View Source Online

How to use View Source

Enter a public webpage URL. Use the complete address beginning with http:// or https://.
Select View Source. SolViewer requests the webpage and retrieves the available HTML response.
Inspect the markup. Search the source for tags, text, metadata, links, scripts or other elements.
Continue with a focused check. Use a related SolViewer tool when you need a structured result instead of raw HTML.

What is View Source?

SolViewer is an online View Source tool that displays the HTML document returned when a webpage is requested. It lets you inspect the markup that was delivered before or independently of later changes made in the browser.

The returned HTML may contain the document title, meta elements, headings, links, image references, stylesheets, scripts and structured data. It does not reveal backend application logic, database queries or private server files that were never sent in the response.

What can you find in page source?

Page source can help you locate information included in the returned HTML, such as:

The document title and meta elements
H1–H6 heading markup
Internal and external link references
Image URLs and alternative-text attributes
Stylesheet and script references
Canonical and robots directives
Open Graph and other social metadata
Structured data contained in the HTML response

Not every item appears on every page. Content inserted only after JavaScript runs may exist in the live DOM without appearing in the initial source.

Use the HTML Extractor when you want links, images, headings or metadata separated into structured result groups instead of searching through the complete source manually.

View Source vs Inspect Element

View Source and Inspect Element display different representations of a webpage.

View Source	Inspect Element
Displays the HTML retrieved for the webpage	Displays the browser’s current DOM tree
Useful for checking markup present in the returned response	Useful for examining the document after parsing and runtime changes
Usually does not show later JavaScript DOM updates	Can show elements or attributes added by JavaScript
Designed for reading delivered HTML	Designed for debugging and interacting with page elements

The browser parses HTML into a document structure, and scripts can modify that structure. This is why source HTML may differ from the Elements panel.

Need to work with HTML code you already have? Paste and preview your own HTML.

Why can the visible page differ from its source?

The visible page can differ from its initial source because the browser parses the returned HTML and may run scripts that load data, add elements, change attributes or replace content.

Other differences may result from:

Login state or cookies
Geographic location
Device or user-agent variation
A/B testing
Redirects
Bot protection
Content loaded from an API after the initial response

View Source should therefore be used as a source-inspection tool, not as a complete rendered-page or search-engine simulation.

What View Source cannot show

View Source cannot reveal information that was not included in the retrieved response. This normally includes:

Backend application source code
Database contents
Private files or credentials
Authenticated content unavailable to the request
JavaScript-generated DOM changes absent from the returned HTML
Every resource loaded later by the browser

Some websites may reject or limit automated requests. A failed retrieval does not necessarily mean that the target webpage is offline.

When is a source viewer useful?

A source viewer is useful when you need to:

Inspect HTML on a phone or device without convenient desktop source tools
Confirm whether metadata appears in the returned HTML
Find a canonical tag, robots directive or structured-data block
Review the markup behind a public webpage
Compare returned source with the live browser DOM
Troubleshoot a tag missing from the initial HTML
Learn how publicly delivered webpages are structured

For a structured heading report, analyze the H1–H6 outline. To inspect the response surrounding the HTML, check the HTTP response headers.

Check specific webpage elements

Raw source is useful for manual inspection, but a focused tool can make a specific task faster:

About SolViewer

SolViewer provides focused tools for inspecting webpage source, HTML, metadata and common technical SEO elements. Start with View Source when you need the returned HTML, then move to a specialized checker for a structured analysis of a particular element.

Frequently asked questions

Does View Source show JavaScript-generated HTML?

Not always. View Source normally displays the HTML retrieved in the webpage response. Content inserted or changed after JavaScript runs may appear in the live DOM without appearing in that source.

Is View Source the same as Inspect Element?

No. View Source displays retrieved HTML, while Inspect Element displays the browser’s current DOM. The DOM can differ after parsing and JavaScript execution.

Can I view source on a mobile phone?

Yes. Enter the public webpage URL in SolViewer to inspect its returned HTML without relying on a desktop browser’s source command.

Can View Source reveal backend code?

No. It can show only content included in the retrieved webpage response. Server-side logic, database queries and private application files are not exposed unless a website has mistakenly published them.

Why can’t some webpages be retrieved?

A page may require authentication, block automated requests, redirect unexpectedly, time out or return different content based on request conditions.

Does valid page source mean a page is SEO-friendly?

No. Viewing source helps you inspect returned markup, but it does not by itself evaluate content quality, rendering, crawlability, indexation, performance or search intent. Use the on-page SEO checker for a broader review.