What benefit does server-side rendering (SSR) provide to SEO?

Server-side rendering (SSR) significantly benefits SEO primarily because it delivers fully rendered HTML pages from the server to the client. When search engines crawl a website, they prefer to index content that is readily available on the page without requiring further processing through JavaScript. By using SSR, the content is generated on the server and sent to the browser fully formed, making it easier for search engine bots to access and index the content effectively.

This ensures that crawling bots can discover and rank a site’s content more efficiently, which can lead to improved visibility in search engine results. Additionally, SSR can contribute to better performance and a reduced time to first byte, both of which are factors that search engines consider when ranking pages. While loading speed certainly enhances user experience and can positively affect SEO, the key advantage of SSR lies in providing search engines with readily accessible HTML content.

Other options like creating unique URLs or automatically generating sitemaps don't directly relate to what SSR provides in terms of content rendering, and the placement of ads is more associated with ad revenue strategies than with search engine indexing or page ranking.