# Prerendered React pages flash empty slots before hydration, can I inline initial content?

Asked by sonia on 2025-10-08. Tags: react, prerendering, ssr.

we prerender our marketing pages with react-snap style tooling and the Croct
slots come out empty in the static HTML, then pop in after hydration. Looks bad
and probably hurts LCP too.

Ideally the prerendered HTML would ship with our default hero baked in, and
Croct takes over on the client to swap in the personalized version if there is
one. Is that a supported pattern or am I fighting the SDK here

## 1 answer

### Accepted answer from Petra Kovacs (2025-10-09)

Supported pattern, and it is exactly what the `initial` option is for.
`useContent` accepts an initial content value that renders immediately, so
when your prerender tool snapshots the page the static HTML contains real
content instead of an empty slot:

```tsx
const content = useContent('home-hero', {
    initial: {title: 'Grow your audience', cta: 'Start free'},
});
```

After hydration the SDK fetches the resolved content and updates the slot
only if it differs, so most visitors on the default experience never see a
swap at all.

Do not confuse it with `fallback`: `initial` covers the first render (your
prerender case), while `fallback` covers failures like timeouts. They solve
different problems and you can combine both on the same hook so the page has
content on first paint and stays intact if the API is unreachable.

#### Reply from sonia (2025-10-09)

combined both like you suggested, the snapshot ships the default hero now
and LCP is back to normal. thanks!