You spent weeks building a slick React app. The design is chef's kiss. The UX flows like butter. You ship it, share the link, and then check Google Search Console two months later. Nothing. Zero impressions.
The dirty secret about React and search engines
React is a client-side framework. When a crawler visits your site, it downloads a nearly empty HTML file. Here's what Google actually receives when it crawls a typical React app:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head><title>My App</title></head>
<body>
<div id="root"></div>
<script src="/static/js/main.abc123.js"></script>
</body>
</html>An empty div. No content, no headings, no meta descriptions — nothing for Google to index.
But wait — doesn't Google run JavaScript?
Sort of. Google has a two-phase crawl system. It crawls your raw HTML immediately, then puts JavaScript rendering into a queue that can take days or weeks to process. And AI crawlers like ChatGPT and Perplexity? They mostly don't run JavaScript at all.
The three ways to fix it
- Server-Side Rendering (SSR) — render on the server for every request. Adds complexity and cost.
- Static Site Generation (SSG) — pre-build HTML at deploy time. Only works for static content.
- Prerendering — detect crawler requests, render with a headless browser, serve the HTML snapshot. Your app stays a React SPA for real users.
Prerendering is the lazy genius solution. You don't have to rewrite your app, switch to Next.js, or learn SSR patterns. It sits in front of your existing app and handles crawler requests automatically.
Ready to stop being invisible?
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