How Google Renders Pages

You might assume that when Google visits your website, it sees exactly what you see. Unfortunately, that is often not the case.

In the early days of the web, pages were simple HTML files. Googlebot would crawl a page, download the HTML, and index it in one step. Today, most modern websites rely heavily on JavaScript to load content, show products, or display reviews.

This introduces a critical new step in the SEO process called Rendering. If Google cannot successfully run your website's code to "paint" the picture of your page, your content simply does not exist to the search engine. And if it does not exist, none of the ranking factors that determine your position can work in your favor.

What is Rendering?

Rendering is the process of turning website code (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript) into the visual page a user interacts with.

Think of it like a cooking recipe.

• The Code (HTML/JS): The raw ingredients and instructions.
• The Browser (Chrome/Safari): The chef that follows the instructions to cook the meal.
• The Rendered Page: The final dish that is ready to be eaten.

For Google to rank your content, it has to act as the chef. It must execute your JavaScript to see the final dish. If it only looks at the raw ingredients (the initial HTML), it might miss the most important parts of your page, like your main text or product links.

The Two-Wave Indexing Process

Google does not always render pages immediately. Because running JavaScript takes a lot of computing power, Google splits the process into two distinct waves.

Wave 1: The Instant Crawl

When Googlebot first hits your URL, it downloads the raw HTML file. It immediately looks for links and content that are available without running any JavaScript.

• If your title tag and main content are in the raw HTML, they are seen right away.
• If your content requires JavaScript to load (like a "Load More" button or a client-side widget), Googlebot ignores it at this stage.

Wave 2: The Deferred Render

If Google detects that your page needs JavaScript, it puts the URL into a Render Queue. This is a waiting room. When resources become available (usually minutes or hours later, but sometimes longer), a headless version of the Chrome browser opens your page, runs the JavaScript, and "sees" the final content.

Only after this second wave is the fully rendered content added to the index.

Common Rendering Strategies

To control how Google sees your site, developers use different rendering strategies. Knowing which one your site uses is key to debugging SEO issues.

1. Server-Side Rendering (SSR)

Best for SEO. The server does all the heavy lifting. When Googlebot asks for a page, the server runs the code and sends back a fully finished HTML page. Google sees everything immediately in "Wave 1."

• Pros: Fast indexing, consistent for bots and humans.
• Cons: Can be slower for the server to process.

2. Client-Side Rendering (CSR)

Risky for SEO. The server sends a mostly empty HTML shell. The user's browser (or Googlebot) has to download a JavaScript file and run it to fill in the content.

• Pros: Fast and smooth for users once loaded.
• Cons: Googlebot must wait for "Wave 2" to see anything. If the script fails or times out, the page is invisible.

3. Static Site Generation (SSG)

Excellent for SEO. The page is built once at deploy time, not on every request. The result is a plain HTML file that is served instantly to both users and Googlebot. No server processing, no JavaScript needed to show the content.

• Pros: Fastest possible load time, perfect for SEO, cheap to host.
• Cons: Content is fixed until the next deploy. Not ideal for pages that change frequently (like a user dashboard or live stock prices).

Tools like Next.js, Astro, Hugo, and Eleventy all support static generation. If your page content does not change between user visits, SSG is almost always the best choice.

4. Dynamic Rendering

The Old Workaround. This method detects who is visiting the site. If it's a human, it serves Client-Side Rendering. If it's a bot (like Googlebot), it serves a pre-rendered static HTML version.

• Note: Google used to recommend this, but as of 2024–2025, they advise moving toward Server-Side Rendering or Static Site Generation instead. It is complex to maintain and prone to errors.

How to Check If Google Can Render Your Page

You do not need to guess. There are several ways to see what Google sees.

View Source vs. Inspect Element

The fastest check requires no tools at all. Right-click on your page and compare these two options:

• "View Page Source" shows the raw HTML your server sends before any JavaScript runs. This is what Google sees in Wave 1.
• "Inspect Element" (DevTools) shows the rendered DOM after JavaScript has executed. This is what Google sees after Wave 2.

If your main content (headings, product descriptions, article text) appears in View Page Source, you are in good shape. If it only appears in Inspect Element, your content depends on JavaScript rendering.

Disable JavaScript in Chrome DevTools

Another way to simulate what Google sees in Wave 1 is to turn off JavaScript entirely and reload the page.

1. Open Chrome DevTools (F12 or Ctrl+Shift+I on Windows, Cmd+Option+I on Mac).
2. Press Ctrl+Shift+P (or Cmd+Shift+P on Mac) to open the Command Menu.
3. Type "Disable JavaScript" and select the option.
4. Reload the page.

Whatever you see now is what Googlebot sees before rendering. If the page is blank or missing its main content, you have a client-side rendering dependency. Remember to re-enable JavaScript when you are done testing.

The URL Inspection Tool

In Google Search Console, enter any URL from your site and click "Test Live URL". Once it finishes:

1. Click "View Tested Page".
2. Look at the "Screenshot" tab. Does it look like your actual page? Is it blank? Are blocks of text missing?
3. Look at the "HTML" tab. Search for a specific sentence from your content. If you can't find it in the HTML, Google hasn't indexed it.

The Mobile-Friendly Test

Even though the dedicated tool is deprecated, the underlying technology is the same as the "Test Live URL" feature. Google renders pages using a mobile user agent. If your content is hidden on mobile (e.g., behind a "click to expand" accordion that requires JS), Google might de-prioritize it.

Common Rendering Pitfalls

Here are the most common reasons Google fails to render a page correctly.

1. Blocked Resources in Robots.txt

Sometimes developers accidentally block Googlebot from accessing the JavaScript (JS) or CSS files needed to build the page.

• The Fix: Ensure your robots.txt file does not disallow your /assets/, /js/, or /wp-content/themes/ folders. Google needs these files to render the page properly.

2. Timeouts and Load Speed

Googlebot does not have infinite patience. If your JavaScript takes 10 seconds to fetch product data from a database, Googlebot might give up and index the page as it is (incomplete).

• The Fix: Optimize your code to load critical content within the first few seconds.

3. Lazy Loading

Lazy loading is great for speed. It loads images only when a user scrolls down. However, Googlebot doesn't scroll like a human. It resizes the window to be very long, but it doesn't trigger "scroll events."

• The Fix: Use native lazy loading (loading="lazy" attribute) instead of custom JavaScript libraries whenever possible.

How GrepRank Checks This

When you run a GrepRank audit, it fetches the raw HTML response from your URL and analyzes what content is immediately available without JavaScript execution. If your critical content (headings, body text, links) is missing from the initial HTML, the audit flags it as a potential rendering issue.

Summary: The Developer Checklist

If you are working with a developer or building a site yourself, keep this rendering checklist in mind:

1. Prefer Server-Side Rendering (SSR) or Static Generation for important content.
2. Inspect your URLs in Search Console to ensure the "rendered HTML" contains your critical keywords.
3. Unblock your JS and CSS files in robots.txt.
4. Use <a> tags for links. Google cannot follow links that only work via JavaScript clicks (e.g., <div onclick="goToPage()">). It needs standard <a href="/page"> links to discover new URLs.