Progressive Web Apps (PWA) and Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) are fast becoming more dominant in the world of digital customer experiences, but there are still a lot of questions around these two fairly new Google-pioneered technologies.
Whether you are completely new to the technologies, or have high-level of understanding regarding PWA and AMP, this article will help you understand if and when they should be applied, and how to leverage them to launch your digital transformation.
What is a Progress Web App?
A Progressive Web App (PWA) is a website that uses modern web capabilities to create an “native mobile app” kind of experience. For an extended time, native apps on iOS and Android offered the foremost powerful mobile experiences as they take full advantage of the hardware specifications of a mobile device. As a result of this, native apps were a lot of quicker than a responsive mobile website and had other great features like push notifications, offline browsing, ability to add a home screen icon, etc. Google is unlocking all these features for you to deliver the features and functionalities of a mobile app to a larger web audience through Progressive Web App. Since there is some reluctance on the part of consumers to install yet another native app on their device, this solution offers the best of both worlds, with a rich and fast user experience and no app download/installation.
Difference between Progress Web App and Native Mobile App benefits
Progressive Web Apps are ideal for engaging your larger audience on the mobile web. They work with all of your existing web marketing methods and benefit from your digital marketing investments in SEO, AdWords, etc. Native mobile apps are often used by brands to engage their most loyal customers and to power experiences that leverage the device’s hardware, such as in-store technology, virtual reality, device’s Bluetooth, proximity sensors, ambient light, advanced camera controls, geofencing, wake lock and contacts etc.
Do Progressive Web App work on both iOS and Android?
Yes, Progressive Web App works on both iOS and Android devices. Like all websites, Progressive Web Apps are accessed through the modern web browsers.
Whether Progressive Web App are exclusively built for mobile?
No, Progressive Web Apps can be extended to all screens including desktop and tablet. By using Progressive Web App across desktop, tablet and mobile, the development team can work from a single codebase, reducing development and maintenance costs.
Will there be a change in my Website URL?
There will be no change in your website URL (???) where website has to be HTTPS. In 2014, Google updated their algorithms in favor of HTTPS so there will no impact on SEO.
Is a Progressive Web App faster than a mobile responsive website?
Yes, Progressive Web App is typically 2-4x faster than a responsive website. Caching is one of the components that contributes to the speed of a PWA. Caching pre-loads and stores your website content on a device while they browse. This ends up in faster page load times because the content is already rendered once they get to that page. This also means that the subsequent pages visits will be faster than the previous.
Will use of Progressive Web Apps affect my SEO?
If your Progressive Web App is fast, accessible, and follows SEO best practices, you will possibly see higher page rankings.
Do Progressive Web Apps work with paid campaigns such as AdWords, LinkedIn and Facebook ads?
Yes, Progressive Web Apps work with paid campaigns as they preserve the URL structure and query parameters of the website. Since PWA offer a better customer experience, they help generate a higher return on investment for paid acquisition channels.
What are Accelerated Mobile Pages?
Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) is an open-source library that provides a straightforward way to create web pages that are compelling, smooth and load very quickly for users. AMP has a significant impact on reducing initial page load times, and as a result, lowers the page bounce rate.
What are the benefits of combining both Accelerated Mobile Pages and a Progressive Web App?
Websites launched with both AMP and PWA technologies are able to deliver instant page loads from initial load to continuous browsing. In other words, it enables them to “start fast, and stay fast.” This reduces user drop-off and maximizes investments in SEO, SEM, email and other customer acquisition channels. Engagement tools like web push notifications will help to keep the user engaged.
If you are considering using PWA and AMP technologies in your next project, or would just like to find out more and see some examples, we would love to have a chat.
