Are you looking forward to coming up with a web application which will provide your users with an impressive full-screen experience while eliminating the dependence on the network? Today, it’s easy to develop a web app which is installable on the user’s home screen without being downloaded from the app store. Progressive web app development allows you to build a web app which looks and feel like a native mobile application for both Android and iOS.
A well-developed progressive web app (PWA) helps business owners reach a bigger audience beyond the limitations of the app stores. You can consider it as a website created using web technologies but works like an app. The motive is to deliver fast, reliable, and engaging mobile experiences while still having the accessibility and ability of a web page.
Having the expertise to develop and optimize progressive apps is already a highly demanded skill for modern programmers — a trend which is going to accelerate in upcoming years. A progressive web app comes with several benefits, making it easy to engage the target audience and boost conversions:
More Reliable
Based on a Google initiative, progressive web apps offer more reliable user experiences without going offline, even in uncertain network conditions. They load fast and respond instantly to user interactions without any janky scrolling. When a user installs a progressive web app on his/her home screen, it automatically builds a lightweight Android app wrapper which makes the app appear on the app list.
Competitive Advantage
With an immersive user experience, PWA feels like a natural app on any device such as desktop, mobile or tablet. Progressive Web Apps are installable and live on the user’s home screen, without the need for an app store. It gives the app publisher an excellent opportunity to re-engage the users with the help of push notifications. Coming up with a progressive web app will definitely provide you with a competitive advantage.
Easy to Develop and Manage
With the help of a web app manifest file, progressive web applications are installable on the user’s home screen that provides full-screen experience. This manifest file allows web developers to control how their app will look and launch. It also makes it easy to specify screen orientation, home screen icons, and other essential things.
More Responsive & Mobile-Friendly
Developed with progressive enhancement as a core tenet, PWA is basically a modified website which can be gradually adjusted according to the technical settings of an end device. Progressive web apps have several advantages that native applications also have. Basically, such apps provide the benefits of native apps while being more responsive and mobile-friendly sites.
Other Advantages:
- PWA is served via HTTPS that prevent snooping while ensuring that the content hasn’t been interfered with.
- The progressive web applications are discoverable. Service worker registration scope and W3C manifest allow search engines to find it.
- It is easy to share PWAs; users don’t need the complex installation.
- When the PWA criteria are matched, Chrome advises users to add the application to their home screen. The app works flawlessly while giving an amazing user experience.
- The ability to deliver a mobile-like experience helped business owners boost conversions across all operating systems and browsers.
- The PWA development cost is relatively cheaper than native app development. Besides, it doesn’t require separate versions for different devices or platforms.
- You don’t need separate code base for programming because progressive web apps can also be built with HTML5.
Push notifications, rich offline experiences, fast loading speed, periodic background syncs, and other essential functionalities make progressive web app a worth-considering investment.
Search Engine Optimization and Progressive Web Apps
All the web pages of PWA is considered as a JavaScript website by Google Bots. For a progressive web app, a new link can be created, and the Google bots will crawl it in the same manner as it performs for other links published on the web. However, there are several things that developers must need to consider while optimizing the web app:
- If your progressive web app is serving content from different online resources, don’t forget to use rel=canonical tags to prevent your application from any content violations.
- Make sure the URL’s are free from a hash symbol when you are generating links for progressive web apps. If the links has a “#” in it, Google will ignore everything else mentioned after it. It’s always recommended to use the traditional
SEO rules for generating URLs. - It is vital to see how Google is viewing your pages while indexing them. In order to see the complete results about Googlebot indexing, you can use the popular Fetch and Render tool provided by Google. With this tool, you will get an idea of resources which are blocked by robots.txt.
- In order to improve the loading speed, make sure to have a limited number of embedded resources on the page such as JavaScript files. Remember, the fewer the embedded resources, the easier it will be to run the app.
Progressive Web Apps for your Online Business
Progressive Web Apps are designed to improve user experience on the web. Though, not every business needs to come with a PWA, it is highly recommended for website owners who are looking forward to providing a mobile-like experience on the web. If your existing site has less media content, quick load time, and enough traffic and conversions, sticking to a traditional and mobile-friendly site is undoubtedly a good idea. For a large-scale business with multifarious features, choosing progressive web app development is a wise decision. PWAs will be worked as a lite version of your large-scale site.
However, progressive Web Apps are the next generation of online interactivity which provides a whole new user experience for the mobile users.
