Search engines may crawl, render, and index JavaScript pages in separate stages. If the initial response is an empty app shell, important text and links depend on later rendering. SSR or static prerendering makes public content available earlier; use it where content is stable or search-critical.
Compare the raw HTTP response with the browser DOM and Google URL Inspection. Check status, title, canonical, main text, links, and hydration errors. Do not serve substantially different pages to crawlers; dynamic rendering adds maintenance and is not the default fix. Google’s JavaScript SEO guide
Steps to follow
- Fetch the exact URL without running browser JavaScript.
- Compare initial HTML with the rendered DOM.
- Check that links use real href values and metadata agrees.
- Use URL Inspection to verify Google’s rendered result.