Rendered HTML is the document as it exists after a browser, or a search engine's renderer, has executed the page's JavaScript. It can differ a lot from the raw HTML the server sent, especially on sites built with client-side frameworks.
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Why compare the two
If key content, links or tags appear only in the rendered version, they depend on rendering succeeding. Some crawlers, including many AI bots, do not run JavaScript at all and see only the raw HTML.
How to check
View source for the raw HTML, and use the URL Inspection tool's rendered view or your browser's inspector for the rendered one. Compare titles, headings, body text and links.
Common mistakes
Trusting the inspector alone
The browser inspector shows the rendered DOM and hides what a non-rendering crawler receives.
Frequently Asked Questions
Safest, yes. Server-side rendering or static generation puts it there for every crawler.
Keep reading
- JavaScript SEO: JavaScript SEO is the practice of making sure pages built with JavaScript can be crawled, rendered and indexed by search engines and AI crawlers.
- Client-side rendering: Client-side rendering builds a page in the browser with JavaScript after a mostly empty HTML shell loads. It can delay or hide content from crawlers.
- Server-Side Rendering: Server-side rendering builds a page's HTML on the server for each request, so browsers and crawlers receive complete content without running JavaScript.
- Dynamic rendering: Dynamic rendering serves pre-rendered HTML to crawlers and client-side JavaScript to users. Google now calls it a workaround and not a long-term solution.
- AMP: AMP is a web framework for building fast-loading pages under strict rules on JavaScript and CSS. Google no longer requires it for the Top Stories carousel.
- Cache-Control: Cache-Control is an HTTP header that tells browsers and CDNs whether and how long to store a response. Good caching makes repeat loads and crawls faster.
- Canonical URL: A canonical URL is the version of a page search engines treat as the main one when several URLs show the same or very similar content.
- Canonicalization: Canonicalization is the process of choosing one preferred URL when several pages have duplicate or very similar content, so search engines know which version to show.
