How can you use the power of the URL to promote your PWA effectively? Continue reading for more!
Progressive web apps have numerous benefits for businesses that want to establish a solid mobile presence without the hassle of an app store. They combine the best of both worlds – mobile and desktop, have the ability to work offline, can help you achieve a direct communication with your audience through push notifications, and so much more.
However, even we didn’t have all these benefits, there is one huge advantage of progressive web apps that is absolutely indisputable and is powerful enough on its own – the URL. Because PWAs are essentially websites with the look and feel of a native app, they are able to offer an amazing mobile experience while keeping the benefits of the URL that makes websites so great for acquring new visitors.
In other words, users can access the app directly, straight from a URL or a QR code, bypassing the app stores altogether. This also means that you can actually promote your PWA in ways that a native app can’t, ot at least not that seamlessly. For this reason, today we will see some of the best ways to leverage the power of the URL and achieve awesome results with your progressive web app marketing strategy.
1. Send traffic to your app through social media
The first way in which you can promote your PWA is to leverage the power of the URL on social media. Social networks are extremely effective when it comes to broadcasting content and reaching your target audience, and this is especially easy with progressive web apps because you send users directly to your app, without the need for a digital distribution system. With native apps, you would have to send them to an app store link, and from there, they will have to decide whether to download the app or not.
Here are some ways in which you can use social media to gain more visibility for your progressive web app:
- Organic content – undoubtedly, one of the most important actions that you can do on social media is to generate valuable organic content that will drive more traffic for your app. For example, you can create beautiful infographics that highlight the benefits of your PWA, and link them directly to the application so that people can go and check it out.
- Social media icons – another way in which you can promote your PWA is to include an additional icon among the social media icons on your website. This way, people who are looking for your social accounts so they can follow you will also have the opportunity to visit your app as well.
- Social linking – to make the most out of your social media, include a link to your PWA on your company pages and accounts. For example, in LinkedIn, you can opt to send people to your progressive web app in the About section – instead of using your regular website. You can either do this temporarily to boost visibility, or permanently since PWAs work great both on desktop and mobile.
In Instagram, you can include a link to your progressive web app in Bio. To make it even more dynamic, include specific URLs that point to particular pages or blog posts within your app, and change them every couple of days.
2. Promote your PWA locally
Another way in which you can promote your progressive web apps is to include a link to it in your physical materials, such as restaurant menus, flyers, or company catalogues. Because PWAs can be accessed with a single URL or a QR code, you make it extremely easy for users to visit your app with just a couple of clicks.
The reason why URLs and QR codes that take people straight to the app are so powerful is because they skip an important step that native apps don’t – having to download the application from an app store. Just think about it; many people who are visiting your app or local store rely only on mobile data, which is significantly more limited than wifi. This means that downloading an app without having access to wifi is not a great option for many people, and might even incur in additional costs for them – so, they will choose not to do it.
And here comes the power of the URL behind progressive web apps – since they don’t require to download heavy files that may weigh hundreds of MBs, users will be more likely to visit your app and interact with it. This way, you can significantly increase your app visibility by just switching from a native app to a PWA.
3. Create a referral program
Another way to promote your PWA and send a lot of traffic to it is to implement a referral strategy. By building a referral program, you will be able to incentivize and reward your customers for spreading the word about your product or service. If implemented correctly, it will be a win-win-win – your customers will get a small reward in exchange for their referral, their friend or family member will enjoy it too, and your app will gain a lot of visibility through word of mouth.
Because progressive web apps are accessed directly via a single URL, you can add a utm tag to each URL to get more information about your referral. You can use a free utm builder such as this one from Google Analytics.
4. Write guest posts that point to your PWA
Another awesome way in which you can promote your PWA and send traffic to it is by writing guest posts for other reputable companies and websites. However, instead of incorporating a link to your website as you would normally do with guest posts, you will include a link to your progressive web app.
This action is extremely valuable not only because you will gain visibility from third-party audiences and communities that could potentially get interested in your business, but also because of Search Engine Optimization. Since progressive web apps are indexable by search engines just like regular websites, you have the potential to bring a lot of organic traffic to your PWA. And external linking from other reputable domains pointing to your app will be especially helpful to boost your SEO in the long run.
After all, link building is one of the most important factors for SEO – and guest posts are a greay way to increase the number of external links pointing to your app.
5. Invest in paid Marketing campaigns
Progressive web apps are extremely easy to incorporate in your Digital Marketing strategy. As opposed to native mobile apps, which often create extra steps for your target audience by making them pass through the app store, PWAs are easily accessible with a single URL. This means that you can use them in practically any Marketing channel, campaign or ad format that you can think of – Google Ads, Facebook ads, LinkedIn ads, Pinterest and so much more.
WIth progressive web apps, all you’ll need to do is include a link to your PWA in your Marketing campaign instead of your regular website or landing page. And then continue with the rest of the advertising process as you would normally do.
On top of that, you can even complement your PWA marketing strategy by placing display ads on your own progressive web app as well. This can be a great benefit both in advertising your own products and services, but also in generating extra revenue through third party advertisements.
6. Use cross traffic strategies between your web and your PWA
Another awesome way in which you can promote your PWA is to build a cross-traffic strategy between your website and your progressive web app. For example, if you are writing a blog for your website, you can incorporate links in relevant places that point to specific pages within your PWA. And vice versa – if you are also writing a blog for your progressive web app, you can link relevant topics from one place to another and point to your website as well.
This way, people that are reading the blog on your website can end up visiting your progressive web app, and vice versa. This cross strategy is great for increasing traffic both on your website and PWA, and make sure that people spend more time on either one of your platforms.
7. Take advantage of Search Engine Optimization opportunities
While we touched briefly on this in one of our previous points, Search Engine Optimization is such a huge topic that it deserves a separate section exclusively for it. It is also one of the best ways to promote your PWA organically, and bring consistent traffic to your app for years to come.
When it comes to SEO, the power of the URL lies behind the fact that you can optimize your app pages and posts to show up on SERP (Search Engine Results Pages). While ASO optimization (the organic positioning used for native apps) can be really powerful as well, it doesn’t have the scope that SEO has because you can only browse through the search engine of a particular app store. On top of that, you would have to optimize with the best practices for each app store in mind – the Google Play Store would be different from the Apple App Store.
Some best practices of SEO for progressive web apps include:
- Making your content more crawable – make sure to use real URLs instead of hash fragments, and always include keywords in the URL. Keep them as short as possible.
- Mobile-first responsive design – while progressive web apps are designed to be great on mobile by default, make sure that you’ve taken care of every single detail when it comes to mobile-first responsive design. Google focuses on mobile first, and you should too – then you can worry about desktop.
- Ensure that your progressive web app is secure – 80% of the web uses an SSL certificate nowadays, and there is a reason why. If your PWA doesn’t support HTTPS yet, you should migrate it as soon as possible.
- Progressive enhancement – PWAs are designed based on progressive enhancement principles, which means that the app will be able to work for every user, regardless of their Internet connection and the browser that they are using on his electronic device. The use of progressive enhancement allows the basic content to be loaded first before the app loads the content for enhanced versions.
- Test with Google Search Console – another best practice to optimize for search engines and promote your PWA successfully is to use the “fetch as Google” tool to see how Google reads your pages.
- Provide a sitemap for your PWA – make sure to add a sitemap to your progressive web app and register it in the Google Search Console. This is the first thing that Google checks to know what pages are on your website.
- Measure the speed of your progressive web app – another best practice to ensure that you promote your PWA in the best way possible is to measure the loading speed of your PWA. While progressive web apps tend to be much faster than mobile friendly websites and even native apps, it is always a good idea to determine how fast it loads and what you can do to improve it.
This was all from us for today when it comes to the most successful strategies to promote your PWA and leverage hte power of your URL. Don’t have a progressive web app yet? Click here and start building your PWA today without any coding!
