How progressive Web Apps (PWA) are revolutionizing website performance

As we develop as a society and technology grows, the need for high-performance websites also grows. There is a need for websites to be fast, reliable, installable and have offline accessibility and that is where progressive web apps or PWA come into play. In this article, we will look at the overview of PWA and how businesses can leverage them for faster app-like web experiences.

What is a progressive Web App
Characteristics of PWA
Architectural enablers of PWA
Impact of PWA on website performance
How PWA Benefits Businesses
Conclusion

What is a progressive Web App?

A progressive web app is a type of web app that can operate as a website and as a mobile application on any device. It is aimed at delivering a high-performance website with an app-like user experience.

At its core, a PWA helps businesses build web applications that have the look and feel of a native application but use technologies like HTML, CSS and JAVASCRIPT which are the three fundamental web stacks of a website with additional features like service worker and web manifest.

Characteristics of PWA

Key characteristics of PWAs include:

1. Discoverable: PWA and their web pages can be found using a search engine i.e. they are SEO-friendly.
2. Installable: They can be made available on any device's home screens without needing an app store.
3. Offline Capability: PWA can work with poor internet connection and can work offline because it caches resources which enables the users to access when offline.
4. They support push notifications which allows for engagement of any new content.
5. They are secured. I.e connections between the user, the app and the server are secured against third parties because it uses HTTPS for its communication.

Architectural enablers of PWA

Having known what PWA is, the next question will be, what makes a PWA a PWA? That is, what transforms a traditional website into a PWA.

1. Service Worker: These are scripts that run in the background or separately from your browser to handle network requests and caching. These help PWA to deal with poor network connectivity, and increase the performance of an application, it also enables users to work offline and handle push notifications.

2. Manifest File: These Are JSON file that supports how PWA is treated as an installed application or provide metadata about the PWA. It contains the basic behaviour when installed.

While we may not go deeper into building Progressive Web Apps as it is not the scope of this article, understanding what it is, is essential to enable us to understand the impact it has on website performance.

Impact of PWA on website performance

In our day and age, most traditional websites are beginning to convert to PWA because of its high impact on website performance. Such as

1. Increase in load times due to its caching with service workers and minimized network requests.
2. Improved resource efficiency: They consumed less data compared to traditional web apps, making them lightweight which makes them more efficient.
3. They are universally compatible across devices due to their responsive principles.
4. They improved the SEO ranking of a website due to their high performance.

How PWA Benefits Businesses

The benefit that PWA has on business is enormous, some are;

1. It increases engagement: Its push notifications, offline access and fast loading time help boost user engagement on your website.
2. Higher conversion rate: faster load times on your website, leads to higher engagement which leads to more conversion in sales.
3. Reduced customer acquisition costs (CAC): since PWA are web web-based, businesses benefit from organic search traffic, unlike native apps that rely on app store marketing.
4. Saved development cost: PWA allows businesses to create a web app that works across multiple platforms (Web, Android, iOS) which saves development costs, compared to building native apps separately for each platform.

Conclusion

Progressive Web Applications (PWAs) are changing the way websites work by integrating mobile apps and website features. PWAs help businesses Improve user engagement and conversion rates and provide a fast, reliable offline experience on any device. As PWAs get better, they will have a greater impact on the digital landscape. Giving businesses a cost-effective and efficient way to meet the growing demand for high-performance web experiences.