How to Build SEO Friendly Mobile Apps

 How to Build SEO Friendly Mobile Apps

Everyone is conscious of the very fact that SEO is the most significant digital marketing tool. No startup or enterprise can grow without using effective SEO practices. SEO is formed from several elements and one must understand the working of those elements to understand the SEO as an entire.

Mastering SEO means more traffic, opportunities, and profit for your business. aside from that, SEO is additionally useful for building relationships, brand awareness, and establishing yourself as a trustworthy and reliable expert in your respective field.

SEO in single-page applications How crawlers work

React-driven single-page applications (SPAs) are getting popular among tech giants like Google, Facebook, Twitter, and lots of more. It’s mainly because React enables for building responsive, fast, and animation-rich web applications which will offer smooth and rich user experience.

However, it’s just one face of the coin. the online applications that are developed with React possess limited capabilities for SEO. This causes problems for the online applications that get most of their traffic and visitors through only SEO marketing.

But there’s excellent news as there are few ready-made react solutions which will assist you to beat the SEO challenges related to the SPA. But before we discuss that, let’s understand what SPAs are and what are some useful ways to know SEO challenges in React.

What is SPA and why you want to use React?

Single page application may be a web app that works inside the browser and doesn’t need page reloading while it’s within the use. this is often because its content is served during a single HTML page and this page is updated dynamically; however, it doesn’t reload with every user interaction.

Apps like Google Maps, Facebook, Gmail, Google Drive, Twitter, and GitHub are example of single-page applications. the main advantage of a well-configured SPA is that the user experience (UX). It’s because the user can experience the natural environment of an application without expecting a page reload or the other thing.

To build a SPA, developers can use any of the prominent JavaScript frameworks which are Angular, React, and Vue. Out of those three frameworks, React is that the hottest among the developers. This was again proved when State of JavaScript Survey in 2019 named React because the hottest JavaScript framework.

React is that the developer’s first choice when it involves developing SPAs due to its component-based architecture which makes it easy to reuse the code and divide the massive application into smaller fragments.

Also, maintenance and debugging of huge SPA projects is much easier than that for the large multi-page apps. aside from that, virtual DOM ensures that the app performance is high. Not only this but React library also supports every modern browser which incorporates older versions also .

Challenges related to SPA optimization for search engines

Optimization of single-page applications may be a tough job because it involves several challenges. As we already discussed above that during a SPA, the page first loads on the client-side which acts because the empty container. This empty container is then filled by the content integrated by JavaScript.

Moreover, you'll also require a browser for running the script into the SPA. Only after this, it'll be ready to load the online pages dynamically.

Now, when the program bots visit any SPA website, then they won’t be ready to crawl the page. they will only crawl it if the whole content is already updated within the user’s browsers.

In case, if bots don’t find any relevant content then they're going to regard your website as blank and poorly constructed. If this happens, then the program won’t index your website or web application.

These aren't the sole reasons that make React development so difficult with reference to SEO. Let’s have a glance at another reasons one by one.

Delays in content fetching

Web crawlers do visit the web site regularly; however, the frequency isn't daily. That’s the rationale why search engines miss indexing if the content on the page is being updated with every query.

Once the CSS, HTML, and JavaScript files are successfully downloaded, then the info is fetched from the API. Only then , it’s sent to the server.

Limited crawling period

Search engine bots have a limited window of your time during which they crawl the varied pages of the websites. during this restricted period, it analyses as many pages as possible.

However, once the time is up, it’ll simply leave your website regardless of what. This also means if your website takes an extended time to load, parse, and execute the code, then it'll simply leave the location as its crawling period has already been expired.

JavaScript code errors

It takes heavy lines of coding to develop an internet site and even one error within the JavaScript code can make it tough for the search engines within the process of indexing the page.

In such cases, the JavaScript parser won’t be ready to process the error which can ultimately end in it in showing the SyntaxError instantly. That’s the rationale why you want to double-check the JavaScript code before you submit it to Google.

One URL for all pages

This is one among the most important drawbacks of SPAs. It’s doesn’t create that much of a drag if there’s just one website on the web site . However, just in case of a multi-pages website, if that one URL isn't updated then it becomes almost impossible for the search engines to index the page.

Meta tags

To help Google acknowledge your website content, you'd require unique page titles and descriptions for each page. If you fail to try to to this, then Google will take an equivalent description for all the pages.

However, that’s where it becomes a drag just in case of one page application with React Native as you won’t be ready to change these tags within the React.

How to overcome the above challenges with React JS

As you saw above, there are many challenges when it involves the SEO optimization of SPAs. Although, there are a couple of ways by which you'll overcome these challenges and make SEO-friendly React app. These ways are:

Prerendering

Prerendering is one among the common approaches that's used for creating single also as multi-page web apps SEO-friendly. one among the foremost prominent way of doing it by using the prerendering services like prerender.io.

It’s generally used when the search bots are unable to render the pages correctly. In such cases, you'll use pre-renderers which are the special programs that intercept the requests to the web site . So, there are two cases here as shown within the figure.

First, if the request is from a bot then the pre-renderers send a cached static HTML version of the web site . Second, if it’s from the user, then the standard page is loaded.

As compared to the server-side rendering, pre-rendering features a lighter server payload. However, it’s also true that the majority of the prerendering services are paid and that they don’t work well with the dynamically changing content. Let’s have a glance at the professional and cons of prerendering intimately .

Pros

Supports all the newest web novelties

Simpler and easier to implement

Requires minimal to no codebase modifications

Executes every sort of modern JavaScript by transforming it into static HTML

Cons

Not suitable for pages that show frequently changing data

These services are paid

Pre-rendering are often quite time consuming if the web site is large and consists of the many pages

You have to rebuild the pre-rendered page for every time you modify its content

Server-side rendering

If you’re looking to create a React web application, then you want to know the difference between server-side and client-side rendering.

Client-side rendering means the Google bot and browser get HTML files or files that have little or no content. then , JavaScript code downloads the content from the server which enables the users to look at it on their screens.

If we see it from the SEO perspective, then client-rendering poses few problems. It’s because the Google bots get little or no to no content and thus they're unable to index it properly.

However, with server-side rendering, the Google bots and browsers can get HTML files along side all the content. This helps Google bots to index the page well.

Server-side rendering is one among the simplest ways to make React web applications that are SEO-friendly. Although, if you would like to create one page application which will render on the server, then you’ll require to feature Next.js.

Isomorphic React apps

Isomorphic React application are some things which will run both client-side also because the server-side. With the assistance of isomorphic JavaScript, you'll run the React app along side capturing the rendered HTML which is typically rendered by the browser. This rendered HTML file are often then sent to anyone who requests the location .

The HTML file is employed as a base by the app on the client-side then continues operating within the browser as if it had been rendered on the browser only.

An isomorphic app determines if the client can run the scripts or not. The code is rendered on the server when a JavaScript is turned off. this permits bots and browser to urge all the specified meta content and tags in CSS and HTML.

The moment JavaScript is switched on, the primary page is rendered on the server which enables the browser to urge CSS, HTML, and JavaScript files. then JavaScript begins running which loads remainder of the content dynamically.

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This is the rationale why the primary screen is showed faster. Not only this, but it also makes the app more compatible with older browsers. Even the user interactions are smoother as compared to the client-side rendering of internet sites .

Developing real-time isomorphic apps are often a pain because it consumes a huge amount of your time . However, there are few frameworks which will make real-time isomorphic app development simpler and faster. the 2 of the foremost popular frameworks are Gatsby and Next.js.

Gatsby may be a free open-source compiler which enables developers to form scalable, fast, and powerful web applications. It’s important to note that Gatsby doesn’t offer server-side rendering, instead of that, it generates static website then stores the generated HTML files on the hosting service or cloud.

This was Gatsby, now let’s have a glance at Next.js intimately .

Next.js framework for SEO optimization

Next.js may be a powerful tool when it involves solving the SEO optimization challenges of SPA and React-based web applications. So, what exactly is Next.js?

How to optimize Next.js app for SEO?

Let’s have a look at the various steps associated with SEO optimization of Next.js apps.

Make your website crawlable

Next.js offers two options for offering crawlable content to search engines. These options are server-side rendering or prerendering.

In the below guide, we’ll show you how you can prerender your website. To prerender the app, you have to update next.config.js in the following and run the npm run export command.

Copy

    const withSass = require('@zeit/next-sass')

    module.exports = withSass({

      exportPathMap: function () {

        return {

          '/': { page: '/' },

        }

      }

    });

 

This will create a new directory named as out which will contain all the static pages.

Create a sitemap

Having a sitemap is always preferable when it comes to SEO as it helps the search engines to index the website in an appropriate way. But, creating a sitemap is a tedious process. That’s why we will use nextjs-sitemap-generate package which will automate all the tasks.

This might seem like an excessive measure since you only have one page. However, you’ll be totally covered in case you think of expanding or growing your SPA.

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    npm i nextjs-sitemap-generator

 

Once you install the package, all you have to do is add the following code to the configuration file.

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    const sitemap = require('nextjs-sitemap-generator');  

    sitemap({

      baseUrl: '<your_website_base_url>',

      pagesDirectory: __dirname + "/pages",

      targetDirectory : 'static/'

    });

 

This generates a sitemap.xml file which is inside the out directory. However, you must note that you’ll need to manually provide your sitemap to Google Search Console. Only after that, Google will recognize it.

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Addition of metadata

Addition of metadata to the website is considered good practice since it assists the crawlers in understanding your page’s content. Next.js adds most of the metadata automatically which includes the content type as well as the viewpoint.

You must define the meta description tag by simply editing the Head component in index.js file of the following.

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<Head>

    <meta name="description" content="Buy beautiful, high quality carpets

for your home."/>

    <title>Beautiful, high quality carpets | CarpetCitytitle>

    <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.snipcart.com/themes/v3.0.0-beta.3/

default/snipcart.css" />

</Head>

 

 

Single-page applications or more commonly referred to as web applications are known for offering top-notch seamless interactions and exceptional performances as compared to the native applications. Additionally, they also offer simple web development and a lighter server payload.

It would be a true shame if you miss these benefits simply because of SEO-related challenges. But it’s not the case, as you'll overcome all the SEO-challenges with the assistance of solutions mentioned within the blog above.

I hope this text provided you with useful insights on how you'll develop SEO-friendly and fast web applications. However, there's neater thanks to develop your web app which is by hiring dedicated developers from Brillmindz Technologies who possess top-notch skill sets and knowledge .

These dedicated developers are well-adept in developing fast and SEO-friendly web apps by using the above methods. So, what are you waiting for? Hire dedicated from Best Mobile app Development Company in Bangalore - Brillmindz Technologies now to urge started.