Features

How accurately can Scrunch detect JavaScript or rendering issues that block AI crawlers?

Also asked as
  • Does Scrunch detect JavaScript content hidden from AI bots?
  • How does Scrunch identify rendering issues that block AI?

Scrunch detects JavaScript or rendering issues that block AI crawlers very accurately because its Site Optimization feature compares the “human” view versus the “AI” view.

Additional context: The human view is browser-rendered and JavaScript-enabled. The AI view is what an AI bot can read without reliably executing JavaScript. If Scrunch can't see key content during a crawl, neither can most AI bots.

Image from Site Optimization tab in Scrunch

Example

For example, imagine a Scrunch user runs Site Optimization on a JavaScript-heavy product page that rarely gets cited.

Scrunch identifies whether there is meaningful content on the page that can be delivered without JavaScript.

It also checks whether the page successfully returned prerendered content when fetched by a bot.

Scrunch then provides the user with results so they can fix any JavaScript or rendering issues.

Follow-up question: How do I fix JavaScript and rendering issues?

There are two ways to fix JavaScript and rendering issues:

  1. Fix at the source: Implement server-side rendering or prerendering for Single Page Applications and reduce JavaScript dependencies for critical content. This requires engineering resources.
  2. Enable Agent Pages: Scrunch’s Agent Pages delivers a clean HTML version of site pages to AI bots at the CDN level—no code changes and no impact on the human site experience.
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