DEV Community: Prashant A

I Built a React SPA and Tried to Rank on Google. Here Are My Real Numbers After 12 Weeks.

Prashant A — Fri, 08 May 2026 06:31:33 +0000

If you've built a single-page app and wondered whether Google will ever find it, I have 12 weeks of real data for you.

I launched a SaaS tool in February 2026. React + Vite + TypeScript frontend, Express backend, deployed on Render. No server-side rendering. No Next.js. Just a client-rendered SPA that I needed Google to crawl and index.

This is what happened.

The numbers

806 impressions. 1 click. Twelve weeks.

That one click was probably me checking if my own site showed up.

Average position moved from about 57 (page 6 of Google) to 47 (page 5). Not exactly a success story. But I learned a lot about what it takes to get a pure SPA indexed.

The technical setup

Google doesn't render JavaScript well enough to index a React SPA reliably. I hit this wall in week 2 when pages were getting crawled but showing up with blank content in Google's index.

The fix was prerendering. At build time, a script visits each route with Puppeteer, waits for the page to finish rendering, and saves the output as static HTML. The deployment platform serves those HTML files to crawlers (matched by user-agent), and regular users get the normal SPA experience.

The prerender config looks like this:

// prerender.mjs — runs at build time
const routes = [
  { route: '/', outputPath: 'index.html' },
  { route: '/guides/landing-page-psychology', outputPath: 'guides/landing-page-psychology/index.html' },
  // ... 15 more routes
];

Each route gets its own index.html in a subdirectory. The hosting config maps clean URLs to these files:

# render.yaml rewrite rules
- source: /guides/landing-page-psychology
  destination: /guides/landing-page-psychology/index.html

Three files have to stay in sync: the sitemap, the prerender script, and the rewrite rules. Every time I add a page, all three need updating. I've shipped broken pages twice by forgetting one. There's no automation for it yet and it's the most annoying part of the setup.

What Google actually did with my pages

Once prerendering was working, pages started showing up in Google within a few days of being submitted through Search Console.

The timeline looked like this:

Weeks 1-2: zero to two impressions per day. Google barely knew the site existed.

Weeks 3-4: jumped to 1-13 per day once the prerendered pages got indexed.

Weeks 5-7: spiked to 18-40 per day. Content was getting picked up.

Weeks 8-12: settled back to 0-16 per day.

That spike in weeks 5-7 would look great in a screenshot if I cropped the chart. "40 impressions per day in 5 weeks!" But zoom out and the line is mostly flat. I think a lot of those growth posts do exactly this: screenshot the spike, skip the surrounding weeks.

The queries people searched

Google was matching my pages to real search queries:

"cro consultant" (conversion rate optimization): 289 impressions, 0 clicks (position 57)
"landing page conversion rate": 76 impressions, 0 clicks (position 68)

Position 57 is page 6. Nobody looks at page 6. The impressions prove Google knows my pages exist and considers them relevant. The position proves the domain doesn't have enough trust yet to compete.

What I'd do differently

I would use a meta framework from the start. Prerendering works, but it's a workaround. Every new page needs manual config in three places. A framework like Astro, Next.js, or Remix would handle this automatically. I didn't use one because I started this as a tool, not a content site. By the time search ranking mattered, I had too much code to move over. If your SPA needs to rank on Google, build the rendering pipeline before you need it.

I would submit to Search Console on day one. I waited three weeks before setting up Google Search Console. That's three weeks of Google not knowing the site existed. It's free and takes ten minutes.

I would pick search terms nobody else is targeting. The small, obscure terms worked. 8 of my pages are in Google's top 10 for the specific terms I was aiming at:

Page	Position
Comparison page 1	3.0
Comparison page 2	4.7
Guide on persuasion	5.8
Guide on urgency	6.2
Audit study	7.1
Interactive quiz	7.2
Above-the-fold guide	8.0
Psychology guide	8.4

The catch: almost nobody searches for these terms. I picked them on purpose, as a test. If the writing can rank at all, I know the content is fine and the problem is domain age and backlinks, not content quality. That test passed.

What I learned about SPAs and search

The React-versus-SEO debate is real, but it's not about whether Google can render JavaScript. It's about whether you're willing to do the extra work to make sure it does.

With prerendering, my SPA gets indexed and ranks just fine. Without it, the pages showed up in Google's index with blank content. It either works or it doesn't. There's no middle ground.

If you're building a client-rendered SPA and want Google traffic, your options are:

Prerender at build time (what I did). Works, but manual. Good if you have a small number of routes.
Server-side render with Next.js, Remix, or Astro. Better long-term, more setup upfront.
Hope Google renders your JS correctly. It sometimes does. I wouldn't bet on it.

After 12 weeks, I have 806 impressions and 8 pages in the top 10. The SPA part isn't holding me back. The thing slowing me down now is domain age and backlinks.

If you're building something similar and your Google numbers look like mine after a few months: that's normal. The prerendering works. The indexing works. The waiting is the hard part.

About the tool: I built ConversionProbe to audit landing pages the way a first-time visitor would see them. Paste a URL, get a report in 60 seconds. The SEO data in this post is from running it on my own site.

7 Persuasion Principles Your Landing Page Is Probably Missing

Prashant A — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 05:14:14 +0000

You built it and put up a landing page. The design looks good, the text is clear on what it does.

But nobody signs up.

So you rewrite the headline. You move the pricing section. You change the button color. Nothing changes. And you can't figure out why, because you've been staring at this page for weeks and you can't see it the way a stranger sees it anymore.

Most of the time, the problem isn't your design or your writing. It's that your page is missing basic persuasion triggers that make people say yes. Robert Cialdini spent decades studying why people agree to things, and he found seven principles that show up again and again. Most landing pages use one or two of these by accident. Pages that convert well use five or six on purpose.

If you're a developer, reading about "persuasion principles" might feel a bit gross. It sounds like manipulation. But these principles describe how people already make decisions. You're not tricking someone into wanting something they don't want. You're removing the reasons they leave when they do want it. A clear button label, a real testimonial, a free tier before asking for money. None of that is deception. The manipulative version is fake countdown timers and made-up user counts. This isn't that.

Here are all seven, what they look like on a landing page, and how to check whether yours has them.

1. Reciprocity

Give something before you ask for anything.

When someone gets something useful for free, they feel a pull to give back. That's why free tools, free reports, and free trials work so well as the first step. The visitor gets value before they spend money, and they feel like they owe you something in return.

On your landing page, this could be a free version of your product, a downloadable template, a sample report, or even a genuinely useful blog post linked from the page. The key is that the visitor gets real value with no strings attached.

Check your page: Is there anything on this page that gives the visitor something useful before asking them to pay or sign up? If the first thing you ask for is money or an email address, reciprocity isn't working for you.

2. Commitment and consistency

Start with a small ask, then build from there.

People who take one small step are much more likely to take the next one. A quiz, a one-field email form, a free trial with no credit card. Once someone says yes to something small, they want to stay consistent with that choice.

This is why "Start free, upgrade later" works better than "Buy now" for most SaaS products. The small commitment (signing up for free) makes the bigger commitment (paying) feel like a natural next step, not a leap.

Check your page: What's the first thing you ask the visitor to do? If it's a big commitment (pay, book a demo, fill out a long form), you're skipping the small step. Can you add a smaller ask that comes first?

3. Social proof

People follow what others have already chosen.

When someone is unsure, they look at what other people did. This is why user counts, testimonials, and logos work. But the details matter. "Thousands of happy customers" is noise. "2,847 teams in 43 countries" is specific enough to be believable.

The best social proof answers the question the visitor is already asking: "Have people like me used this, and did it work for them?" A testimonial from a Fortune 500 CTO won't convince a solo founder. A testimonial from another solo founder will.

Check your page: Is there any social proof on this page? If yes, is it specific (real numbers, real names, real results)? And does it come from people who look like your target customer?

4. Authority

Show expertise. Don't just claim it.

Visitors trust pages that prove they know what they're talking about. Press logos, certifications, named methodologies, data from your own research. These are all signals that say "we actually know this subject" without you having to write "we're experts."

The difference between claiming authority and showing it: "We're the leading solution" is a claim. "Based on our analysis of 4,200 landing pages" is evidence.

Check your page: Is there anything on this page that proves you know your subject? Logos, data, credentials, published research? Or does the page just ask the visitor to take your word for it?

5. Liking

People buy from people they relate to.

Founder photos, conversational writing, showing that you understand the visitor's exact problem. All of this builds liking. People don't buy from faceless brands if they can buy from a person who gets their situation.

For dev-founders, this often means writing the way you'd explain your product to a friend. Not marketing-speak. Not corporate. Just a person talking to another person about a problem they both understand.

Check your page: Does this page sound like a person wrote it, or like a company wrote it? Is there a founder story, a photo, anything that makes the visitor feel like they're dealing with a real human?

6. Scarcity

Limited availability makes people act faster.

When something is scarce, people value it more. Limited-time pricing, limited spots, limited beta invites. These work because nobody wants to miss out on something good.

But here's the catch: it has to be real. Fake countdown timers and "only 3 spots left" when there are no spots to begin with will destroy trust the moment someone catches on. And people catch on fast.

Check your page: Is there any real scarcity on your offer? If you're running a genuine beta with limited capacity, say so. If you have a launch discount that actually expires, show the date. If there's no real scarcity, don't fake it.

7. Unity

Shared identity creates belonging.

"Built for SaaS founders" makes a SaaS founder think "this is for me." "For businesses of all sizes" makes nobody think anything. Unity is about signaling that you and the visitor belong to the same group.

This shows up in language ("we" vs "they"), in the problems you describe (are they problems your specific audience actually has?), and in the examples you use (do they match the visitor's world?).

Check your page: Does this page make your target customer feel like it was built specifically for them? Or does it try to speak to everyone and end up speaking to no one?

Count yours

Open your landing page in an incognito window right now. Go through all seven:

Reciprocity: do you give something before asking?
Commitment: is the first ask small?
Social proof: are there specific numbers or testimonials from people like your customer?
Authority: do you show evidence, not just claims?
Liking: does a real person come through in the writing?
Scarcity: is there a real reason to act now?
Unity: does your target customer feel like this page is for them?

Count how many are active. If you're at two or fewer, that's probably why your page isn't converting. You're relying on the visitor's motivation alone, and motivation by itself isn't enough.

If you want to check this without doing it manually, Conversion Probe scores your page on these principles and shows you where the gaps are. Paste your URL, get a report in about a minute. Free, no signup.

Pick one and fix it

You don't need to fix all seven today. Pick the one that's most obviously missing and add it. If you have zero social proof, add one real testimonial. If your first ask is "buy now," add a free tier. If your page reads like a press release, rewrite it like you're explaining the product to a friend.

Fix one thing, see if the number move. Then change the next one.