Sometimes the Right Solution Is the Quick One
Look. Migrating a massive client-side SPA to server-side rendering takes months. Maybe years if your codebase is a disaster.
You do not have years. Your rankings are dropping now. (If you are not sure whether you have a rendering problem, read our JavaScript rendering issues post first.)
Dynamic rendering is the band-aid.
How It Works
When Googlebot (or any search bot) requests a page, your server detects the bot and serves a pre-rendered, static HTML version. When a regular user visits, they get the normal JavaScript-rendered version.
Is it cloaking? Google says no — as long as the content is the same. You are just changing the delivery method, not the content itself.
When to Use It
When SSR migration is not feasible short-term. When you have a JavaScript-heavy site with critical rendering issues. When you need a fix this quarter, not next year.
When NOT to Use It
As a permanent solution. It adds complexity, requires maintenance, and is one more thing that can break.
If you are building something new, just use SSR from the start — check our framework comparison for which ones do it best. wink Google's crawling documentation confirms they support dynamic rendering as a workaround.
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