▶  Technical SEO · S6E139 · 59:01 · October 5, 2026

What AI Bots See When They Don’t Render JavaScript (JS) with Tory Gray

Guest: Tory Gray, CEO of Gray Dot Company
Hosts: Jon Clark & Joe DeVita

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ABOUT THIS EPISODE

Tory Gray, CEO of The Gray Dot Company, joins Jon Clark and Joe DeVita to explain why the technical side of agent readiness is the easy part. The standards exist; the hard part is imagining how people will actually use agents and choosing which actions to enable (purchasing, API workflows, account tasks) and which to block. She also warns against treating JavaScript as a wall: most AI bots don’t render, but agents can render when a user pays for it, or simply take a screenshot. Tory brings a product manager’s lens to technical SEO, Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). She breaks down why pagination and infinite scroll still go wrong, the two-tier test for programmatic SEO, and how to build user-generated content systems so your site becomes the Reddit of your niche instead of just posting on it.

In This Episode

  • What should AI agents be allowed to do on your website?
  • Can JavaScript keep AI crawlers out, and should you rely on it?
  • Pagination and infinite scroll: engagement KPIs vs. conversion KPIs
  • The two-tier programmatic SEO test: real user demand, then a moat
  • Building UGC systems with automated indexing rules and human review
  • Google’s agentic guidance: accessibility tree, layout shift, and screenshots
  • Title, canonical, and meta robots tags that move out of the head after rendering

A practical look at how websites are changing as agents become a third audience alongside people and search engines.

Connect with Tory Gray

Gray Dot Co
Tory on LinkedIn

Chapters

  • 0:00

    SEO’s New Audience: AI Agents

  • 2:01

    How Tory Gray Chooses Who to Mentor

  • 7:05

    What Product Management Teaches Tech SEO

  • 10:44

    Building a Different Kind of SEO Agency

  • 14:13

    Why Do Sites Still Get Pagination Wrong?

  • 16:54

    Infinite Scroll: Engagement vs. Conversion

  • 19:08

    When Does Programmatic SEO Work?

  • 21:46

    User-Generated Content in Healthcare

  • 24:54

    Building Your Own UGC Platform

  • 29:24

    Automating UGC Indexing Rules

  • 33:33

    What Should AI Agents Be Allowed to Do?

  • 37:03

    Can JavaScript Block AI Crawlers?

  • 39:48

    How AI Agents Use Screenshots

  • 42:26

    Do LLMs Read Unrendered Page Content?

  • 44:21

    PII and API Keys in Your Code

  • 46:49

    Rendering Audits: Tags Outside the Head

  • 50:13

    Post-Launch Migration Monitoring

  • 53:91

    Rapid Fire Questions

Resources mentioned