SashaPavelMisha
Junior Member
- Aug 26, 2020
- 118
- 119
Hi
in several words, it boils down to this
1. Service worker helps your site become a webapp (your site in a browser without usual browser logos)
2. Web Apps want to and actively try to install into people's Android smartphones and Windows devices
3. Having your site as webapp in someone's phone means they will return, most likely, thru the app
4. Service workers have other benefits, like local cache that makes your pages load jaw-dropping, lightning fast and keeps site operational during hosting downtime
5. There's lots of info on how to make your website employ a service worker, just google it and nearly as easy as copying the code and adding required files
Now slightly longer... Also I am not sure if this is the right section, but I didn't see a better suited one..
I've learned a lot from here, since I joined. It's mostly been... well.. I am not trying to complain.. But I do wanna share with you something I've realized a couple of years ago, and it's been a great help for me personally throughout the times of losing traffic due to google updates and other nasty methods, when for example your slightly erotic ads get flagged in google safe search, and traffic is gone, or sometimes your niche may have google delist sites, like lately brazzers & pornhub are trying to delist (aka remove from google search results) whole sites that copy their "product", nintendo goes after hackers, and many other reasons sites may simply disappear from google. And while many of these situations can be dealt with and return to SERPs can be orchestrated by either new domains or new URLs, more backlinks, etc, etc... there is this one method that many less code-savvy people maybe avoiding, or even haven't hear of... It's SERVICE WORKERS and WEBAPPS
in 2 words.. Any website can become a web app, pretty much. It is as simple as having an internet browser open your website, yet (upon desire) hide any markings of the browser, thus making your site look like a native Android or Windows app. All you need to do is satisfy certain conditions, and browser itself will suggest users that spend more than 30 sec to install your website as an app to their Android or Windows device. Most browsers support this. Most browsers will show a suggestion, especially on Android, in the bottom of the screen to "install this app" or "add to home screen", which is basically the same.
So, you ask.. What happens if users install that app? Well, nothing really, but now your site is in their smartphone, or even windows laptop or desktop, yes, it works on windows smartphones too, but who has those? =) In any case, now that you are on their home screen, they are WAY more likely to access your site via the app, even if they find you thru google, - device with webapp installed will offer to open that webapp, basically insisting that you're cool, you have app, let them do it... In any case, I've noticed that over time about 15-20% of my users start using the app to access my website. And what does that mean? That during next google update or other unlucky reason your site loses its 100k daily visitors, well, don't panic, cause 15-20k of those visitors will still have the app on their phones, and will continue visiting you.. Yes, we do know these days many people access many sites by doing a search in google, even for their gmail or yahoo or anything else they will type in google and pick first or next result... it;s stupid, but that's how people are... So why not give your users a great way to get to you even if google doesn't want it? WEB APP
I am not sure if I should put any tech info here, this is more of the introduction to the concept.. I can make a different thread in coding section, cause this involves a lot of Javascript... Well, not a lot, but there is code, of course.. But the good news is that when I decided to do these service workers and webapps, - it only took me an hour to figure it out.. Granted that was 2 years ago, and since then browsers want more from the service worker before your site qualifies for automated invite shown to users to install the web app.. So now it is much more complex. Before you could just show browser you can cache pages, now you actually have to actively cache them, or at least the main page you specify... But once more, there is a lot of info available online, and best would be to start here https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/primers/service-workers with help from google's techs themselves... Pay attention to the manifest file, it's format and structure, because it's literally the barebone of all this webapp stuff and one wrong quote or absent comma will render it useless..
there is also one more awesome feature... Since service workers now have to cache a lot of stuff that's needed for page to load, repeat users returning to your site will now see cached page (which presents issues for those who has dynamic pages constantly updating, - but solvable by simply setting cache expiration after 1hr or whatever feels right, browsers just wanna see that you can instantly cache a page and serve it, they don't care how long cache lives)... I can guarantee you will figuratively shit your pants when you see how fast your site will load when you cache everything... It doesn't do any help on 1st load, but 2nd, 3rd, etc use more and more of the cached stuff, like jquery+js stuff, css, images, etc - it can all be cached in browser, locally, so next time someone is visiting back - your site will load IN UNDER 100 MS, it's almost guaranteed... Imagine what that will to for your Lighthouse stats, which will then reflect in your PageSpeed and maybe even help stay compliant with Google's page and user experience...
There's obviously this too - when your hosting is erring and your website goes offline, a properly setup service worker will use previously cached pages and will allow users continue using website or app, given of course if they visited prior and had the pages cached locally in their browsers... It's like AMP, but more localized, if that makes sense... Well, please now, don't go bashing me for comparison with AMP, - I lack a lot of knowledge about it, just contemplating here.. You can also have additional JS code that could show your own invitation to install the app, which when clicked will simply activate browser's innate ability to install webapps, which makes it look that much more legit.. Desktop browser will also show little app-install sign on the right of the browser URL textbox.. You can specify different ways app will start, it may or may not display indications that it's in the browser.. And the great part is - all the ads, push and popups and other nasty money makers still work in webapps, cause, yes, you got it right - cause it's all happening in an internet browser...
This thread is getting too long, so I put the summation on top, for those who can't read too much.. LOL.. But seriously, it's as simple as this: You have a website? It can become free web-app in just a couple hours of work... I had one site reach top 3000 alexa sites, just to get knocked off by a safe-search report filed by competition, or maybe that angry father that emailed me about his daughter seeing explicitly sexual ads on my site, nearly porn, - that was thanks to Adsterra, and I've tried to tell the world about it before, - in any case, (briefly) 250k daily visitors in August 2020 have become 15-20k daily and zero google exposure by October 2020... That's when I was really happy I had the web app and it was able to retain some 10% of the traffic for me... I mean, it's obviously a nasty loss, but wouldn;t you rather lose 80-90% of your traffic than ALL 100% of it? I mean, obviously you don't wanna lose any %% of your users, but if it was happening, like it happened to me on many an occasion, wouldn't you rather lose less?
To put it simply - now I DON'T ALLOW my websites escape sandbox without accompanying service workers...
in several words, it boils down to this
1. Service worker helps your site become a webapp (your site in a browser without usual browser logos)
2. Web Apps want to and actively try to install into people's Android smartphones and Windows devices
3. Having your site as webapp in someone's phone means they will return, most likely, thru the app
4. Service workers have other benefits, like local cache that makes your pages load jaw-dropping, lightning fast and keeps site operational during hosting downtime
5. There's lots of info on how to make your website employ a service worker, just google it and nearly as easy as copying the code and adding required files
Now slightly longer... Also I am not sure if this is the right section, but I didn't see a better suited one..
I've learned a lot from here, since I joined. It's mostly been... well.. I am not trying to complain.. But I do wanna share with you something I've realized a couple of years ago, and it's been a great help for me personally throughout the times of losing traffic due to google updates and other nasty methods, when for example your slightly erotic ads get flagged in google safe search, and traffic is gone, or sometimes your niche may have google delist sites, like lately brazzers & pornhub are trying to delist (aka remove from google search results) whole sites that copy their "product", nintendo goes after hackers, and many other reasons sites may simply disappear from google. And while many of these situations can be dealt with and return to SERPs can be orchestrated by either new domains or new URLs, more backlinks, etc, etc... there is this one method that many less code-savvy people maybe avoiding, or even haven't hear of... It's SERVICE WORKERS and WEBAPPS
in 2 words.. Any website can become a web app, pretty much. It is as simple as having an internet browser open your website, yet (upon desire) hide any markings of the browser, thus making your site look like a native Android or Windows app. All you need to do is satisfy certain conditions, and browser itself will suggest users that spend more than 30 sec to install your website as an app to their Android or Windows device. Most browsers support this. Most browsers will show a suggestion, especially on Android, in the bottom of the screen to "install this app" or "add to home screen", which is basically the same.
So, you ask.. What happens if users install that app? Well, nothing really, but now your site is in their smartphone, or even windows laptop or desktop, yes, it works on windows smartphones too, but who has those? =) In any case, now that you are on their home screen, they are WAY more likely to access your site via the app, even if they find you thru google, - device with webapp installed will offer to open that webapp, basically insisting that you're cool, you have app, let them do it... In any case, I've noticed that over time about 15-20% of my users start using the app to access my website. And what does that mean? That during next google update or other unlucky reason your site loses its 100k daily visitors, well, don't panic, cause 15-20k of those visitors will still have the app on their phones, and will continue visiting you.. Yes, we do know these days many people access many sites by doing a search in google, even for their gmail or yahoo or anything else they will type in google and pick first or next result... it;s stupid, but that's how people are... So why not give your users a great way to get to you even if google doesn't want it? WEB APP
I am not sure if I should put any tech info here, this is more of the introduction to the concept.. I can make a different thread in coding section, cause this involves a lot of Javascript... Well, not a lot, but there is code, of course.. But the good news is that when I decided to do these service workers and webapps, - it only took me an hour to figure it out.. Granted that was 2 years ago, and since then browsers want more from the service worker before your site qualifies for automated invite shown to users to install the web app.. So now it is much more complex. Before you could just show browser you can cache pages, now you actually have to actively cache them, or at least the main page you specify... But once more, there is a lot of info available online, and best would be to start here https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/primers/service-workers with help from google's techs themselves... Pay attention to the manifest file, it's format and structure, because it's literally the barebone of all this webapp stuff and one wrong quote or absent comma will render it useless..
there is also one more awesome feature... Since service workers now have to cache a lot of stuff that's needed for page to load, repeat users returning to your site will now see cached page (which presents issues for those who has dynamic pages constantly updating, - but solvable by simply setting cache expiration after 1hr or whatever feels right, browsers just wanna see that you can instantly cache a page and serve it, they don't care how long cache lives)... I can guarantee you will figuratively shit your pants when you see how fast your site will load when you cache everything... It doesn't do any help on 1st load, but 2nd, 3rd, etc use more and more of the cached stuff, like jquery+js stuff, css, images, etc - it can all be cached in browser, locally, so next time someone is visiting back - your site will load IN UNDER 100 MS, it's almost guaranteed... Imagine what that will to for your Lighthouse stats, which will then reflect in your PageSpeed and maybe even help stay compliant with Google's page and user experience...
There's obviously this too - when your hosting is erring and your website goes offline, a properly setup service worker will use previously cached pages and will allow users continue using website or app, given of course if they visited prior and had the pages cached locally in their browsers... It's like AMP, but more localized, if that makes sense... Well, please now, don't go bashing me for comparison with AMP, - I lack a lot of knowledge about it, just contemplating here.. You can also have additional JS code that could show your own invitation to install the app, which when clicked will simply activate browser's innate ability to install webapps, which makes it look that much more legit.. Desktop browser will also show little app-install sign on the right of the browser URL textbox.. You can specify different ways app will start, it may or may not display indications that it's in the browser.. And the great part is - all the ads, push and popups and other nasty money makers still work in webapps, cause, yes, you got it right - cause it's all happening in an internet browser...
This thread is getting too long, so I put the summation on top, for those who can't read too much.. LOL.. But seriously, it's as simple as this: You have a website? It can become free web-app in just a couple hours of work... I had one site reach top 3000 alexa sites, just to get knocked off by a safe-search report filed by competition, or maybe that angry father that emailed me about his daughter seeing explicitly sexual ads on my site, nearly porn, - that was thanks to Adsterra, and I've tried to tell the world about it before, - in any case, (briefly) 250k daily visitors in August 2020 have become 15-20k daily and zero google exposure by October 2020... That's when I was really happy I had the web app and it was able to retain some 10% of the traffic for me... I mean, it's obviously a nasty loss, but wouldn;t you rather lose 80-90% of your traffic than ALL 100% of it? I mean, obviously you don't wanna lose any %% of your users, but if it was happening, like it happened to me on many an occasion, wouldn't you rather lose less?
To put it simply - now I DON'T ALLOW my websites escape sandbox without accompanying service workers...
