Mobile shopping has become a cornerstone of the e-commerce experience. During the first quarter of 2024, smartphones captured almost 80% of all retail website visits globally, generating two-thirds of online orders. To cater to their mobile-focused audience, businesses are ramping up their PWA efforts.
A progressive web application, or PWA for short, blends the features of a native app and a website so users can enjoy a seamless digital experience across different devices (tablets, smartphones, or desktops). This flexibility makes PWAs an ideal choice for e-commerce brands aiming to boost user engagement and conversions.
Nevertheless, PWAs present some challenges when it comes to search engine optimization. Their innovative architecture can hinder search engine crawlers from discovering and indexing the content properly, leading to lower visibility in search.
In this article, we’ll explore the tech stack of PWAs, how they benefit e-commerce, and what SEO hurdles they may pose. Additionally, we’ll highlight the best practices for optimizing PWAs for search engines.
PWA architecture and core components
A progressive web application is a combination of technologies mimicking the look and functionality of mobile apps. Users can quickly access it from a browser by adding a shortcut to their home screen. PWA’s cross-platform compatibility spares businesses from developing separate apps for iOS and Android.
PWAs are created in several ways. Depending on their budget and needs, e-commerce teams can choose to:
- Build it from scratch with the help of modern frameworks (React.js, Angular.js, or Vue.js);
- Customize ready-made themes, such as Magento 2 PWA studio, Vue Storefront,or Scandi PWA.
- Utilize a hybrid approach by merging toolkit solutions and modern frameworks.
While PWAs are basically mobile-friendly versions of a website, their architecture differs from traditional websites in a few ways we’ll look at below.
Monolithic vs. headless architecture
Currently, many websites can be categorized as monoliths. Their front end is generated on the back end, and these two components are tightly integrated. As soon as a user requests a web page, the server retrieves the necessary data, generates the complete HTML response, and sends it back to the client’s browser. The process repeats every time the user navigates to a different page on the website.
In contrast, headless architecture involves decoupling the front end from the back end logic. This separation offers greater scalability and flexibility. PWAs are a prime example of headless websites. During initial loading, the server sends a minimal HTML document with a JavaScript file. The rest of the site’s content is fetched through API calls and rendered by the user’s browser instead of receiving all the data from the back end.
This approach gives a PWA its best qualities, including top-notch user experience, responsiveness, and high speed.
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Service worker
The service worker is an essential component of progressive web apps. This client-side JavaScript file runs separately from a web page or app. Think of service workers as intermediaries between the browser and the server. They add a background functionality layer to create an app-like experience and handle critical tasks such as:
- Offline mode (caches the app shell so it loads immediately when the user revisits the website);
- Push notifications;
- Background synchronization (defers actions until a stable internet connection is established).
Application shell
The application shell serves as the backbone of PWAs. It consists of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code needed to run a user interface. When you open a PWA, the application shell is the first to load. It ensures the interface appears quickly, even when you’re offline. This shell can be cached, allowing for rapid loading on subsequent visits.
Web app manifest
This element controls how the PWA looks on mobile devices and desktops. The web app manifest exists as a JSON text file containing essential information such as the app’s name, start URL, icons, and display options. When a web browser first connects to the network, it reads this file, downloads the necessary resources, and stores them locally. This way, the web app can function even with a poor internet connection or in offline mode.
Cache
Caching removes the need to fetch data from the source again and again. Instead, data is stored temporarily on a user’s device or third-party data center, enabling quicker access and minimizing load time. You may use different caching tactics in your PWA including full asset caching, which stores both static and dynamic content, or partial asset caching, which stores specific elements like images or scripts. Partial asset caching is best for pages with prevailing dynamic content.
PWAs for e-commerce SEO
E-commerce SEO is all about boosting online visibility and attracting more potential buyers to your store. With PWAs, brands can reach higher positions in search results and drive more clicks. Let’s analyze all the gains you can achieve when adopting PWA and how it can impact SEO.
App-like UX
Mobile optimization is a crucial aspect of an SEO strategy for e-commerce businesses. As mentioned above, people now prefer browsing and buying things via their smartphones. As of 2023, nearly 30% of global online shoppers used their mobile phones for weekly purchases.
Besides, Google has shifted to mobile-first indexing since 2020. The tech giant prioritizes the mobile version of a site when determining its search engine rankings.
PWAs have successfully adopted the core UX/UI principles of native apps, providing a seamless user experience across different platforms and devices. Key elements such as the homepage, product pages, catalog, checkout, and navigation menu are designed for easy scrolling and thumb-friendly interactions.
Source: Tally Weijl
Faster loading
In addition to a preference for mobile shopping, people also have short attention spans. Therefore, your website’s speed is of great significance. Every second of delay decreases customer engagement and leads to high bounce rates and loss of potential sales.
Lightning-fast sites are more likely to earn top spots in search, as Google considers page speed one of its ranking factors.
Strong performance in PWAs results from the modern technologies behind them. Service workers handle resource-intensive tasks in the background. These scripts prefetch all the data required for smooth and quick navigation.
Since service workers run independently of a web page, they don’t influence the loading speed. Nevertheless, speed optimization is still necessary for a PWA store. Improving your web app’s performance requires a certain amount of technical expertise. You can opt to handle it on your own or outsource the task to a reliable agency.
Higher conversions
There’s no denying that there is a strong correlation between good user experience and higher conversion rates. PWA’s sleek design and rapid performance enable customers to navigate an online store and place orders with ease, thus improving the user’s experience.
Let’s look at some real-life examples that prove the conversion capacity of PWAs.
Lancôme, a well-known luxury perfume and cosmetics brand, saw a 17% uplift in conversions after implementing a PWA. In addition, the company’s mobile sessions on iOS surged by 53% and recovered cart conversions boosted by 8% due to push notifications.
Source: Lancome
Spotify is another case in point. After transitioning to PWA technology, the music-streaming service experienced a rapid increase of 46% in its free-to-paid conversion rates. A few years later, Spotify again beat its record, reporting a conversion rate of 58.4%.
Source: Spotify
Increased engagement and reach
Push notifications and offline functionality are valuable features of PWAs for re-engaging customers. Businesses can remain top of mind and drive repeat purchases by sending timely reminders, personalized offers, and crucial updates even when users aren’t actively interacting with an app.
Thanks to service workers, PWAs ensure offline access or work with a limited internet connection. But keep in mind, with offline access, you can only view cached assets. Therefore, the previously visited pages will be available, allowing you to add items to the cart. Once the connection is restored, the app refreshes data. This overall process eliminates frustration and keeps clients engaged.
Moreover, PWAs are platform agnostic. This means they can work on different devices without disrupting the UX. As such, e-commerce brands can expand their customer base by reaching users on their most favored devices.
The hurdles between SEO and PWAs
Despite the numerous benefits of PWAs, not all e-commerce businesses have been quick to adopt the technology. One major issue is SEO. The app doesn’t render pages the same way traditional websites do, so Google bots and other search engine crawlers may have difficulty properly indexing and ranking content.
This creates a myth that PWAs aren’t SEO-friendly. But is that actually true?
In reality, PWAs are fully indexable by search engines. However, online store teams need to implement a different strategy to ensure robots can discover, analyze, and understand the website’s content. Let’s sort it out.
Client-side vs. server-side rendering
Many websites still use a straightforward approach of server-side rendering (SSR). For each request, the server generates the entire HTML document and delivers it to the user’s browser. The process repeats whenever you navigate to a new page.
This method has its benefits, like fast initial load times (content is readily available to search engine crawlers). But the problems turn up when switching pages. Once you click on another website page, the server reloads the whole page for any new content, creating delays and disrupting the UX.
Client-side rendering (CSR), in turn, fixes the performance issue. This strategy is typical of PWAs and other JavaScript-based applications and websites. With CSR, the server sends a bare-bones HTML with a JavaScript file. Then, this JS file dynamically fetches and renders content in the user’s browser.
CSR significantly speeds up page load times and offers a more responsive and interactive user experience. Yet, it poses certain SEO challenges.
Google admits that not all bots are capable of rendering JavaScript. Besides, crawling and indexing such pages requires additional resources from search engines. That’s why applying the following alternative methods can help remove SEO limitations for PWAs.
Dynamic rendering
Dynamic rendering is a technique that addresses the issue of JS-heavy pages not being indexed properly. The process involves showing different content to users and search engines. First, the web server detects the agent requesting the page. Next, for a search engine bot, it pre-renders the JS content into static HTML and serves that version. Meanwhile, when human users access the page, they enjoy the interactive, JS-powered experience.
Of course, this method comes with some challenges. To begin with, setting up dynamic rendering is an intricate process requiring technical skills. Additionally, ongoing maintenance is also necessary so that both versions function well.
CSR and SSR combined
This hybrid approach entails prioritizing the essential elements of your page (canonical tags, meta descriptions, and structured data) and applying SSR for rendering and serving them. The rest of the content is generated on the client side using JavaScript. It’s a neat solution, balancing fast load times, dynamic experience, and SEO.
SEO for PWAs
While PWAs offer numerous benefits, they don’t have built-in SEO support. Developers and webmasters need to roll up their sleeves to ensure the website’s visibility and higher rankings in organic search. Once you’ve sorted out the question about rendering, which eliminates the risk of search engines not indexing your pages, the following tactics may assist in PWA optimization.
Improve URL structure
Make sure every page within your PWA has a unique, clear, and descriptive URL. Avoid placing fragment identifiers (#) in URLs. Instead, use the History API to make them more readable. If you plan to launch a PWA while keeping your original and desktop sites, be mindful of potential duplicate content issues. Therefore, setting up canonical tags for primary URLs is crucial to avoid SEO penalties.
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Submit SEO-friendly sitemaps and robots.txt
Providing an XML sitemap to search engines assists with discovering important URLs in your PWA. Be sure to list all critical pages in your sitemap. For dynamic content, automate sitemap generation to keep it up to date.
Robots.txt controls web crawlers’ access to certain parts of your site. Leverage disallow directives for sections that shouldn’t be indexed, such as duplicate content zones or admin areas. Also, don’t block resources, like CSS and JS, which are essential for content rendering.
Implement structured data
Incorporating schema markup or structured data into your PWA provides search engines with additional context about your pages’ content. You can include various details, such as reviews, pricing, product descriptions, and ratings. The more information you provide to search engines which helps them understand your content, the better your chances of appearing in rich results, also known as rich snippets, and driving more clicks.
Ensure security through HTTPS
Both PWAs and native apps have access to hardware features, which raises security concerns among users. While native apps comply with marketplace standards, these rules don’t apply to PWAs. To prevent the website’s content from unauthorized modifications and malicious attacks, PWAs must leverage HTTPS. This encrypted connection ensures data security and integrity when exchanged between the browser and the server.
Create quality content
Unique, high-quality, and valuable content has a great impact on your search rankings. To amp up their PWA SEO efforts, online store teams should follow these practices:
- Craft compelling and original product descriptions rather than copy and paste the ones manufacturers give.
- Optimize content with relevant keywords to attract potential customers with high purchase intent.
- Avoid keyword stuffing; use search terms naturally.
- Break up text into digestible pieces with headings, subheadings, and bullet points to help users and search engines grasp content better.
- Regularly update content with new and pertinent information.
Refine meta tags
The metadata within your PWA should be consistent and reflect all the necessary details on each page. Write clear, concise, and engaging title tags and meta descriptions. Include keywords for better SEO performance.
Pursue backlink-building strategies
Maximizing PWA’s SEO potential is hardly possible without a solid backlink profile. When reputable websites link back to yours, Google recognizes your site as a valuable and authoritative resource. This, in turn, can boost organic traffic and SEO rankings.
Seek backlink opportunities through guest blogging. You can also consider partnering with influencers in your niche or participating in industry-related forums and leveraging social media platforms to increase brand awareness and expand your audience.
Track performance continuously
Monitor and analyze your PWA’s performance on a regular basis. Tools like Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster will help you monitor crawl errors, indexing status, and search queries generating more traffic. Integrate this data with Google Analytics to comprehend user behavior through metrics like bounce rate, page sessions, and conversion rates.
Google PageSpeed Insights can analyze your PWA’s speed and recommend ways to improve its loading time. Lighthouse is another valuable tool for assessing your website’s speed, accessibility, SEO, and more. It runs a report with actionable insights for optimizing your PWA.
Final thoughts
As we have established, PWAs offer a multitude of benefits for your e-commerce business.
While some e-commerce sites have been hesitant to use PWAs because of the potential SEO issues, we’ve seen that a blend of traditional strategies with PWA-specific optimization tactics can help raise your website in search results and grow organic traffic.
Follow the SEO tips mentioned in the article, monitor consistently, and adjust your tactics to ensure your PWA performs at its best.
