What is Rendered HTML?

Rendered HTML is the HTML structure that exists in the client browser after loading a page has entirely completed, including processes that manipulate the original HTML sent from the server. Until recently, getting the rendered HTML was critical for technical SEO's but with the recent introduction of some valuable Google tools & reports, this has dwindled in importance - see our article Analysing Your Structured Data For Rich Results/Snippets for more accurate & efficient methods.

Why use Rendered HTML?

It's important to test your structured data as Google will see it. Often post-load JavaScript is used to manipulate the HTML & Structured Data so simply entering the URL into the Structured Data Testing Tool (SDTT) (which doesn't execute JavaScript) or using the "View Source" version of the HTML will not reflect what Google will see. Using the browsers version of the HTML (called Rendered HTML) will include JavaScript modifications and is the best way to determine the status of your Structured Data.

How to obtain Rendered HTML

There's a few ways to get rendered HTML each with varying degrees of accuracy & difficulty. We'll rank them in order of accuracy:

Google Search Console's URL Inspection Tool

Nothing is more accurate than the very HTML that Google is using to index your page. The Google Search Console gives you access to the stored copy it is currently using via URL Inspection->View Crawled Page->HTML. You can also request to test a live URL by clicking the "Test Live URL" button. The live test not only delivers the rendered HTML as Google would see it if crawled but also allows you to see a screenshot of the page as Google sees it. The drawback of this technique is it is fairly slow and requires access to the GSC.

Google Mobile-Friendly Test

Another valuable tool with similar capabilities as the "Test Live URL" facility of Google Search Console but without needing access to Google Search Console. To access the rendered HTML, just enter a URL and click "Test URL", then click the HTML tab. Note this tool can only test for the current HTML, not what is in the index (like GSC can).

Google Rich Results Test

This is our preferred tool for exploring structured data. It is very similar to the Google Mobile-Friendly Test but used for analysing Rich Results[same link]. Once you have entered a URL, click the "View Rendered HTML" text to see the output.

Google Chrome

With the recent announcement of an Evergreen Googlebot this method has just improved in accuracy and has the benefit of not having to leave the browser to get the rendered HTML making it the fastest method. To get the rendered HTML from the Chrome browser, follow these steps:

1. Press F12 or Right-Click->Inspect to open Developer Tools Window in your browser
2. Click on HTML element & Copy (Ctrl+C or Right-Click->Copy->outerHTML)