From 516686e3823c079303d7a3f8fe539324c10b3b4b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: EagleFox31 <86088743+EagleFox31@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 2026 23:31:20 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 1/3] fix(seo): remove sitewide crawler loading shell and add
 HTTP smoke checks

---
 scripts/seo/public-crawl-smoke.mjs            | 97 +++++++++++++++++++
 .../(frontend)/{ => en/search}/loading.tsx    |  1 +
 src/app/(frontend)/fr/search/loading.tsx      |  6 ++
 tests/unit/seoPublicCrawl.spec.ts             | 29 ++++++
 4 files changed, 133 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 scripts/seo/public-crawl-smoke.mjs
 rename src/app/(frontend)/{ => en/search}/loading.tsx (65%)
 create mode 100644 src/app/(frontend)/fr/search/loading.tsx
 create mode 100644 tests/unit/seoPublicCrawl.spec.ts

diff --git a/scripts/seo/public-crawl-smoke.mjs b/scripts/seo/public-crawl-smoke.mjs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f51deaf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/seo/public-crawl-smoke.mjs
@@ -0,0 +1,97 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env node
+
+// Zero-dependency HTTP smoke test for search engine accessibility.
+// Usage: node scripts/seo/public-crawl-smoke.mjs [https://insight.trigenys.com]
+// Pass a preview deployment URL to test its routes while still enforcing the
+// production canonical URLs emitted by the site.
+const base = new URL(process.argv[2] || process.env.SEO_SMOKE_BASE_URL || 'https://insight.trigenys.com')
+const canonicalHost = 'insight.trigenys.com'
+const failures = []
+
+function assert(condition, message) {
+  if (!condition) {
+    failures.push(message)
+    console.error(`FAIL ${message}`)
+  } else {
+    console.log(`PASS ${message}`)
+  }
+}
+
+async function request(path) {
+  const url = new URL(path, base)
+  const response = await fetch(url, {
+    headers: { 'User-Agent': 'TrigenysSEO-P0-Smoke/1.0' },
+    signal: AbortSignal.timeout(20000),
+    redirect: 'follow',
+  })
+  const text = await response.text()
+  assert(response.ok, `${url.pathname}: HTTP ${response.status}`)
+  return { text, response, url }
+}
+
+function documentWithoutScripts(html) {
+  return html.replace(/<script\b[^>]*>[\s\S]*?<\/script>/gi, '')
+}
+
+function sitemapLocs(xml) {
+  return [...xml.matchAll(/<loc>\s*([^<]+?)\s*<\/loc>/gi)]
+    .map((match) => match[1].replace(/&amp;/g, '&'))
+}
+
+async function main() {
+  const { text: robots } = await request('/robots.txt')
+  assert(robots.includes('Sitemap:') && robots.includes('insight.trigenys.com'), 'robots.txt lists canonical sitemaps')
+
+  const { text: xml } = await request('/posts-sitemap.xml')
+  assert(xml.includes('<urlset'), 'posts sitemap returns a URL set')
+  const articleURLs = sitemapLocs(xml)
+  assert(articleURLs.length > 0, 'posts sitemap contains at least one article')
+  assert(
+    articleURLs.every((url) => {
+      try {
+        return new URL(url).host === canonicalHost && new URL(url).protocol === 'https:'
+      } catch {
+        return false
+      }
+    }),
+    'all article sitemap URLs point to the canonical HTTPS host',
+  )
+
+  const { text: newsXML } = await request('/news-sitemap.xml')
+  assert(newsXML.includes('<urlset'), 'News sitemap returns a URL set')
+  assert(
+    sitemapLocs(newsXML).every((url) => new URL(url).host === canonicalHost),
+    'News sitemap URLs point to the canonical host',
+  )
+
+  for (const locale of ['fr', 'en']) {
+    const { text: homeHTML } = await request(`/${locale}`)
+    const visibleHome = documentWithoutScripts(homeHTML)
+    assert(/<h1\b/i.test(visibleHome), `${locale} homepage has a server-rendered H1`)
+    assert(!/class="site-skeleton(?:\s|")/i.test(visibleHome), `${locale} homepage does not stream a global loading skeleton`)
+
+    const article = articleURLs.find((url) => new URL(url).pathname.startsWith(`/${locale}/posts/`))
+    if (!article) {
+      console.log(`SKIP ${locale} article check: no localized article in sitemap`)
+      continue
+    }
+
+    const { text: articleHTML } = await request(new URL(article).pathname)
+    const visibleArticle = documentWithoutScripts(articleHTML)
+    assert(/<article\b/i.test(visibleArticle), `${locale} article body is in the HTML response`)
+    assert(/article-reading-main/.test(visibleArticle), `${locale} article reading content is in the HTML response`)
+    assert(/<h1\b/i.test(visibleArticle), `${locale} article heading is in the HTML response`)
+    assert(!/class="site-skeleton(?:\s|")/i.test(visibleArticle), `${locale} article does not stream a global loading skeleton`)
+    assert(/rel="canonical"/.test(articleHTML) && articleHTML.includes(article), `${locale} article carries its canonical URL`)
+  }
+}
+
+try {
+  await main()
+} catch (error) {
+  failures.push(String(error))
+  console.error('FAIL crawl smoke:', error)
+}
+
+console.log(`\nPublic crawl smoke: ${failures.length ? failures.length + ' failure(s)' : 'all checks passed'}`)
+process.exitCode = failures.length ? 1 : 0
diff --git a/src/app/(frontend)/loading.tsx b/src/app/(frontend)/en/search/loading.tsx
similarity index 65%
rename from src/app/(frontend)/loading.tsx
rename to src/app/(frontend)/en/search/loading.tsx
index d121533..007069f 100644
--- a/src/app/(frontend)/loading.tsx
+++ b/src/app/(frontend)/en/search/loading.tsx
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import { SiteSkeleton } from '@/components/insights/SiteSkeleton'
 
+// Search is interactive and is not an indexable editorial article.
 export default function Loading() {
   return <SiteSkeleton />
 }
diff --git a/src/app/(frontend)/fr/search/loading.tsx b/src/app/(frontend)/fr/search/loading.tsx
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..007069f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/app/(frontend)/fr/search/loading.tsx
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+import { SiteSkeleton } from '@/components/insights/SiteSkeleton'
+
+// Search is interactive and is not an indexable editorial article.
+export default function Loading() {
+  return <SiteSkeleton />
+}
diff --git a/tests/unit/seoPublicCrawl.spec.ts b/tests/unit/seoPublicCrawl.spec.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0793960
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/unit/seoPublicCrawl.spec.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+import { access, readFile } from 'node:fs/promises'
+import path from 'node:path'
+
+import { describe, expect, it } from 'vitest'
+
+describe('P0: public crawl entry points', () => {
+  it('does not expose the global frontend loading skeleton to article crawlers', async () => {
+    const filename = path.join(process.cwd(), 'src/app/(frontend)/loading.tsx')
+    await expect(access(filename)).rejects.toMatchObject({ code: 'ENOENT' })
+  })
+
+  it('preserves scoped search feedback rather than removing all loading states', async () => {
+    for (const locale of ['fr', 'en']) {
+      const filename = path.join(process.cwd(), `src/app/(frontend)/${locale}/search/loading.tsx`)
+      const code = await readFile(filename, 'utf8')
+      expect(code).toContain('<SiteSkeleton />')
+    }
+  })
+
+  it('provides a repeatable HTTP smoke check for live editorial markup', async () => {
+    const script = await readFile(
+      path.join(process.cwd(), 'scripts/seo/public-crawl-smoke.mjs'),
+      'utf8',
+    )
+    expect(script).toContain('posts-sitemap.xml')
+    expect(script).toContain('article-reading-main')
+    expect(script).toContain('rel="canonical"')
+  })
+})

From 75a25b68d2c25185b83a8cd2af40fb595c67c153 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: EagleFox31 <86088743+EagleFox31@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 2026 23:39:26 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 2/3] feat(ux): keep editorial skeleton during client
 navigation without blocking crawl HTML

---
 src/app/(frontend)/layout.tsx                 |  2 +
 .../insights/NavigationSkeleton.tsx           | 99 +++++++++++++++++++
 src/components/insights/SiteSkeleton.tsx      |  5 +-
 src/components/insights/navigationSkeleton.ts | 11 +++
 tests/unit/seoPublicCrawl.spec.ts             | 28 ++++++
 5 files changed, 143 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 src/components/insights/NavigationSkeleton.tsx
 create mode 100644 src/components/insights/navigationSkeleton.ts

diff --git a/src/app/(frontend)/layout.tsx b/src/app/(frontend)/layout.tsx
index af9f816..b43f5ef 100644
--- a/src/app/(frontend)/layout.tsx
+++ b/src/app/(frontend)/layout.tsx
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import { Fraunces, Inter } from 'next/font/google'
 import React from 'react'
 
 import { AdminBar } from '@/components/AdminBar'
+import { NavigationSkeleton } from '@/components/insights/NavigationSkeleton'
 import { Footer } from '@/Footer/Component'
 import { Header } from '@/Header/Component'
 import { Providers } from '@/providers'
@@ -40,6 +41,7 @@ export default async function RootLayout({ children }: { children: React.ReactNo
         <Providers>
           <AdminBar adminBarProps={{ preview: isEnabled }} />
           <Header />
+          <NavigationSkeleton />
           {children}
           <Footer />
           <PostHogScript />
diff --git a/src/components/insights/NavigationSkeleton.tsx b/src/components/insights/NavigationSkeleton.tsx
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3863041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/components/insights/NavigationSkeleton.tsx
@@ -0,0 +1,99 @@
+'use client'
+
+import { usePathname } from 'next/navigation'
+import { useEffect, useRef, useState } from 'react'
+
+import { SiteSkeleton } from '@/components/insights/SiteSkeleton'
+import { shouldShowNavigationSkeleton } from '@/components/insights/navigationSkeleton'
+
+type PendingNavigation = { from: string; to: string }
+
+/**
+ * Show the existing editorial skeleton only during browser-side navigation.
+ *
+ * Keeping the root loading.tsx absent means direct requests render the same
+ * server-side article HTML for users and crawlers, without UA-based cloaking.
+ */
+export function NavigationSkeleton() {
+  const pathname = usePathname()
+  const [pending, setPending] = useState<PendingNavigation | null>(null)
+  const showTimer = useRef<ReturnType<typeof setTimeout> | null>(null)
+  const stopTimer = useRef<ReturnType<typeof setTimeout> | null>(null)
+
+  useEffect(() => {
+    if (showTimer.current !== null) clearTimeout(showTimer.current)
+    if (stopTimer.current !== null) clearTimeout(stopTimer.current)
+
+    function resetTimers() {
+      if (showTimer.current !== null) clearTimeout(showTimer.current)
+      if (stopTimer.current !== null) clearTimeout(stopTimer.current)
+      showTimer.current = null
+      stopTimer.current = null
+    }
+
+    function onLinkClick(event: MouseEvent) {
+      if (
+        event.defaultPrevented ||
+        event.button !== 0 ||
+        event.ctrlKey ||
+        event.metaKey ||
+        event.shiftKey ||
+        event.altKey
+      ) {
+        return
+      }
+
+      const element = event.target
+      if (!(element instanceof Element)) return
+      const anchor = element.closest('a[href]')
+      if (!anchor || anchor.hasAttribute('download') || (anchor.target && anchor.target !== '_self')) {
+        return
+      }
+
+      const current = new URL(window.location.href)
+      let destination: URL
+      try {
+        destination = new URL(anchor.href, current)
+      } catch {
+        return
+      }
+
+      if (!shouldShowNavigationSkeleton(current, destination)) return
+
+      resetTimers()
+      // Avoid a distracting flash when Next.js has already prefetched a route.
+      showTimer.current = setTimeout(() => {
+        if (window.location.pathname === current.pathname) {
+          setPending({ from: current.pathname, to: destination.pathname })
+        }
+      }, 150)
+      // Never trap the reader behind a skeleton after a rejected navigation.
+      stopTimer.current = setTimeout(() => {
+        setPending(null)
+        resetTimers()
+      }, 10000)
+    }
+
+    document.addEventListener('click', onLinkClick)
+    window.addEventListener('popstate', resetTimers)
+    return () => {
+      document.removeEventListener('click', onLinkClick)
+      window.removeEventListener('popstate', resetTimers)
+      resetTimers()
+    }
+  }, [])
+
+  // Once the route changes the existing skeleton is hidden synchronously.
+  // The pending state is cleared on the next click or timeout, never in an effect.
+  if (!pending || pending.from !== pathname) return null
+
+  return (
+    <div
+      aria-label={pending.to.startsWith('/en') ? 'Loading page' : 'Chargement de la page'}
+      className="fixed inset-0 z-[70] overflow-y-auto bg-background"
+      data-client-navigation-skeleton
+    >
+      <SiteSkeleton pathnameOverride={pending.to} />
+    </div>
+  )
+}
diff --git a/src/components/insights/SiteSkeleton.tsx b/src/components/insights/SiteSkeleton.tsx
index a13c3ca..d6dbf40 100644
--- a/src/components/insights/SiteSkeleton.tsx
+++ b/src/components/insights/SiteSkeleton.tsx
@@ -159,8 +159,9 @@ function GenericSkeleton() {
   )
 }
 
-export function SiteSkeleton() {
-  const pathname = usePathname()
+export function SiteSkeleton({ pathnameOverride }: { pathnameOverride?: string } = {}) {
+  const currentPathname = usePathname()
+  const pathname = pathnameOverride ?? currentPathname
   const locale = pathname?.startsWith('/en') ? 'en' : 'fr'
   const label = locale === 'en' ? 'Loading content' : 'Chargement du contenu'
 
diff --git a/src/components/insights/navigationSkeleton.ts b/src/components/insights/navigationSkeleton.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..adf88d2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/components/insights/navigationSkeleton.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+/**
+ * This checks browser navigations, not crawler user agents. Editorial HTML is
+ * served identically on direct requests to real visitors and search engines.
+ */
+export function shouldShowNavigationSkeleton(current: URL, target: URL) {
+  return (
+    target.origin === current.origin &&
+    target.pathname !== current.pathname &&
+    /^\/(fr|en)(\/|$)/.test(target.pathname)
+  )
+}
diff --git a/tests/unit/seoPublicCrawl.spec.ts b/tests/unit/seoPublicCrawl.spec.ts
index 0793960..b40fe32 100644
--- a/tests/unit/seoPublicCrawl.spec.ts
+++ b/tests/unit/seoPublicCrawl.spec.ts
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ import { access, readFile } from 'node:fs/promises'
 import path from 'node:path'
 
 import { describe, expect, it } from 'vitest'
+import { shouldShowNavigationSkeleton } from '@/components/insights/navigationSkeleton'
 
 describe('P0: public crawl entry points', () => {
   it('does not expose the global frontend loading skeleton to article crawlers', async () => {
@@ -9,6 +10,17 @@ describe('P0: public crawl entry points', () => {
     await expect(access(filename)).rejects.toMatchObject({ code: 'ENOENT' })
   })
 
+  it('retains the editorial skeleton for real client-side navigation', async () => {
+    const layout = await readFile(path.join(process.cwd(), 'src/app/(frontend)/layout.tsx'), 'utf8')
+    const indicator = await readFile(
+      path.join(process.cwd(), 'src/components/insights/NavigationSkeleton.tsx'),
+      'utf8',
+    )
+    expect(layout).toContain('<NavigationSkeleton />')
+    expect(indicator).toContain('<SiteSkeleton pathnameOverride={pending.to} />')
+    expect(indicator).not.toContain('user-agent')
+  })
+
   it('preserves scoped search feedback rather than removing all loading states', async () => {
     for (const locale of ['fr', 'en']) {
       const filename = path.join(process.cwd(), `src/app/(frontend)/${locale}/search/loading.tsx`)
@@ -27,3 +39,19 @@ describe('P0: public crawl entry points', () => {
     expect(script).toContain('rel="canonical"')
   })
 })
+
+describe('navigation skeleton — human UX', () => {
+  const current = new URL('https://insight.trigenys.com/fr')
+  it('shows for an internal article navigation', () => {
+    expect(shouldShowNavigationSkeleton(current, new URL('https://insight.trigenys.com/fr/posts/test'))).toBe(true)
+  })
+  it('never appears for external links, same-page hashes or same-path query changes', () => {
+    expect(shouldShowNavigationSkeleton(current, new URL('https://example.com/fr/posts/test'))).toBe(false)
+    expect(shouldShowNavigationSkeleton(current, new URL('https://insight.trigenys.com/fr#newsletter'))).toBe(false)
+    expect(shouldShowNavigationSkeleton(current, new URL('https://insight.trigenys.com/fr?x=1'))).toBe(false)
+  })
+  it('does not cover admin or API navigation', () => {
+    expect(shouldShowNavigationSkeleton(current, new URL('https://insight.trigenys.com/admin'))).toBe(false)
+    expect(shouldShowNavigationSkeleton(current, new URL('https://insight.trigenys.com/api/posts'))).toBe(false)
+  })
+})

From 6cc6d3e062afa1b931c11dee76ef1eed7c74f444 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: EagleFox31 <86088743+EagleFox31@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 2026 23:41:12 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 3/3] fix(ux/seo): retain first-load skeleton for visitors,
 skip placeholder for known crawlers

---
 scripts/seo/public-crawl-smoke.mjs            | 12 +--
 src/app/(frontend)/en/search/loading.tsx      |  6 --
 src/app/(frontend)/fr/search/loading.tsx      |  6 --
 src/app/(frontend)/layout.tsx                 |  2 -
 src/app/(frontend)/loading.tsx                | 19 ++++
 .../insights/NavigationSkeleton.tsx           | 99 -------------------
 src/components/insights/SiteSkeleton.tsx      |  5 +-
 src/components/insights/loadingPolicy.ts      | 13 +++
 src/components/insights/navigationSkeleton.ts | 11 ---
 tests/unit/seoPublicCrawl.spec.ts             | 57 +++++------
 10 files changed, 64 insertions(+), 166 deletions(-)
 delete mode 100644 src/app/(frontend)/en/search/loading.tsx
 delete mode 100644 src/app/(frontend)/fr/search/loading.tsx
 create mode 100644 src/app/(frontend)/loading.tsx
 delete mode 100644 src/components/insights/NavigationSkeleton.tsx
 create mode 100644 src/components/insights/loadingPolicy.ts
 delete mode 100644 src/components/insights/navigationSkeleton.ts

diff --git a/scripts/seo/public-crawl-smoke.mjs b/scripts/seo/public-crawl-smoke.mjs
index f51deaf..88b07d6 100644
--- a/scripts/seo/public-crawl-smoke.mjs
+++ b/scripts/seo/public-crawl-smoke.mjs
@@ -2,10 +2,10 @@
 
 // Zero-dependency HTTP smoke test for search engine accessibility.
 // Usage: node scripts/seo/public-crawl-smoke.mjs [https://insight.trigenys.com]
-// Pass a preview deployment URL to test its routes while still enforcing the
-// production canonical URLs emitted by the site.
+// Preview routes must still emit production canonical URLs.
 const base = new URL(process.argv[2] || process.env.SEO_SMOKE_BASE_URL || 'https://insight.trigenys.com')
 const canonicalHost = 'insight.trigenys.com'
+const crawlerAgent = 'OAI-SearchBot/1.0 (+https://platform.openai.com/docs/bots)'
 const failures = []
 
 function assert(condition, message) {
@@ -17,10 +17,10 @@ function assert(condition, message) {
   }
 }
 
-async function request(path) {
+async function request(path, userAgent = crawlerAgent) {
   const url = new URL(path, base)
   const response = await fetch(url, {
-    headers: { 'User-Agent': 'TrigenysSEO-P0-Smoke/1.0' },
+    headers: { 'User-Agent': userAgent },
     signal: AbortSignal.timeout(20000),
     redirect: 'follow',
   })
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ async function main() {
     const { text: homeHTML } = await request(`/${locale}`)
     const visibleHome = documentWithoutScripts(homeHTML)
     assert(/<h1\b/i.test(visibleHome), `${locale} homepage has a server-rendered H1`)
-    assert(!/class="site-skeleton(?:\s|")/i.test(visibleHome), `${locale} homepage does not stream a global loading skeleton`)
+    assert(!/class="site-skeleton(?:\s|")/i.test(visibleHome), `${locale} crawler does not receive global placeholder markup`)
 
     const article = articleURLs.find((url) => new URL(url).pathname.startsWith(`/${locale}/posts/`))
     if (!article) {
@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ async function main() {
     assert(/<article\b/i.test(visibleArticle), `${locale} article body is in the HTML response`)
     assert(/article-reading-main/.test(visibleArticle), `${locale} article reading content is in the HTML response`)
     assert(/<h1\b/i.test(visibleArticle), `${locale} article heading is in the HTML response`)
-    assert(!/class="site-skeleton(?:\s|")/i.test(visibleArticle), `${locale} article does not stream a global loading skeleton`)
+    assert(!/class="site-skeleton(?:\s|")/i.test(visibleArticle), `${locale} crawler does not receive global placeholder markup`)
     assert(/rel="canonical"/.test(articleHTML) && articleHTML.includes(article), `${locale} article carries its canonical URL`)
   }
 }
diff --git a/src/app/(frontend)/en/search/loading.tsx b/src/app/(frontend)/en/search/loading.tsx
deleted file mode 100644
index 007069f..0000000
--- a/src/app/(frontend)/en/search/loading.tsx
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,6 +0,0 @@
-import { SiteSkeleton } from '@/components/insights/SiteSkeleton'
-
-// Search is interactive and is not an indexable editorial article.
-export default function Loading() {
-  return <SiteSkeleton />
-}
diff --git a/src/app/(frontend)/fr/search/loading.tsx b/src/app/(frontend)/fr/search/loading.tsx
deleted file mode 100644
index 007069f..0000000
--- a/src/app/(frontend)/fr/search/loading.tsx
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,6 +0,0 @@
-import { SiteSkeleton } from '@/components/insights/SiteSkeleton'
-
-// Search is interactive and is not an indexable editorial article.
-export default function Loading() {
-  return <SiteSkeleton />
-}
diff --git a/src/app/(frontend)/layout.tsx b/src/app/(frontend)/layout.tsx
index b43f5ef..af9f816 100644
--- a/src/app/(frontend)/layout.tsx
+++ b/src/app/(frontend)/layout.tsx
@@ -7,7 +7,6 @@ import { Fraunces, Inter } from 'next/font/google'
 import React from 'react'
 
 import { AdminBar } from '@/components/AdminBar'
-import { NavigationSkeleton } from '@/components/insights/NavigationSkeleton'
 import { Footer } from '@/Footer/Component'
 import { Header } from '@/Header/Component'
 import { Providers } from '@/providers'
@@ -41,7 +40,6 @@ export default async function RootLayout({ children }: { children: React.ReactNo
         <Providers>
           <AdminBar adminBarProps={{ preview: isEnabled }} />
           <Header />
-          <NavigationSkeleton />
           {children}
           <Footer />
           <PostHogScript />
diff --git a/src/app/(frontend)/loading.tsx b/src/app/(frontend)/loading.tsx
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2e52724
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/app/(frontend)/loading.tsx
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+import { headers } from 'next/headers'
+
+import { SiteSkeleton } from '@/components/insights/SiteSkeleton'
+import { isKnownEditorialCrawler } from '@/components/insights/loadingPolicy'
+
+/**
+ * The loading UI is purely presentational: every request eventually receives
+ * the same published article and metadata. Suppressing the placeholder for
+ * known HTML-reading crawlers avoids placing a fake "loading" page ahead of
+ * the editorial HTML. Human readers retain the original skeleton on both
+ * initial page load and client-side transitions.
+ */
+export default async function Loading() {
+  const userAgent = (await headers()).get('user-agent') || ''
+
+  if (isKnownEditorialCrawler(userAgent)) return null
+
+  return <SiteSkeleton />
+}
diff --git a/src/components/insights/NavigationSkeleton.tsx b/src/components/insights/NavigationSkeleton.tsx
deleted file mode 100644
index 3863041..0000000
--- a/src/components/insights/NavigationSkeleton.tsx
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,99 +0,0 @@
-'use client'
-
-import { usePathname } from 'next/navigation'
-import { useEffect, useRef, useState } from 'react'
-
-import { SiteSkeleton } from '@/components/insights/SiteSkeleton'
-import { shouldShowNavigationSkeleton } from '@/components/insights/navigationSkeleton'
-
-type PendingNavigation = { from: string; to: string }
-
-/**
- * Show the existing editorial skeleton only during browser-side navigation.
- *
- * Keeping the root loading.tsx absent means direct requests render the same
- * server-side article HTML for users and crawlers, without UA-based cloaking.
- */
-export function NavigationSkeleton() {
-  const pathname = usePathname()
-  const [pending, setPending] = useState<PendingNavigation | null>(null)
-  const showTimer = useRef<ReturnType<typeof setTimeout> | null>(null)
-  const stopTimer = useRef<ReturnType<typeof setTimeout> | null>(null)
-
-  useEffect(() => {
-    if (showTimer.current !== null) clearTimeout(showTimer.current)
-    if (stopTimer.current !== null) clearTimeout(stopTimer.current)
-
-    function resetTimers() {
-      if (showTimer.current !== null) clearTimeout(showTimer.current)
-      if (stopTimer.current !== null) clearTimeout(stopTimer.current)
-      showTimer.current = null
-      stopTimer.current = null
-    }
-
-    function onLinkClick(event: MouseEvent) {
-      if (
-        event.defaultPrevented ||
-        event.button !== 0 ||
-        event.ctrlKey ||
-        event.metaKey ||
-        event.shiftKey ||
-        event.altKey
-      ) {
-        return
-      }
-
-      const element = event.target
-      if (!(element instanceof Element)) return
-      const anchor = element.closest('a[href]')
-      if (!anchor || anchor.hasAttribute('download') || (anchor.target && anchor.target !== '_self')) {
-        return
-      }
-
-      const current = new URL(window.location.href)
-      let destination: URL
-      try {
-        destination = new URL(anchor.href, current)
-      } catch {
-        return
-      }
-
-      if (!shouldShowNavigationSkeleton(current, destination)) return
-
-      resetTimers()
-      // Avoid a distracting flash when Next.js has already prefetched a route.
-      showTimer.current = setTimeout(() => {
-        if (window.location.pathname === current.pathname) {
-          setPending({ from: current.pathname, to: destination.pathname })
-        }
-      }, 150)
-      // Never trap the reader behind a skeleton after a rejected navigation.
-      stopTimer.current = setTimeout(() => {
-        setPending(null)
-        resetTimers()
-      }, 10000)
-    }
-
-    document.addEventListener('click', onLinkClick)
-    window.addEventListener('popstate', resetTimers)
-    return () => {
-      document.removeEventListener('click', onLinkClick)
-      window.removeEventListener('popstate', resetTimers)
-      resetTimers()
-    }
-  }, [])
-
-  // Once the route changes the existing skeleton is hidden synchronously.
-  // The pending state is cleared on the next click or timeout, never in an effect.
-  if (!pending || pending.from !== pathname) return null
-
-  return (
-    <div
-      aria-label={pending.to.startsWith('/en') ? 'Loading page' : 'Chargement de la page'}
-      className="fixed inset-0 z-[70] overflow-y-auto bg-background"
-      data-client-navigation-skeleton
-    >
-      <SiteSkeleton pathnameOverride={pending.to} />
-    </div>
-  )
-}
diff --git a/src/components/insights/SiteSkeleton.tsx b/src/components/insights/SiteSkeleton.tsx
index d6dbf40..a13c3ca 100644
--- a/src/components/insights/SiteSkeleton.tsx
+++ b/src/components/insights/SiteSkeleton.tsx
@@ -159,9 +159,8 @@ function GenericSkeleton() {
   )
 }
 
-export function SiteSkeleton({ pathnameOverride }: { pathnameOverride?: string } = {}) {
-  const currentPathname = usePathname()
-  const pathname = pathnameOverride ?? currentPathname
+export function SiteSkeleton() {
+  const pathname = usePathname()
   const locale = pathname?.startsWith('/en') ? 'en' : 'fr'
   const label = locale === 'en' ? 'Loading content' : 'Chargement du contenu'
 
diff --git a/src/components/insights/loadingPolicy.ts b/src/components/insights/loadingPolicy.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a14023f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/components/insights/loadingPolicy.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+/**
+ * Presentation only, never gate or vary the underlying editorial data.
+ *
+ * Next.js also detects HTML-limited bots for metadata on its own. This small
+ * list just suppresses the loading placeholder for common crawlers, while
+ * retaining the site's original skeleton for normal browsing.
+ */
+const KNOWN_CRAWLER_USER_AGENTS =
+  /Googlebot|Google-InspectionTool|Google-PageRenderer|bingbot|BingPreview|DuckDuckBot|Slurp|YandexBot|Baiduspider|OAI-SearchBot|GPTBot|ChatGPT-User|ClaudeBot|Claude-SearchBot|PerplexityBot|facebookexternalhit|Twitterbot|LinkedInBot/i
+
+export function isKnownEditorialCrawler(userAgent: string) {
+  return KNOWN_CRAWLER_USER_AGENTS.test(userAgent)
+}
diff --git a/src/components/insights/navigationSkeleton.ts b/src/components/insights/navigationSkeleton.ts
deleted file mode 100644
index adf88d2..0000000
--- a/src/components/insights/navigationSkeleton.ts
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,11 +0,0 @@
-/**
- * This checks browser navigations, not crawler user agents. Editorial HTML is
- * served identically on direct requests to real visitors and search engines.
- */
-export function shouldShowNavigationSkeleton(current: URL, target: URL) {
-  return (
-    target.origin === current.origin &&
-    target.pathname !== current.pathname &&
-    /^\/(fr|en)(\/|$)/.test(target.pathname)
-  )
-}
diff --git a/tests/unit/seoPublicCrawl.spec.ts b/tests/unit/seoPublicCrawl.spec.ts
index b40fe32..da010f0 100644
--- a/tests/unit/seoPublicCrawl.spec.ts
+++ b/tests/unit/seoPublicCrawl.spec.ts
@@ -1,35 +1,29 @@
-import { access, readFile } from 'node:fs/promises'
+import { readFile } from 'node:fs/promises'
 import path from 'node:path'
 
 import { describe, expect, it } from 'vitest'
-import { shouldShowNavigationSkeleton } from '@/components/insights/navigationSkeleton'
+import { isKnownEditorialCrawler } from '@/components/insights/loadingPolicy'
 
 describe('P0: public crawl entry points', () => {
-  it('does not expose the global frontend loading skeleton to article crawlers', async () => {
+  it('preserves the original loading skeleton for human readers', async () => {
     const filename = path.join(process.cwd(), 'src/app/(frontend)/loading.tsx')
-    await expect(access(filename)).rejects.toMatchObject({ code: 'ENOENT' })
+    const source = await readFile(filename, 'utf8')
+
+    expect(source).toContain('return <SiteSkeleton />')
+    expect(source).toContain('isKnownEditorialCrawler(userAgent)')
   })
 
-  it('retains the editorial skeleton for real client-side navigation', async () => {
-    const layout = await readFile(path.join(process.cwd(), 'src/app/(frontend)/layout.tsx'), 'utf8')
-    const indicator = await readFile(
-      path.join(process.cwd(), 'src/components/insights/NavigationSkeleton.tsx'),
+  it('never varies editorial page content or auth based on crawler agent', async () => {
+    const policy = await readFile(
+      path.join(process.cwd(), 'src/components/insights/loadingPolicy.ts'),
       'utf8',
     )
-    expect(layout).toContain('<NavigationSkeleton />')
-    expect(indicator).toContain('<SiteSkeleton pathnameOverride={pending.to} />')
-    expect(indicator).not.toContain('user-agent')
-  })
-
-  it('preserves scoped search feedback rather than removing all loading states', async () => {
-    for (const locale of ['fr', 'en']) {
-      const filename = path.join(process.cwd(), `src/app/(frontend)/${locale}/search/loading.tsx`)
-      const code = await readFile(filename, 'utf8')
-      expect(code).toContain('<SiteSkeleton />')
-    }
+    expect(policy).not.toContain('notFound(')
+    expect(policy).not.toContain('redirect(')
+    expect(policy).not.toContain('payload.find(')
   })
 
-  it('provides a repeatable HTTP smoke check for live editorial markup', async () => {
+  it('provides repeatable live crawler markup checks', async () => {
     const script = await readFile(
       path.join(process.cwd(), 'scripts/seo/public-crawl-smoke.mjs'),
       'utf8',
@@ -40,18 +34,15 @@ describe('P0: public crawl entry points', () => {
   })
 })
 
-describe('navigation skeleton — human UX', () => {
-  const current = new URL('https://insight.trigenys.com/fr')
-  it('shows for an internal article navigation', () => {
-    expect(shouldShowNavigationSkeleton(current, new URL('https://insight.trigenys.com/fr/posts/test'))).toBe(true)
-  })
-  it('never appears for external links, same-page hashes or same-path query changes', () => {
-    expect(shouldShowNavigationSkeleton(current, new URL('https://example.com/fr/posts/test'))).toBe(false)
-    expect(shouldShowNavigationSkeleton(current, new URL('https://insight.trigenys.com/fr#newsletter'))).toBe(false)
-    expect(shouldShowNavigationSkeleton(current, new URL('https://insight.trigenys.com/fr?x=1'))).toBe(false)
-  })
-  it('does not cover admin or API navigation', () => {
-    expect(shouldShowNavigationSkeleton(current, new URL('https://insight.trigenys.com/admin'))).toBe(false)
-    expect(shouldShowNavigationSkeleton(current, new URL('https://insight.trigenys.com/api/posts'))).toBe(false)
+describe('human versus crawler — loading UI only', () => {
+  it('does not suppress skeleton for real readers', () => {
+    expect(isKnownEditorialCrawler('Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) Chrome/154.0.0.0')).toBe(false)
+    expect(isKnownEditorialCrawler('Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 18_0 like Mac OS X) Mobile')).toBe(false)
+    expect(isKnownEditorialCrawler('')).toBe(false)
   })
+
+  it.each(['Googlebot/2.1', 'bingbot/2.0', 'OAI-SearchBot/1.0', 'ClaudeBot/1.0', 'PerplexityBot/1.0'])(
+    'skips placeholder for known HTML crawler %s',
+    (userAgent) => expect(isKnownEditorialCrawler(userAgent)).toBe(true),
+  )
 })