Acme — modern SaaS

` + 18 script tags - • Headings, links, structured data: none - • Search Console: "Discovered – currently not indexed" Lighthouse 98. Browser perfect. Index empty. ## How Google Actually Renders (Two Stages) Google does not render your site the way a browser does. It runs a two-step pipeline: - 1**Crawl raw HTML** — evaluated immediately. This is what gets indexed first. - 2**Render later** — optional, delayed, and unreliable. Can take minutes to days. Can be skipped entirely. ## Stage 1 — HTML crawl (this is what matters) Googlebot fetches the page and evaluates the raw response immediately. A typical failing SPA looks like this: Acme — modern SaaS

That document is **5 KB**, has **~30 visible words**, no headings, no links, no structured data. Google considers it thin and often never indexes it. This is the same shape we cover in [Script Shell Pages](https://datajelly.com/blog/script-shell-pages) and [Your HTML Is Only 4KB](https://datajelly.com/blog/html-only-4kb) . ## Stage 2 — JavaScript rendering (best effort only) Google may queue your page for rendering. When it does: - Latency ranges from minutes to days - It can be skipped entirely under crawler load - The render environment is constrained (timeouts, blocked third-parties) - If render fails, Google falls back to the original HTML There is no retry. No alert. No guarantee. The only signal is your traffic going down weeks later. ## What Most Guides Get Wrong The standard line is: *"Google can render JavaScript, so SPAs are fine."* That sentence ignores how the system actually behaves in production. "Google renders JS, so don't worry about your HTML." Rendering is a separate, deferred queue. Your HTML is what gets indexed first — and often only. "Just submit a sitemap." A sitemap tells Google which URLs exist. It says nothing about whether the HTML at those URLs is renderable or complete. "Use prerendering everywhere." Prerendering trades 'empty' for 'stale.' Without strict invalidation, you ship outdated pricing and missing routes for weeks. You're relying on a secondary system that is slower, less reliable, and often skipped. That's not a strategy. **That's a gamble.** And it ignores AI crawlers entirely — see [How AI Crawlers Read Your Website](https://datajelly.com/blog/how-ai-crawlers-read-your-website) for why GPTBot and friends don't run JS at all. ## What We See in Production Five repeatable failure patterns. We see all of them, every week, across React, Vite, and Lovable apps. 1 ## Empty shell pages **Shape:** 5 KB HTML, 30–80 visible words, 20+ script tags. **Outcome:** Never indexed. The most common failure mode for React/Vite/Lovable SPAs. 2 ### Partial render **Shape:** Header and footer render. Main content (pricing, product details, FAQs) is missing because it loads from an async API. **Outcome:** Page indexes, but ranks for nothing meaningful. You "exist" in Google but get no traffic — see [Indexed But No Traffic](https://datajelly.com/blog/indexed-but-no-traffic) . 3 ### JS execution failure **Shape:** Main bundle 404s on a stale CDN URL, a third-party script blocks `main()`, or hydration throws on first paint. **Outcome:** HTML stays empty forever. We dig into this in [Critical JavaScript Failures](https://datajelly.com/blog/critical-js-failures) . 4 ### Rendering never happens **Shape:** Site has 5,000+ pages. Only the top ~200 get queued for render. The long tail stays as raw HTML. **Outcome:** Crawl budget interacts with render cost. Low-priority routes are invisible. 5 ### Stale or inconsistent render **Shape:** Google rendered an old JS bundle weeks ago. Cached API responses don't match what's live. **Outcome:** Indexed content doesn't match reality. Pricing in SERPs is wrong for weeks. ## Prerender vs SSR vs Edge Three real ways out. Each has tradeoffs. | Approach | Works when | Breaks when | | --- | --- | --- | | Prerendering | Static pages, known routes, infrequent updates | Content changes often, invalidation misses, route count grows | | SSR | You can absorb latency cost and run rendering infra | Higher TTFB, infra complexity, hot path scales with traffic | | Edge proxy (DataJelly) | You want bots to see fully-rendered HTML without changing your SPA | No long-lived snapshot cache → no drift, AI crawlers get clean Markdown | Deeper breakdown: [Prerender vs SSR vs Edge Rendering](https://datajelly.com/blog/prerender-vs-ssr-vs-edge-rendering) and [The Hidden Costs of Prerendering](https://datajelly.com/blog/hidden-costs-of-prerendering) . Why edge removes the gamble - • Fully-rendered HTML delivered at request time — no render queue dependency - • AI crawlers receive clean structured Markdown - • Humans get the live SPA, untouched - • Works with React, Vite, and Lovable apps without rewrites ## How to Detect It (Quick Test) Stop guessing what Google sees. Fetch your page as Googlebot and look at the raw response. If it's a 6 KB shell, that's exactly what got indexed. ## Quick Test: What Do Bots Actually See? ~30 seconds Most people guess. Don't. Run this test and look at the actual response your site returns to bots. 1 ### Fetch your page as Googlebot Use your terminal: `curl -A "Googlebot" https://yourdomain.com` Look for: - Real visible text (not just `

`) - Meaningful content in the HTML - Page size (should not be tiny) 2 ### Compare bot vs browser Now test what a real browser gets: `curl -A "Mozilla/5.0" https://yourdomain.com` If these responses are different, Google is indexing a different page than your users see. Stop guessing — measure it. ### Real example: 253 words vs 13,547 We see this constantly. Here's a real example from production: Googlebot saw 253 words and 2 KB of HTML. A browser saw 13,547 words and 77.5 KB. Same URL — completely different content. [![Bot vs browser comparison showing 253 words for Googlebot vs 13,547 words for a rendered browser on the same URL](https://datajelly.com/assets/bot-comparison-proof-BSBvKXDf.png) ](https://datajelly.com/assets/bot-comparison-proof-BSBvKXDf.png) If your HTML doesn't contain the content, Google doesn't either. [Compare Googlebot vs browser on your site → HTTP Debug Tool](https://datajelly.com/seo-tools/http-debug) 3 ### Check for common failure signals We see this all the time in production: - HTML under ~1KB → usually empty shell - Visible text under ~200 characters → thin or missing content - Missing or <h1> → weak or broken page - Large difference between bot vs browser HTML → rendering issue ### Use the DataJelly Visibility Test (Recommended) You can run this without touching curl. It shows you: - Raw HTML returned to bots (Googlebot, Bing, GPTBot, etc.) - Fully rendered browser version - Side-by-side differences in word count, HTML size, links, and content [Run Visibility Test — Free](https://datajelly.com/#visibility-test) ### What this test tells you (no guessing) After running this, you'll know: - Whether your HTML is actually indexable - Whether bots are seeing partial content - Whether rendering is breaking in production This is the difference between *"I think SEO is set up"* and **"I know what Google is indexing."** If you don't understand why this happens, read: [Why Google Can't See Your SPA](https://datajelly.com/blog/why-google-cant-see-your-spa) ### If this test fails You have three real options: SSR Works if you can keep it stable in production Prerendering Breaks with dynamic content and scale Edge Rendering Reflects real production output without app changes If you do nothing, you will not rank consistently. [Learn how Edge Rendering works →](https://datajelly.com/products/edge) This issue doesn't show up in Lighthouse. It shows up in rankings. [Run the Test](https://datajelly.com/#visibility-test) [Ask a Question](https://datajelly.com/contact) ## Practical Checklist ## 1. Check raw HTML (this is the truth) curl -A "Googlebot" https://your-site.com/page | wc -c curl -A "Googlebot" https://your-site.com/page | grep -oE '\b\w+\b' | wc -l Look for: HTML < 10 KB → failure risk. Visible text < 200 words → failure. Mostly script tags → failure. ## 2. Compare source vs DOM View page source (raw HTML) and compare to the rendered DOM in DevTools. Anything that only exists in DevTools, Google likely doesn't see during the initial crawl. ## 3. Measure content density Healthy: 15–100 KB HTML | 500–2000+ words Broken: < 10 KB HTML | < 150 words ## 4. Check Search Console signals - • **"Discovered – currently not indexed"** → empty HTML at crawl time - • **"Crawled – currently not indexed"** → partial or failed render. See [Crawled Not Indexed](https://datajelly.com/blog/crawled-not-indexed) . ## 5. Check runtime failures Console errors, failed JS/CSS requests, third-party timeouts — all directly correlate with render failures. See [Critical JavaScript Failures](https://datajelly.com/blog/critical-js-failures) . Want this automated? The [Page Validator](https://datajelly.com/seo-tools/page-validator) and [HTTP Bot Comparison](https://datajelly.com/seo-tools/http-debug) tool run all of these for you. ## Real Thresholds From the SPAs we audit week to week. These are not opinions — they're the actual breakpoints between "indexed" and "invisible." | Metric | Healthy | Risk | Broken | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | HTML size | 15–100 KB | 10–15 KB | < 10 KB | | Visible words | 500–2000+ | 150–500 | < 150 | | DOM headings | ≥ 3 (incl. H1) | 1–2 | 0 | | Internal links in HTML | ≥ 10 | 3–9 | 0–2 | "Google renders JavaScript" is technically true and practically misleading. Google indexes what it sees first: your raw HTML. If your HTML is empty, your page is invisible — regardless of how well your app renders in the browser. Stop relying on deferred rendering. **Serve complete HTML at crawl time, or accept unstable indexing.** ## The DataJelly Approach DataJelly Edge fixes this at the infrastructure level. The edge proxy serves fully-rendered HTML snapshots to bots, AI crawlers receive clean Markdown, and humans get the live SPA. You control what bots see — instead of relying on Google's render queue. - Fully rendered HTML at crawl time — no render queue gamble - AI Markdown for GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot - Works with React, Vite, and Lovable SPAs — no rewrites - Eliminates empty HTML responses at crawl time Deeper read: [How Edge works →](https://datajelly.com/products/edge) [Run the Visibility Test — Free](https://datajelly.com/visibility-test) [Start 14-Day Free Trial](https://app.datajelly.com/signup) [Ask a Question](https://datajelly.com/contact) ## Related Diagnostic Tools [Visibility Test Compare bot vs browser HTML side-by-side](https://datajelly.com/visibility-test) [Page Validator Check bot-readiness and HTML completeness](https://datajelly.com/seo-tools/page-validator) [HTTP Bot Comparison Compare Googlebot vs browser responses](https://datajelly.com/seo-tools/http-debug) [Site Crawler Audit HTML quality across all routes](https://datajelly.com/seo-tools/site-crawler) ## FAQ ## Does Google always render JavaScript? ## Why does Google show my page but not rank it? ## What HTML size is considered too small? ## What is a script shell page? ## Why does everything look fine in the browser? ## Is prerendering enough? ## What's the fastest fix for JavaScript SEO issues? ## Related Reading [What AI Crawlers Actually Extract From Your Site GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot don't render JS at all. Here's what they pull from your HTML.](https://datajelly.com/blog/ai-crawlers-extract) [The Hidden Costs of Prerendering Stale snapshots, broken invalidation, snapshot drift. Why prerendering trades one problem for another.](https://datajelly.com/blog/hidden-costs-of-prerendering) [Script Shell Pages When your HTML is one div and 15 script tags, this is what bots see.](https://datajelly.com/blog/script-shell-pages) [Your HTML Is Only 4KB Why a 4KB shell is not SEO-compatible — and what a healthy response looks like.](https://datajelly.com/blog/html-only-4kb) [Why Google Can't See Your SPA The full picture of how SPAs fail in production crawling.](https://datajelly.com/blog/why-google-cant-see-your-spa) [Prerender vs SSR vs Edge Rendering What actually works for SEO with real production data.](https://datajelly.com/blog/prerender-vs-ssr-vs-edge-rendering) [Crawled But Not Indexed What the Search Console label really means — and how to fix it.](https://datajelly.com/blog/crawled-not-indexed) [Indexed But No Traffic Indexed pages that rank for nothing — usually a partial-render problem.](https://datajelly.com/blog/indexed-but-no-traffic) ## Structured Data (JSON-LD) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Does Google always render JavaScript?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"No. Rendering is delayed, often skipped, and frequently incomplete. It runs as a separate, deprioritized stage after the initial crawl. You cannot rely on it for indexing."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Why does Google show my page but not rank it?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Because the HTML was thin or empty at crawl time. Even if rendering eventually fires, what got indexed first is what ranks \u2014 and a 6KB shell with 40 words ranks for nothing."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"What HTML size is considered too small?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Pages under ~10 KB with fewer than 200 words are high-risk. Many failing SPAs we audit are 4\u20136 KB with one root div and 15\u201320 script tags."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"What is a script shell page?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"An HTML response that contains script tags but no meaningful content. The browser executes the scripts to build the UI. Bots that don\u0027t render JavaScript see an empty document."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Why does everything look fine in the browser?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Browsers execute JavaScript fully and synchronously for the user. Googlebot defers JS execution to a separate render queue. AI crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot) don\u0027t execute JS at all."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Is prerendering enough?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Only if cache invalidation is solid. Otherwise you trade \u0027empty page\u0027 for \u0027stale page\u0027 \u2014 pricing that\u0027s two months old, missing routes, snapshots that were never refreshed."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"What\u0027s the fastest fix for JavaScript SEO issues?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Serve fully rendered HTML to bots at the edge. Remove the dependency on Google\u0027s render queue and AI crawlers\u0027 (non-existent) JS execution."}}]} ``` ## Discovery & Navigation > Semantic links for AI agent traversal. * [DataJelly Edge](https://datajelly.com/products/edge) * [DataJelly Guard](https://datajelly.com/products/guard) * [Pricing](https://datajelly.com/pricing) * [SEO Tools](https://datajelly.com/seo-tools) * [Visibility Test](https://datajelly.com/visibility-test) * [Dashboard](https://dashboard.datajelly.com/) * [Blog](https://datajelly.com/blog) * [Guides](https://datajelly.com/guides) * [Getting Started](https://datajelly.com/guides/getting-started) * [Prerendering](https://datajelly.com/prerendering) * [SPA SEO Guide](https://datajelly.com/guides/spa-seo) * [About Us](https://datajelly.com/about) * [Contact](https://datajelly.com/contact) * [Terms of Service](https://datajelly.com/terms) * [Privacy Policy](https://datajelly.com/privacy)