Have you already come across an “Install on Home Screen” popup while browsing a website on your smartphone? Alright, that’s a PWA, it stands for Progressive Web App. And although PWAs still run in the browser like any web app, they look and feel like native applications. They can be installed, scale visually to fill the screen space of any platform, and even support offline functionality. You can enable this on your GeoDirectory website by installing the PWA WordPress plugin, developed by the teams at XWP, Google, and Automattic. As it stands, it’s like offering users the ability to install your website on their smartphones, outside of the official app stores.
When PWA meets TWA
So that work, but we’re not quite there yet when it comes to getting published in the app stores, because they want it wrapped in a TWA. TWA stands for Trusted Web Activity. In other words, a TWA wraps a full-screen Chrome browser inside an Android app, with no browser UI, to give your PWA a genuine app feel. PWABuilder was founded by Microsoft as a community-guided, open-source project to help drive PWA adoption forward. Google has since contributed their Bubblewrap CLI, which runs under the hood to package PWAs as TWAs for all app stores.
Publish your app on Apple Store, Google Play, and Microsoft Store
So, today, you could potentially get any website published on the App Store, Google Play, and Microsoft Store, as long as the mobile version of your website is clean, responsive, and if you do the extra effort to give it an app feel.
Packaging your APK is free, thanks to PWABuilder, only the stores charge a fee to open a developer account on their platforms: Microsoft Store Partner Center: $19 (one-time fee), Play Console developer account: $25 (one-time fee), Apple Developer Program: $99/year.
Take an SEO perspective
If you’re expecting an instant spike in traffic, let me tell you upfront: you’ll be disappointed. App stores rank applications through an algorithm, just like Google does for search results. And a brand-new app, without external marketing to boost it, will stay under the radar. Just keep in mind that it’s your website that will make your app popular, and not the other way around. Long-term though, these are some of the strongest backlinks your website will ever get. And in terms of sending a legitimacy signal to Google, it’s hard to beat.
