By 2019, Google officially announced mobile-first indexing as a default method for all websites, including eCommerce. So, for all practical purposes, a mobile-first approach to your online business can impact your store’s ranking on the SERPs. Hence, the PWAs come into the picture!
PWA or a Progressive Web Application is an application software built with modern APIs and delivered through web browsers. Built using standard web tech like CSS, HTML, JS, etc., PWAs are commonly used by eCommerce businesses to boost website traffic and conversion rates. Since 2021, PWAs are fully or partially supported by Apple Safari, Google Chrome, Firefox for Android, and Microsoft Edge. It is a relatively new trend, and stats support PWA optimization to yield impressive results.
So, in all its glory, a PWA is a website having a distinct advantage for mobile users. It has the look and feel of a native mobile app but is delivered via web browsers. Another advantage is that it beats the hassles of downloading an app from the store. A PWA also helps overcome issues regarding slow networks and data limitations. Hence, it can be said that PWAs are reliable, enhance the website loading speed, and enhance the user experience. A growing eCommerce business needs to ensure that its online store conforms to the requirements of PWA. Twitter and Gmail are two of the most popular PWAs that render impeccable UX to their visitors.
There are four core technologies on which a PWA works:
Leveraging these four techs, all modern web browsers now support PWAs with a superior user interface and user experience.
Hence, to stay ahead of the competition, brands are now constantly implementing and optimizing their PWAs, to meet their customers where they are. Where are you?
But the question remains! How are PWA and SEO related?
App developers are constantly striving to increase the visibility of their apps. Herein, PWAs come to the rescue of native app developers by carrying several SEO benefits. With users avoiding installing more apps, PWA has become a boon for eCommerce companies catering to mobile users. PWAs are known to boost SEO and enhance online visibility.
Since now better SEO directly translates to better user experience and PWA’s take the user experience through the roof, we shall move on to PWA and SEO practices. Let’s dig into indexing the PWAs for better online visibility.
Fundamentally, PWAs are websites and need to be optimized to rank on SERPs. But JavaScript SEO is a challenge. So, SEO for PWA is definitely not easy!
Google considers every published PWA as a JS website and Googlebot crawls it as usual. But there are PWA-specific issues that potentially impact the indexing, SERPs ranking, and crawl ability. Your developers must be aware of the issues before facing them.
What are the issues PWAs face while Javascript rendering?
Usually, websites generate or render the HTML code on the server side. It is the easiest way to make sure direct linkability of the content. Whereas, web apps prefer client-side rendering while dynamically updating the content on the web during browsing, without reloading the web page. However, developers today prefer using hybrid rendering. The server-side rendering is used during direct navigation to an URL while the client-side is used after loading the first web page to process asynchronous requests for subsequent navigation. This causes major time lag, sometimes even while the visitor is browsing the web page.
Hence, URLs should be independently accessible and the visitors should be redirected back to the homepage of the PWA. It is advised to use either the server-side or the hybrid rendering to fully unlock the SEO potential of your PWA site.
Server-side Rendering for SEO in PWA
You can go via multiple ways to achieve this. One of the most popular options is to use the JS framework, Vue.js. By default, in Vue, the components can produce and manipulate DOM in the browser as the output. You can also render the same components into HTML strings. You can send them directly to the browser after rendering them on the client side. Vue would “hydrate” the static markups and render them as a fully interactive client-side application.
This process almost always guarantees that the search engine crawlers notice the fully rendered page, thereby translating into better SEO. The process also reduces the time to content, especially when the visitors are suffering from slow or limited internet connectivity. You wouldn’t have to wait for the JS files to download and display the content. This enhances the overall LCP of your website. This will positively affect the user experience and boost your conversion rate.
Dynamic or Hybrid Render in PWA SEO
By far we have learned that processing JavaScript is easier said than done. But to make it a little easier along the way, dynamic rendering is preferred by most developers these days. The process goes back and forth between client-side and pre-rendered content. It is beneficial for the visitors in terms of UX. Here, the www server needs to detect bots and render the visitor’s request to be processed as usual. Bot requests are directed to the rendering process and visitors’ requests are again processed as usual. Where necessary, a dynamic rendering serves the content version appropriate for the bot to read, for instance with static HTML code. This works on most PWA websites.
Keeping in mind the above, developers need to be extra cautious about the Web Apps SEO issues during the PWA development itself. To harness the full SEO benefits of Progressive Web Apps, there are certain best practices one needs to take care of.
Here are some PWA SEO tips that will further improve the usability and visibility of your sites.
SEO-wise, understanding the cruciality of Googlebots, crawling and SEO practice for your PWA visibility is imperative. And, to test if the efforts that you have put in are in the right direction is equally important. You can leverage popular tools like the Google Search Console, Lighthouse, Google PageSpeed Insights, SEMrush, and cross-browser testing tools like BrowserStack.com, Broswerling.com among others, which can help you create a rich and responsive experience for your customers.
The benefits of having a PWA are significant for boosting your online business’s revenue if you are spot on with your PWA SEO. Before the PWA development, ensure to analyze its positive and negative impacts on your business as the resources used in PWA development and optimization are extensive.
Remember, Test, analyze, test and repeat! Check how Google reads your pages and use their actionable insights. Always consider the substantial impact PWAs have on SEO and the online visibility of your digital commerce. Involve PWA and digital marketing experts to maximize the benefits of your online presence.
Shivi Rao is a content marketer with Krish. She has worked in various industries spanning technology, science, rural marketing, startups & unicorns, eCommerce business, and digital marketing, believing that content is the foundation to facilitate the visibility of any organization and ensuring her words do the same. In her free time, you can either find her lifting weights in the gym or feeding the strays.
21 December, 2022 After WooCommerce, Shopify is the 2nd most loved and used eCommerce platform worldwide. Shopify is an entirely feature-rich eCommerce platform. It offers many drag-and-drop options, and its apps work tremendously for store owners. In addition, Shopify is easy to use as it doesn't require depth coding.
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