If you have come across the term Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), in this article you will learn about it and how to benefit from it in optimizing your site for search engines and providing a distinctive user experience.
What are Accelerated Mobile Pages?
If you’ve ever done a Google search on your mobile phone and clicked on a search result with a little gray lightning bolt next to it, you’ve visited a speedy mobile page. Just think about the last time you visited a site on a mobile phone and it was slow to load. Did you wait? Or did you hit the back button and try another website?
So, AMP simply means: a web page that has been optimized for mobile devices and makes browsing the internet on mobile easier and faster for the user. This is because it comes with a framework designed for speed.
When a page is converted to AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages), it is stripped of everything that causes the page to load slowly and all that remains are the essential elements of that page like the most relevant text and images.
What is the importance of accelerated mobile pages?
By the end of 2016, more people were surfing the internet using their mobile phones than their computers, and the era of computers dominating the internet was over. The introduction of AMP technology has improved the user experience of the mobile internet, making mobile phones load web pages super fast.
Read here and learn about the best speed plugins for WordPress and ways to improve your site speed.
Key features of Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP):
AMP technology offers a number of key advantages, including:
- The main advantage of AMP is that it speeds up the performance of web pages on mobile devices. This technology has an amazing effect in loading accelerated mobile pages twice as fast as a normal similar page.
- Google and other search engines prefer AMP for mobile phones, so when someone searches on Google, the AMP result is likely to appear higher than the regular mobile result, thus increasing traffic.
- Performance metrics are a key indicator of a high-quality website, and include things like bounce rate, average session duration, and pages viewed per session. AMP helps improve all of these metrics, showing Google and other search engines that your website is easy to use and provides a good user experience.
- (AMP) is not only a way to increase your site’s loading speed, thus increasing traffic to your site and improving user experience, but it is also a surefire way to get ahead of your competitors.
- Increased conversion rates: Having a super fast loading site increases conversion rates. In fact, it is believed that a one-second delay in page load time will reduce your conversion rate by 7%, and every second after that, the decrease increases and thus the loss of potential visitors to your site.
Some mistakes to consider
- For AMP to work, web pages must be completely reverted to fast-loading basics, which means that elements like video, menus, forms, and maps (or some of them) will not be included.
- Those with low technical skills may need to hire someone to install this technology and track accelerated mobile page analytics,
- Google Analytics will not automatically sync with these pages and you may need to go through a simple technical process, but now a number of add-ons have been provided that will help you install accelerated mobile pages on your site with a few clicks.
- These add-ons were developed to enable website owners to have more settings to control accelerated mobile pages, as they provide the ability to add Facebook comments to pages, as well as activate related articles, add ads, and link with Google Tag Manager.
Ultimately, we can say that this technology will make a huge difference in traffic, brand awareness, and conversion rates for your site, and that AMP is an excellent choice for anyone whose website is primarily text and image-based.
Most common questions:
1. What are Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)?
Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) is an open source framework launched by Google to speed up the loading of web pages on mobile devices. AMP uses a lightweight version of HTML (called AMP HTML) to make pages faster and limits the use of external JavaScript. Pages are stored in Google’s cache, which significantly reduces the response time when a link is clicked.
2. Why was AMP launched?
AMP was launched with the aim of improving the user experience on mobile phones by speeding up page loading. With the increase in mobile internet usage, there was an urgent need to make page loading more efficient. Google wanted to reduce the bounce rate that occurs due to slow page loading on mobile phones.
3. How does AMP work technically?
AMP uses a shortened, condensed version of HTML and imposes strict restrictions on the use of page elements. For example, AMP prohibits the use of plain JavaScript and encourages the use of pre-supported AMP Components. AMP-eligible pages can be cached in Google’s AMP Cache, which reduces loading times when you visit them.
4. What are the benefits of using AMP in SEO?
AMP offers a number of important SEO benefits:
- Improved Performance: AMP pages load faster, which is a key factor in user experience and SEO.
- Search Results Advantage: Google prioritizes accelerated pages, especially in mobile search results.
- Increased click-through rate (CTR): Pages that display as AMP get visual tags (such as a lightning bolt), which can increase click-through rate.
- Reduce Bounce Rate: Faster loading means users stay on the page longer, which improves engagement and reduces bounce rate.
5. Does using AMP negatively impact design or functionality?
While AMP provides a fast experience, it does impose limitations on design and JavaScript elements. This means that some advanced or interactive functionality on the site may need to be foregone. However, some AMP-specific components can be used to compensate for these limitations.
6. Does AMP help with search engine rankings?
Yes, page speed is an important ranking factor in search engines. AMP ensures that pages load very quickly, which improves their ranking in search results, especially when searching from mobile devices. However, speed alone is not the only factor, the content must be of high quality.
7. Are AMP pages necessary for all websites?
AMP pages aren’t necessary for every site. They’re especially useful for sites that rely on media or news content, where fast page loading is desirable. For ecommerce sites or those that require a lot of dynamic interaction, AMP can be limiting.
8. Does AMP need dedicated hosting?
No, AMP pages do not require special hosting. They can be stored on any hosting like regular pages. However, performance can be improved by using Google’s own cache.
9. What is Google AMP Cache?
Google AMP Cache is a caching system used by Google to cache accelerated pages and make them load faster. This system allows pages to load from Google’s servers instead of the original site’s servers, which significantly reduces loading times.
10. What are the limitations of AMP HTML?
AMP HTML is a simplified version of regular HTML. Some limitations include:
- Block the use of plain JavaScript.
- CSS upload must not exceed a certain size.
- Use AMP tags like
<amp-img>for images and<amp-video>for video.
11. How does AMP affect advertising?
AMP supports ads but with some limitations to ensure faster loading. AMP ads that are optimized for system compatibility can be used without impacting performance. Google provides AMP Ads to make this easier.
12. Can AMP be used on e-commerce sites?
Yes, AMP can be used on e-commerce sites, but it needs to be well planned. AMP helps display products quickly, but you may need additional solutions to improve the checkout experience and customer interaction.
13. Is AMP only for mobile?
Yes, AMP is primarily designed to improve the browsing experience on mobile phones. However, AMP pages can be used on other devices such as desktop computers, but they don’t offer the same significant benefits there.
14. How are AMP pages created?
To create AMP pages, special guidelines for AMP HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are followed. A tag must be included <html amp>at the beginning of the page and AMP restrictions must be applied. Ready-made tools such as the WordPress AMP Plugin can also be used to make the process easier.
15. What are the components of AMP?
AMP contains a set of special components such as:
<amp-img>To improve image loading.<amp-video>To play the video.<amp-analytics>To track users without affecting loading speed. These components help maintain speed without sacrificing interactivity.
16. Does AMP affect user experience?
Yes, AMP greatly improves user experience by speeding up page loading. This makes site navigation smoother and increases the likelihood of users staying on the site longer, which increases engagement rates.
17. Is AMP only related to Google?
Although AMP was launched by Google, the project is open source and is used by many other platforms such as Bing and Twitter. AMP is not just for Google, but it has great support from other search engines.
18. What are the alternatives to AMP?
There are other alternatives to improve mobile page speed without using AMP such as:
- Traditional performance optimization techniques: image compression, code optimization, and HTTP request minimization.
- Progressive Web Apps (PWA): Provides an app-like experience on the web.
- Lazy Loading: Load images and content only when needed.
19. How can I track the performance of my AMP pages?
The performance of AMP pages can be tracked using analytics tools like Google Analytics or using <amp-analytics>AMP. This allows you to track engagement with your pages and see how performance has improved and how it impacts bounce rates and sales.
20. Is AMP the future of SEO?
AMP is an important part of the future of SEO, especially with the increasing focus on improving user experience and loading speed. However, there needs to be a balance between using AMP and ensuring a consistent user experience, especially for sites that need advanced dynamic functionality.
