEO tip 3: Page speed
A so-called drop container can be activated via the editing dialogue of most drops. This is a container that wraps the contents of a drop and allows lazy loading to be enabled. With the help of lazy loading, you can optimise the performance and, thus, the usability of the site. Here, you can specify when the content should be loaded on the page. In the default setting, content is loaded directly when the page is called up. In addition, Dropper offers two more options.
With “Option 2” (pre-render content), content is already pre-rendered on the server side and sent to the browser, but only inserted into the page as soon as the drop comes into the customer’s field of vision.
With “Option 3” (load via Ajax), the drop is only loaded as soon as it gets into the customer’s field of vision. This option has a particularly positive effect on the “Time to first byte”, since the content is neither loaded nor pre-rendered when the page is called up.
However, with complex drops, this option can also lead to noticeable delays and, thus, a deterioration in the UX when the content enters the field of view.
Conclusion on the JTL Dropper and search engine optimisation
The developers of the JTL Dropper have definitely thought about SEO. However, as you can see, there are a few things to keep in mind when creating drops from an SEO perspective. I have put together a few of these points for you in this blog post, but these are by no means all of them.
If you have any other questions about the JTL Dropper or need help setting it up, we are always at your disposal. Just contact us; we will be happy to help you!
