JavaScript dependence
JavaScript dependence checks which parts of your page exist only after its scripts run in a browser. Several AI crawlers read the HTML your server sends without running JavaScript, so text, headings or structured data added by scripts can be invisible to them.
At a glance
- Ladder layer
- P0 Access & eligibility
May and can engines fetch and quote the page? - Where it is measured
- Reviewed audit
Explore the audit
Reading the result
What good looks like, and what a problem looks like.
Good
The HTML your server sends already contains the page's text, headings, structured data and dates.
Not measured
When this cannot be checked, the result says so and leaves it out of the score. Unknown is not zero.
Typical problems
- Most of the body text appears only after scripts run.
- Structured data is added by scripts.
- The main heading, author or date exists only after scripts run.
What it cannot prove
- Google runs JavaScript, so content added by scripts can still reach Google while other assistants miss it.
Can AI crawlers read content that loads with JavaScript?
Not reliably. Google renders JavaScript, but the crawlers of OpenAI, Anthropic and Perplexity read only the HTML the server sends. Text, links and structured data that appear only after scripts run are invisible to them.
How do I fix it?
Send the important content in the first HTML response, through server-side rendering, static generation or prerendering, and keep scripts for interaction.
How does the check decide?
It compares the page as the server sends it with the page after a browser has run its scripts, and reports what exists only in the second.
Sources and further reading
Related dimensions