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BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

• Don't block bots: Only what the Google bot knows, • Avoid duplicate content: A core idea of PWAs is
can be ranked, which is why it is important to grant adaptability in the sense of a progressively
proper access rights via the robot.txt. For example, improving offer. Ideally, the PWA adapts to the
frameworks, JavaScript resources and APIs should browser and the device used and combines the app
be fully accessible. and website into a cross-device offering. However,
some developers decide to offer the PWA only for
• Use ‘Fetch as Google’ for websites: With the Fetch smartphones and tablets, while continuing to run a
as Google feature, you can see how Google crawls desktop version of the website. If both projects use
and renders your PWA. On the help page, Google the same content, Google may evaluate that as
also provides a list of possible errors and how to fix duplicate content and devaluates one or both sides,
them. For Chrome, there is in addition a very helpful so be careful. One solution is offered by canonical
extension called Lighthouse that can provide both tags, which means simply putting “rel = canonical” in
detailed evaluations to SEO aspects and the PWA the header of the URL to avoid duplicate content.
functionality itself. And as a rule of thumb, just remember that SEO for
PWAs follows the same rules as websites: lean
• Beware of JavaScript: PWAs usually contain a lot of programming structures, fast loading times, good
JavaScript or are completely based on appropriate usability and user experience as well as high-quality
JavaScript frameworks. For a long time, Google and content lead to good rankings.
JavaScript haven’t been friends. And still today,
Google bots have indeed improved in reading JS • Use Mobile First Responsive Design: PWAs were
elements, but that can still lead to errors. For bots designed to be great on mobile, so be great there
from other search engines and social networks, the first and worry about desktop later. Since Google
situation is even more unclear, which is why and everyone else focuses on mobile first, you
international companies should keep an eye on other should too.
search engines such as Yandex and Baidu and their
bots, too. Generally, a so-called server-side pre- Anyway, from a purely technical perspective, PWAs
rendering is considered a good solution, which means don't help SEO, but help you build long lasting
in principle that the pages are pre-rendered as static relationships with customers, and that makes the
HTML and presented to the search engine. By the difference.◊
way, pre-rendered pages are not cloaking, as long as
users and search engines end up getting the same By Daniela La Marca
content – so just ensure that the produced versions
are the same.

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