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Tutorial 5 of 5 · 1:05
Content that needs JavaScript
Many React, Vue and Angular sites send an almost empty page and build the content in the browser. Google renders JavaScript, but most AI crawlers read only the HTML, so to them the page is empty.
Find it
- Crawl the site with JavaScript rendering off: that is what most AI crawlers see.
- Click Content needs JavaScript in the issues list. It lists pages with little text in the HTML and an app shell or many scripts.
- Open the project settings, tick Render JavaScript and crawl again. Each page now loads in a built-in browser, and the details pane shows the heading and text a browser and Google see.
Fix it
- Send the content in the HTML: render on the server or at build time (Next.js, Nuxt, SvelteKit and Astro do this).
- Or prerender the pages that matter most.
- Crawl again with rendering off. “Content needs JavaScript” should be gone.
Try it yourself
The tutorial crawls our example pages, which have this problem on purpose. Start a crawl at https://crawldude.com/examples/ in CrawlDude to follow along.