# Rendered HTML

Category: [Rendering & JavaScript](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/category/rendering-javascript/) › [How search engines render](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/category/rendering-javascript/how-search-engines-render/)

**Rendered HTML** is the markup of a page after JavaScript has run, in other words the current state of the DOM. It can differ from the raw HTML the server delivers. In SEO, what counts is which version Google sees when it indexes a page.

## Why does rendered HTML matter for SEO?
Google processes JavaScript pages in three phases: crawling, rendering and indexing. A headless Chromium renders the page, Google parses the rendered HTML for links again, and uses it to index the page. Content, links and meta tags that only JavaScript creates are therefore visible to Google after the rendering step.

Google does not render JavaScript on pages blocked by robots.txt or from blocked files. Content missing from the rendered HTML is missing from the index. Google also notes that not all bots can run JavaScript.

A test by searchVIU (2017) showed that Google goes by the rendered version. hreflang annotations that stayed in the page source but were removed from the DOM with JavaScript were no longer applied. In a study by searchVIU (2020) of more than 200 domains, the rendered HTML differed from the source on 96% of them, in text, internal links, titles or meta tags. At the URL level, 56% of pages were affected, mostly because JavaScript added text and links.

## Example
The raw HTML of a single-page application often holds only an empty container:

```html
<div id="app">
<script src="/app.js"></script>
```

After `app.js` has run, the rendered HTML contains the content:

```html
<div id="app">
  <h1>Running shoe model X</h1>
  <a href="/running-shoes/">All running shoes</a>
```

## How can you check it?
Chrome's DevTools explain that HTML is the initial page content and the DOM the current one, and the DOM changes when JavaScript adds, removes or edits nodes. For the version Google sees, the URL Inspection tool in Search Console shows loaded resources, JavaScript console output and the rendered DOM. Google also names the Rich Results Test.

*Diagram: Raw HTML vs. rendered HTML.* The raw HTML of a JavaScript page lacks the title, heading and links. Google indexes the rendered HTML and parses it for links again.

## Not to be confused with

- [Raw HTML / source code](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/raw-html-source-code/index.md): is the HTML exactly as the server delivers it, shown by “View page source” in the browser. It contains only what is in the document before any JavaScript runs.

## Related terms

- [Raw HTML / source code](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/raw-html-source-code/index.md)
- [JavaScript SEO](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/javascript-seo/index.md)
- [Rendering](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/rendering/index.md)
- [Client-side rendering](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/client-side-rendering/index.md)
- [DOM](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/dom/index.md)
- [URL inspection tool](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/url-inspection-tool/index.md)

## More on the searchVIU blog

- [JavaScript Crawling Study: Rendered vs. Non-Rendered HTML](https://www.searchviu.com/en/javascript-crawling-study-rendered-html-vs-original-source-code/)
- [JavaScript SEO test: Does Google use pre- or post-DOM HTML for interpreting hreflang?](https://www.searchviu.com/en/javascript-seo-experiment-hreflang/)
- [JavaScript SEO surprise! Google DOES use JS-injected canonical tags.](https://www.searchviu.com/en/javascript-canonical-tags/)

## Sources

- [Understand JavaScript SEO basics – Google Search Central](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/javascript/javascript-seo-basics)
- [Fix Search-related JavaScript problems – Google Search Central](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/javascript/fix-search-javascript)
- [URL Inspection Tool – Search Console Help](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9012289?hl=en)
- [HTML versus the DOM – Chrome DevTools](https://developer.chrome.com/docs/devtools/dom)
- [JavaScript SEO test: Does Google use pre- or post-DOM HTML for interpreting hreflang? – searchVIU blog (2017)](https://www.searchviu.com/en/javascript-seo-experiment-hreflang/)
- [JavaScript Crawling Study: Rendered vs. Non-Rendered HTML – searchVIU blog (2020)](https://www.searchviu.com/en/javascript-crawling-study-rendered-html-vs-original-source-code/)

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Last updated: October 8, 2026
URL: https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/rendered-html/