Fetching raw HTML — simulating Googlebot's first-wave crawl...
About JavaScript SEO
Why do JavaScript-heavy sites have SEO problems? +
Googlebot crawls web pages in two waves: first it downloads the raw HTML, then (days or weeks later) it may execute JavaScript to see the rendered content. If your React, Vue, or Angular site renders critical content — title, H1, meta description, body text — only after JavaScript runs, Googlebot's first pass sees an empty page. Many JS-heavy sites never get properly indexed because Googlebot doesn't always execute JS, and JS rendering uses limited crawl budget per site.
How do I check if my site uses CSR or SSR? +
Use this tool, or run:
curl -sL https://yoursite.com | grep '<h1\|<title\|description'. If these elements appear in the output, your site uses SSR/SSG. If you only see a minimal HTML shell like <div id="root"></div>, your site uses client-side rendering.What is BAILOUT_TO_CLIENT_SIDE_RENDERING in Next.js? +
This Next.js internal signal appears in page source when a component fell back from SSR to CSR. It means Google is receiving an empty section — the content only appears after JS executes. Fix: identify which component causes the bailout (usually a component using browser-only APIs or React hooks in a Server Component) and refactor it for server compatibility.
Does Google execute JavaScript for SEO? +
Yes, but with major limitations: Googlebot uses an older Chrome version, JS rendering uses a limited crawl budget, rendering is not guaranteed, and there can be weeks between first crawl (HTML) and second crawl (JS). For reliable indexation, critical content must exist in the server-rendered HTML.
How do I fix CSR SEO issues in React or Next.js? +
For Next.js: use App Router Server Components (SSR by default), getServerSideProps or getStaticProps for Pages Router. For plain React: migrate to Next.js or Remix, or implement server-side rendering with ReactDOM.renderToString(). At minimum, ensure your title and meta tags are server-rendered even if the page body is client-side.
What is a good JavaScript SEO score? +
80+ is good — critical content is server-rendered and Google can index pages without JS execution. 60–79 is moderate risk — some critical content may require JS. Below 60 is high risk — Google likely sees empty pages, causing serious indexability and ranking problems. The biggest impact: getting H1, title, and meta description into server-rendered HTML.