Why AI can't see your React/Next site — and the fix

You invested in content, yet AI answers never mention you. Often the cause is technical: the site is an SPA (a Single-Page App on React, Next.js in CSR mode, Vue, Svelte) where content is drawn in the browser. The catch: AI bots don’t run JavaScript — so they see an empty page.

What an AI bot actually sees

GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot and ClaudeBot read the source HTML of the server response. They don’t wait for hydration and don’t click. If your <div id="root"></div> is filled by a script, the bot gets a shell with a stray “You need to enable JavaScript to run this app” — and leaves.

Check in 10 seconds: paste a URL into How AI sees your page — it shows the exact no-JS text and how many words are hidden behind JavaScript. If a browser sees 1,500 words and the bot gets 11, that’s your GEO problem.

How to fix it — by framework

The goal is the same: ship rendered content in the first server HTML response.

• Next.js — use SSR, SSG or ISR (getStaticProps / App Router server components) instead of pure client-side. Content must be in the HTML before hydration.
• Nuxt — universal (SSR) or nuxt generate (SSG) instead of ssr: false.
• React (CRA / Vite SPA) — move content pages to prerendering (Astro, Gatsby) or add server rendering. Pure CSR is wrong for content that must be cited.
• Vue / Svelte — SvelteKit and Nuxt do SSR/prerender out of the box; enable it for public pages.
• Dynamic rendering — as a stopgap you can serve bots prerendered HTML (Prerender.io and the like), but honest SSR/SSG is more reliable.

After rendering — finish the GEO job

Once the bot sees text, add the rest:

1. Schema.org (JSON-LD) — Article, FAQPage. Build valid markup in the schema generator.
2. llms.txt — a site map for AI engines. How-to in the llms.txt post.
3. AI-bot access — make sure robots.txt doesn’t block citation bots: AI-crawler access check.
4. Citable paragraphs — a direct answer in the first 1–2 sentences of each section. More in the complete GEO guide.

Where to start

1. Run your key URLs through How AI sees your page.
2. If the bot sees a shell — turn on SSR/SSG for content pages.
3. Re-check with the same tool and add schema + llms.txt.

Sources

• Google Search Central docs (JavaScript SEO, rendering), OpenAI GPTBot and Perplexity — on AI crawlers reading source HTML.
• llmstxt.org, Schema.org.