Progressive Web App SEO: How to Do It for Your Business

As the digital landscape develops, businesses are now not only concerned about how they market their products or services but also about how to improve their user experience and elevate their ranking in search engines. 

Regarding this, they not only utilise websites but also mobile applications. Fortunately, there are Progressive Web Apps (PWA) that can combine both into a potent technology. 

Yet, because PWAs use a lot of JavaScript, there have been worries raised on how this would affect search engine optimisation (SEO). Therefore, to increase organic traffic and get online awareness, Progressive Web App SEO must be done well.

This article will reveal how Progressive Web App SEO can help your business to enhance its online presence. 

What Is Progressive Web App?

Progressive Web App is Google’s technology that integrates the elements of native mobile applications and conventional web pages. 

This combination allows us to benefit from many excellent functions, such as quick-loading pages, shortcut creation on the home screen, and push notifications.

PWAs are web applications that use contemporary web technologies to give consumers an app-like environment. 

They include extra capabilities that enable them to function like native apps, but they are still constructed with common web technologies like HTML, JavaScript, and CSS.

Unlike usual mobile websites and applications, users can use PWA online or offline and effortlessly install it with a few clicks. 

In addition, users do not need to download PWAs from an app store because they will be placed straight onto their home screens, providing them with simple and fast access.

In building PWA, Google has determined the set of requirements, such as: 

• Responsive: PWAs must be made to work on screens of any size or orientation. Their user experience must be consistent on both desktop and mobile platforms.
• Progressive: All users should be able to access PWAs using any browser or device. 
• Linkable: PWAs must have URL-sharing functionality, enabling users to distribute content and invite friends to download the app with ease.
• Connectivity-independent: PWAs must use service workers and caching techniques to function offline or on unreliable networks so that users can still access it despite not having a good connection. 
• Installable: Users should be able to embed PWAs on their home screens to open the app.
• App-like interaction: PWAs must have fluid motions and transitions, much like native apps, so that users can be engaged. 
• Re-engageable: Push notifications and other re-engagement tools should be available in PWAs to capture users' interest and encourage them to return to the app.
• Discoverable: PWAs should be recognised as applications and accessible through search engines to boost exposure and draw in organic traffic.

Not only those requirements but you should also pay attention to their four primary elements, such as:

• Application Shell Architecture: Optimise this architecture to improve the loading speed and quick and easy page-to-page navigation. It entails constructing an application shell, which is the bare minimum of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript needed for generating the PWA's user interface.
• Web App Manifest: A JSON file that contains important PWA information, such as icon, name, starting URL, colours, and the display.
• Transport Layer Security (TLS): TLS guarantees that the user's device and the server hosting the PWA can communicate securely.
• Service Worker: Serving as a proxy between the web application and the network, a service worker is a JavaScript file that executes in the background without requiring a browser window. 

Advantages of Using Progressive Web Apps

Before we talk about Progressive Web Apps SEO, let’s learn about how you can benefit PWA for your business. Below are the advantages of using PWAs:

1. Enhanced User Experience

The first advantage is improved user experience. Users no longer need to download and install native apps because PWAs provide a smooth, app-like experience. This leads to responsive user interfaces, seamless transitions, and quicker load times.

2. Cost and Time Saving

You can save more time and cost by using PWA instead of building separate apps for all platforms. 

Moreover, since improvements to the PWA will be reflected on all platforms, repairs, and modifications can also be expedited.

3. Higher Engagement

Since PWA considers re-engagement as one of its requirements, having PWA can re-engage inactive people using its features, like push notifications. This promotes user loyalty and raises the possibility of return visits. 

4. Expanded Audience Reach

PWA is shareable through URL and is available in any browser. This increases the potential audience reach because users may access PWAs without having to install the app from an app store.

5. Increased Conversion Rates

Last but not least, PWA can lead to higher conversion rates. Businesses can offer seamless interactions using PWAs, which lowers bounce rates and increases conversions.

Furthermore, PWAs can efficiently convert visitors into consumers or active users by providing a smooth and captivating user experience.

Progressive Web App SEO, How Does It Work?

Search engine optimisation or SEO has become one of the aces used to enhance a website’s visibility and ranking on search engine results. 

PWAs, which offer a framework that is favoured by search engines, have created new prospects for SEO.

As mentioned before, PWA SEO prioritises quick loading time even with an unstable connection thanks to cache content by service workers. This surely impacts the user experience and later on, ranks. 

Moreover, PWA is built to be mobile-friendly and responsive to various platforms. In addition to helping companies better their mobile search ranks, Progressive Web SEO helps them serve the expanding mobile audience.

Progressive Web App SEO also has the benefit of being downloadable, which lets users add them much like native apps to their home screens.

Improved user experiences are highly valued by search engines and are reflected in higher search rankings. This enhanced visibility and accessibility help to achieve this.

How to Build Progressive Web App SEO

In building Progressive Web App SEO, it is important to consider its discoverability by search engine so that it can crawl and index the app. It is essential to use sitemaps and appropriate URL architectures to accomplish this.

Your PWA's URLs should be clear and descriptive so that search engines can quickly ascertain what is on each page.

Likewise, making a sitemap that includes links to every page of your Progressive Web App SEO can help search engine crawlers index it more efficiently.

Furthermore, websites and web apps with rapid loads rank higher in search results because they improve user experience. 

As a result, it's critical to maximise your Progressive Web App SEO performance through the use of content delivery networks, browser caching, and file size reduction.

Similar to the usual SEO best practices, metadata, and content optimisation is necessary for your PWA. 

Metadata like title tags, meta descriptions, and meta keywords help search engines understand the ins and outs of your PWA as well as improve the discoverability of search engine result pages. 

On the other hand, high-quality content can help your ranking escalate and drive organic traffic because the more valuable and informative your content is to users, the more search engine recommends it to them. 

Conclusion

Now that you already know what are progressive apps, you can implement them in your business. Understanding what is PWA app also widens your chance of getting recognized by broader audiences. 

Yet, it is also important to complement your Progressive Web App SEO with search engine optimisation best practices for your website. Regarding this, working with SEO Services by cmlabs can be a solution. Work with us immediately!