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  3. HTTP header, HTML source and rendered page disagree
  4. The HTTP header, the HTML source and the rendered page give different values

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

  1. Decide which of the values for [field] is intended. The rendered one is usually what the owner sees.
  2. Make the server-side template print that value.
  3. Remove the script that rewrites it, or make the script write the same value.
  4. If a header sets the same field, remove it or make it equal.
  5. 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.

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