Technical & Infrastructure

Server-Side Rendering (SSR)

Generating HTML on the server so page content is readable by crawlers without executing JavaScript.

What it means

Many modern storefronts render product content via client-side JavaScript — the page arrives empty and is populated after JavaScript runs. AI crawlers typically do not execute JavaScript, meaning SSR is critical for AI visibility. Shopify's standard Liquid theme architecture is server-rendered by default. Shopify Hydrogen (headless) can be SSR or client-rendered depending on implementation.

Why it matters for Shopify

Shopify merchants on headless or custom frontends should verify their product content is server-rendered, or AI crawlers will see blank pages instead of products.

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