A progressive web app combines a website's ease of iteration with the functionality and home screen icon of a mobile application. A progressive web app enables a mobile app experience using a single code base that can run on multiple devices and platforms, bypassing the need to engage with the app stores.
A progressive web app is a useful tool businesses can use to reach a broad audience, including those using older devices. Spotify and Pinterest are both examples of progressive web apps that provide an ‘app-like’ experience from the website browser.
Four key benefits of a progressive web app for your business
Progressive web apps (PWA) allow your target audience to work offline, access your app from a web browser and experience faster loading times and navigation. Your business will remain top of mind as a progressive web app can be saved to the home screen, bypassing the app marketplace and saving on storage space for those older devices.
Further advantages of progressive web apps include improved user experience, increased engagement, and enhanced visibility in search engine results.
Improved User Experience
Fast loading times
PWAs are designed to load quickly, providing users with a seamless and responsive experience. Fast loading times contribute to lower bounce rates and higher user satisfaction, crucial factors in retaining visitors and encouraging conversions.
Work offline or with a poor data connection
PWAs can work offline or in low-network conditions, ensuring users can access at least some functionality even without a stable internet connection. This feature enhances user convenience and satisfaction.
Looks and feels like an app
PWAs offer app-like interactions, such as smooth animations and gestures, creating a more engaging and enjoyable user experience. This app-like feel contributes to increased user retention.
Increased Engagement and Retention
Send push notifications to encourage user retention
PWAs enable businesses to send push notifications to users, even when the app is not actively open. This feature is a powerful tool for re-engaging users, promoting special offers, and providing updates, leading to increased customer retention.
Be found on the device home screen
Users can add a PWA to their device's home screen with a single tap, making it easily accessible. This increases the likelihood of regular usage and reinforces the brand presence on users' devices.
Cost-Effective Development and Maintenance
One code-base works on multiple device types
PWAs eliminate the need for separate development for different platforms (like iOS and Android). Businesses can save costs and streamline development efforts by creating a single PWA that works across various devices and operating systems.
Iterate and improve your app seamlessly
PWAs are updated automatically, ensuring that users always have access to the latest version without requiring manual updates from an app store. This simplifies maintenance for businesses and guarantees a consistent user experience.
Visibility in search engine results
Be indexed by search engines
PWAs are crawlable by search engines, enabling better indexing of content. This facilitates search engines in understanding and ranking the content within the PWA, ultimately contributing to improved search engine optimisation (SEO) and visibility of your brand online.
PWAs are optimised for search engines
PWAs use a single URL structure, eliminating the need for separate URLs for mobile and desktop versions. This unified structure simplifies SEO efforts and avoids potential issues related to duplicate content.
Page speed is another crucial factor for SEO. PWAs, with their fast loading times, contribute to better performance scores and, consequently, improved search engine rankings.
Google emphasises mobile-friendliness as a ranking factor. PWAs are inherently mobile-friendly, providing a responsive and adaptive design that caters to users across various devices, positively impacting search engine visibility.
PWA’s are easy for people to use and engage with
Improved user experience, faster loading times, and increased engagement metrics contribute positively to SEO rankings. Search engines often consider user behaviour metrics, such as bounce rate and time on site, as indicators of a website's relevance and quality.
Frequently asked questions
What are the disadvantages of progressive web applications?
A PWA depends on a website for its existence, and whilst older devices benefit from the reduced storage use of a PWA, some older browsers may not support the progressive web app. PWAs don’t have all the functionality that you find in native apps and may not be as battery-efficient as a native mobile app.
Why are PWAs better than native apps?
A PWA is less expensive to build, deploy and maintain than a native mobile application. Using a single code base the PWA works across multiple devices and channels with the functionality of a native app. A PWA takes advantage of the habits users gain using native apps to incorporate functionality of the device such as the camera, microphone and device vibration.
Why build a progressive web app?
A progressive web app (PWA) is a great choice for a business investing in its first mobile application. PWA’s are cost-effective to develop and may form a test case for developing an iOS or Android mobile application in future. With a single code-base, background processes operate on hosted servers, plus developers have just one version of the application to maintain and improve.