We Rebuilt Our Site From Lovable to Astro and Here Is

The Lovable Experience: Fast Start, Slow Problems

We launched our first site using Lovable in March 2024. The AI-powered builder promised rapid prototyping, and it delivered. We had a working site in days, not weeks.

Then reality hit.

Every time we asked Lovable to fix one issue, it broke something else. The generated code became increasingly fragmented. Components that worked yesterday suddenly failed today.

The breaking point came when we discovered our sitemap disaster. We started with 244 pages. Our sitemap silently dropped to 47 pages. Search engines couldn't find most of our content.

Our schema markup was inconsistent across pages. Some had proper structured data. Others had none. The React-heavy JavaScript meant AI crawlers struggled to parse content properly.

From our Rank4AI database of 1,400+ UK businesses, we know this isn't uncommon. Sites built with heavy JavaScript frameworks often face similar crawling issues.

Why We Chose Astro for the Rebuild

We needed a fresh approach. After auditing dozens of high-performing sites, we chose Astro for three key reasons:

• Static HTML generation: AI crawlers can parse every page perfectly
• Minimal JavaScript: Only loads what's absolutely necessary
• Built-in optimisation: Images, CSS, and assets optimised automatically

Astro generates static HTML by default. This means search engines and AI crawlers get clean, readable content every time.

The Rebuild Results

The numbers speak for themselves:

• 896 pages properly indexed (up from 47)
• 0.01 second average load time
• 100% schema coverage across all pages
• Every AI crawler allowed and tested successfully

We tested crawling with ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and SearchGPT. All could access and parse our content without issues.

Our AI search optimisation approach focuses on clean HTML structure and consistent schema markup. Astro made this achievable at scale.

Key Lessons Learned

AI builders aren't always the answer. Lovable worked for quick prototypes but failed for production sites. The generated code became unmaintainable as complexity grew.

Static beats dynamic for discoverability. Our Rank4AI audits consistently show static sites outperform JavaScript-heavy alternatives for search visibility.

Schema consistency matters more than coverage. Having partial schema markup across pages is worse than having none at all. It confuses search engines.

Test AI crawler access early. Don't assume crawlers can read your content. Test with actual AI tools during development.

Practical Takeaways

If you're considering a similar rebuild, focus on these priorities:

• Choose frameworks that generate clean HTML
• Implement consistent schema markup across all pages
• Test your robots.txt allows AI crawlers
• Monitor your sitemap for silent failures
• Validate that AI tools can actually read your content

The rebuild took three months but delivered results worth the investment. Our search visibility improved dramatically, and AI tools now reference our content regularly.

Want to check how AI-ready your current site is? Our free audit tool tests the same factors we used to evaluate our rebuild success.