Understanding the Results

Learn how to interpret each section of the WatchThis report and prioritize fixes for maximum SEO impact.

Risk Score and Level

The risk score (0-100) and risk level (LOW, MEDIUM, HIGH) give you an at-a-glance assessment of your page's JavaScript SEO health.

Score Calculation

The score starts at 100 and is reduced by the severity and number of findings:

  • Critical findings: -15 to -30 points each
  • Warning findings: -5 to -10 points each
  • Info findings: -1 to -3 points each

A score of 80+ is considered healthy. 50-79 indicates issues worth addressing. Below 50 means critical problems that could prevent indexing.

Findings

Findings are categorized by severity:

Critical

Fix immediately. These issues can prevent search engines from understanding your page or indexing it correctly.

Examples:

  • Title tag missing in raw HTML
  • Meta robots set to "noindex" only after rendering
  • Canonical URL missing or incorrect in raw HTML
  • No H1 headings in raw HTML

Warning

Address soon. These issues may not block indexing but can hurt rankings or user experience in search results.

Examples:

  • Meta description missing in raw HTML
  • Large difference in internal link count (raw vs rendered)
  • Structured data only appears after JavaScript
  • Significant word count increase after rendering

Info

Monitor. These are minor differences that may be intentional or acceptable depending on your setup.

Examples:

  • Minor word count differences
  • Image count changes (e.g., lazy-loaded images)
  • Small HTML size differences

Comparison Table

The Raw vs Rendered Comparison table shows exact values side-by-side. Look for:

Empty Raw Values

If a critical element (title, canonical, meta description) is (empty) in raw HTML but populated in rendered HTML, search crawlers that don't execute JavaScript will miss it entirely.

Title
  Raw: (empty)
  Rendered: My Product | Store Name

Fix: Ensure the title tag is present in your server-rendered HTML or use server-side rendering (SSR) / static site generation (SSG).

Count Differences

Large differences in H1 count, internal links, or word count indicate heavy reliance on JavaScript for content.

Internal Links
  Raw: 3
  Rendered: 47

This means navigation or content links are added by JavaScript. Search crawlers may not discover linked pages.

Fix: Render navigation and key links server-side. Use progressive enhancement — start with working HTML, enhance with JS.

Structured Data

If structured data types differ between raw and rendered, rich results may not appear.

Structured Data
  Raw: None
  Rendered: Product, BreadcrumbList

Fix: Inject JSON-LD in server-rendered HTML, not client-side.

JavaScript Errors

Errors logged during rendering can break your page. Common causes:

  • Missing dependencies: Script fails to load (blocked by CORS, 404, etc.)
  • Runtime errors: Null reference, undefined variable, syntax error
  • Third-party scripts: Analytics or ad scripts throwing errors

Action: Open your browser console on the page and reproduce the errors. Fix critical ones that prevent content rendering.

Blocked Resources

Resources that fail to load (CSS, JS, images, fonts) can affect rendering. Causes:

  • CORS issues
  • Mixed content (HTTPS page loading HTTP resources)
  • 404 errors

Action: Check your Network tab in DevTools. Fix broken resource URLs.

Redirect Chain

Each redirect hop is listed with its HTTP status. Ideal: 0-1 redirects. Excessive redirects (3+) slow down crawling.

1. 301 http://example.com
2. 301 https://example.com
3. 200 https://www.example.com

Fix: Update internal links to point directly to the final URL. Simplify redirect chains.

Prioritizing Fixes

  1. Fix all critical findings first. Missing title, canonical, or noindex issues can block indexing entirely.
  2. Address warnings that affect discoverability. Missing meta descriptions and internal links hurt click-through rates and crawlability.
  3. Resolve JavaScript errors that break rendering. A broken page can't rank.
  4. Optimize redirect chains. Direct links save crawl budget.
  5. Monitor info-level findings. These are often acceptable but worth keeping an eye on.

Retesting

After making fixes, run the check again. Compare scores and findings to verify improvements. Aim for a score of 90+ with zero critical findings.

Next Steps

Explore common JavaScript SEO issues for framework-specific examples and solutions.