Google Adds “Fetch & Render By Device Type” To Webmaster Tools

Google just announced the addition of a new tool designed to help webmasters determine what JavaScript, CSS, and other resources they are blocking from Googlebot’s crawl.  Users will now be able to see how Googlebot renders the page.

The announcement was made on Google’s Webmaster Central Blog as a new feature in the existing Fetch as Google tool within Webmaster Tools, which now includes “Fetch & Render”.  As opposed to using the Fetch as Googlebot function simply to see an output of code and HTML, Google will now provide users with a visual representation of what Googlebot sees.  The new functionality will also show errors on what resources Googlebot was unable to access, preventing them from fetching and rendering everything on the page.  A key aspect of this new tool is the ability to specify the type of device that you want to fetch and render, whether that’s desktops, smartphones or other devices.

Once you’ve entered the page that you want to Fetch and Render, the system will take a few minutes and will then indicate either “status complete” or “partial rendering” if some resources are being blocked from Googlebot’s crawl