SEO finding
The HTTP header, the HTML source and the rendered page give different values
SEO Warning Severity: Medium
Part of the audit HTTP header, HTML source and rendered page disagree. Finding id: seo.headerSourceRenderedDiffer.
What it costs you
Crawlers that do not run scripts act on a different value than the one you see in the browser.
What to do
Send the intended value in the HTML source, once, and do not change it by script or contradict it in a header.
What it checks
- Indexing instructions differ between sources
- Preferred address differs between sources
- Title or description changed by a script
- Language links differ between sources
- Language in header differs from page language
- Same tag repeated with different values
How to fix it
Put one value in the HTML the server sends
- Decide which of the values for [field] is intended. The rendered one is usually what the owner sees.
- Make the server-side template print that value.
- Remove the script that rewrites it, or make the script write the same value.
- If a header sets the same field, remove it or make it equal.
- If the tag is on the page twice, find the second source (theme, plugin, tag manager) and remove one.
How to check: curl -s [page url] shows the intended value, and this rule no longer reports the page.
How to verify by hand
Search Console URL inspection for the directive Google read; a person for the intended value.
What this relies on
The rendered value is what the owner sees and intends; crawlers that do not render get the other one.