What is server-side rendering?
Server-side rendering, or SSR, means the server generates and delivers the finished HTML page with all its content, instead of assembling it in the browser with JavaScript. Crawlers receive the content directly, without having to execute JavaScript.
The counterpart is client-side rendering, where the browser gets an empty skeleton and loads the content itself. Both approaches produce the same result in a browser. For crawlers they differ sharply: with SSR the text is in the first response, with client-side rendering it is not.
There are hybrids between the two extremes. Statically generated pages create the HTML at build time, and other approaches render the first request on the server and hand over to the browser afterwards. Common frameworks such as Next.js, Nuxt and Astro support these variants.
For AI visibility, the technique matters less than the result: are a page’s core statements in the HTML the server delivers? A site can be built client-side and still deliver its most important text directly.
What it means for your website
Check the page source of your most important pages for the text you want to be found with. If it is missing, talk to your agency or developer about server-side rendering or statically generated pages. Site builders that load content later often cannot be switched; then the remaining option is changing the system.
Related terms
More on deeploupe
Sources
This entry contains no figures and relies on generally documented terms.
Terms help you understand. Whether AI crawlers can reach your site is something you measure.
Check your website for freefree · no signup · no credit card