Next.js3 min read
SSR, SSG, ISR or CSR: choosing a rendering strategy per route
Rendering strategy is a per-route decision, not an architectural religion. A single Next.js app can and should use all four.
Googlebot executes JavaScript, but rendering happens in a separate, later queue with no guaranteed timing. Content that only exists after client-side rendering may be indexed slowly or incompletely, and most other crawlers — including several AI systems — do not execute JavaScript at all. Server-render anything that needs to be found.
The queue delay is not published and varies. For a news site or an ecommerce catalogue where freshness matters, waiting for the render queue is a real disadvantage. For a stable page it matters less — but there is no upside to relying on it either.
| Content | Render where |
|---|---|
| Main body content | Server — always |
| Title, description, canonical | Server — always |
| Structured data | Server |
| Navigation and internal links | Server |
| Product price and availability | Server |
| Personalised recommendations | Client is fine |
| Interactive widgets | Client is fine |
| Comments | Server for the first page, client for more |
# What the crawler receives before any JavaScript runs
curl -s https://rovqix.in/blog/example | grep -o "<h1>.*</h1>"
# Compare against the rendered DOM in the browser
# If the h1 is missing from curl output, it is client-renderedServing crawlers materially different content from users is cloaking and is against guidelines. Serving the same content, rendered differently, is not — the distinction is whether the content differs.
Usually yes, eventually. The delay and inconsistency are the problem, along with other crawlers that do not render at all. Server-rendering removes the uncertainty entirely.
Google now describes it as a workaround rather than a recommendation. Server-side rendering or static generation is the durable solution.
Not for indexing, since the server HTML is already complete. It affects Core Web Vitals — particularly INP — which is a separate but real concern.
Provide real paginated URLs that render server-side, and layer infinite scroll on top for users. Crawlers follow the links; users get the smooth experience.
ROVQIX Growth
SEO & growth team, ROVQIX
The ROVQIX growth team handles technical SEO, Core Web Vitals and AI-search visibility for the sites we build. Recommendations here are the ones we apply to client projects and to rovqix.in itself.
ROVQIXdesigns and builds production web platforms — Next.js front ends, Node.js APIs and the infrastructure behind them. Tell us what you're building and we'll scope it with you.
Rendering strategy is a per-route decision, not an architectural religion. A single Next.js app can and should use all four.
'Discovered – currently not indexed' is Google saying your page is not worth the crawl. That is a content problem wearing a technical costume.
AI systems do not read your page. They retrieve chunks of it. Write so that any single chunk still makes sense alone.
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