With more and more people choosing to use mobile devices to browse the web, SEO techniques and other practices need to keep up. While many tried mobiles apps, it has been noted that these have some limitations such as losing users, taking up phone space, and eating up phone charges. As a result, a middle ground had to be established. Progressive web apps have helped to do this. Let’s take a closer look at PWAs and how you can include them in your SEO strategy in 2019.
What is a Progressive Web App?
To put it simply, a progressive web app has all the same characteristics as installed apps (such as push notifications and fast load times) whilst not requiring actual installation on a device. From a business perspective, they are also much faster to build and update. They can also be spread easily across multiple browsers and devices, unlike more traditional apps which need to be engineered separately for Android and iOS.
A PWA is also indexable by search engines and does not require updates but still allows for offline functions and a whole range of other abilities. Since it is served via HTTPS, you can also know that it is safe for the users.
How Do Progressive Web Apps Work?
PWAs work thanks to the use of four technologies. The first is the web app manifest file which will allow users to install directly from the website. This needs to fit some strict guidelines which you can find on Google.
The second is the service worker; a JavaScript file which helps to make the PWA offline. This helps to cache data from previous sessions so something can be displayed if the device is not connected to the internet.
Thirdly, you are going to need transport layer security, otherwise known as TLS. This helps you to register service workers through HTTPS. Doing so will protect data integrity and will limit the service worker’s ability to hijack connections.
Finally, you are going to need an application shell architecture. This is the coding and scripts needed to power the PWA’s interface and is what helps to create the final product.
How Do You Implement SEO Strategies for Them?
To implement the perfect PWA SEO strategy, you need to remember that Google needs to be able to access the content of each page for indexing. However, the length of time it takes Google to render the JavaScript of the PWA can not be the best for SEO.
You need to make sure that your server can respond to requests for deep links. Every element needs to have these from the application shell to the images to the meta tags and more. You can also ensure that you are using a JavaScript framework which will allow you to bypass some of the wait times and respond to search engine requests much faster. So long as every page has its own URL instead of a fragment then it can be indexed and implemented into a wider SEO strategy. PWAs can be an extremely useful depending on a business’s needs. Take a deeper look into PWAs today to see if it would be helpful to you.