Mobile responsive websites have become a major factor in search results rankings. High-speed loading is now a critical part of creating the best mobile experience. The answer to creating better speeds came in the form of Accelerated Mobile Pages.
Even though the platform is still open to the community for development, the software is far from unfinished. It is a complete, and highly effective system. With potential to continue optimization with the years to come.
If your pages are not loading within a second or two, research shows that a majority or users will leave the page! That is a ton of lost potential, and why using AMP has become so important.
There is also plenty of reasons to believe that using AMP is an important factor in search results. More users, better conversion, faster loading, and higher results. Understanding AMP might the most important thing you learn this year, so read on to discover more.
Accelerated Mobile Pages: What Does it Do?
AMP started out as the development of a plugin between a couple of online titans: Twitter and Google. Their goal was to put together a system to push the speed of mobile pages even further. What resulted was the AMP platform, which is completely open-source. You can visit their webpage to learn more about the project.
Mobile is the future, and Google knows this. The AMP project is an effort to generate better business on mobile across the board. Publishers, designers, businesses, and of course Google itself are working together to create the ultimate user experience.
There are several main components that go into AMP.
First, AMP JS which is a JavaScript framework for all mobile web pages. It focuses on resource management, and asynchronous loading. In this case, other software and JavaScript outside of AMP JS will not work.
Second, a special form of HTML is used call AMP HTML. It operates on a very similar basis as standard HTML, but includes some custom properties. Along with restrictions. The differences are important, but can adapted to quickly.
Third, AMP CDN handles some automatic performance improvement. The name CDN stands for Content Delivery Network.
To sum that all up, AMP basically helps trim out all the extra code to improve load times. And only renders any content that would actually be applicable in a mobile format. Specifically, bad HTML code tags are removed, and managed properly. Then rendering is optimized with more efficient code.
There is a handful of rules you have to follow as well. This includes only using the JavaScript library by AMP, proper validation, AMP pages can’t use forms, and a different version of CSS must be used. For media related tools, you have to load custom fonts, declare certain sizes on images, and use AMP extensions to bring video to your page.
The end result is better speeds, which is what we are after. Although you may have to make some sacrifices to fix the changes to the JavaScript rules.
Important Advantages of AMP:
You can expect a better user experience when using the AMP plugin. This all leads into lowering the bounce rate of your content, higher traffic, and improved rankings. It’s everything you need for the optimal SEO strategy. It is almost as good as having personal local SEO services working alongside you. Let’s cover all the main things you can expect to get from AMP in more detail.
First, there is direct correlation between conversion rate and page speed. Even a single second of delay can cost you around 10 percent of your page views. Every second after that just gets even worse. Once you use AMP, the increase in page speed is certain to boost all your vital statistics. The competition is tough, and the best performing sites will be driven by speed.
Second, your visibility goes up. Users can now verify what which pages are using AMP through a few different methods. If you have AMP, this is sure to encourage people to come over to your page. At the same time, since speed and bounce rate effect your search rank, AMP will help improve this too. There is a good chance that AMP pages are given priority. It would be difficult to confirm, as is the always the nature with SEO, but it wouldn’t be a surprise. It would be the natural thing to do, as AMP will only continue to be improved upon. Soon, it will probably outclass all mobile sites not using it.
Third, you can expect better analytic tools with AMP. It does a great job of tracking web visitors and showing you how your pages are doing. Use of tags will show you info on things like video tracking, traffic counts, conversions, new users, and when an old user returns to the site.
Finally, the ad support is much more user friendly. The HTML execution is much cleaner, so all the clunky components that only really belong on desktop are removed. Now, you have much more space to be effective with ads. Creating a better interface for the user to view content, and see promotions that they’ll be interested. It’s a win for the customer and developers.
Switch to AMP Carefully:
The AMP plugin is without a doubt worth switching over to. However, you’ll need to do some prep to get ready for the switch. Not everything will translate one to one with AMP. Remember, some JavaScript functionality will be lost in the process. This is when you might want to contact local SEO services. A professional team can help make the transition as smooth as possible. Keeping in as much as the originally functionality as before. Now with much higher mobile speed.
More Technical Aspects to AMP:
For those that have more developer knowledge, we’ve outlined some further details on how AMP works.
As stated before, all JS code is loaded asynchronously. This is designed to remove any stalling in rendering. Any author written JavaScript is automatically blocked. The include script is all that is needed, and allowed, to run pages plus their features. Other script is only allowed in the inline frame by keeping them with only iframes. The main page loading with never be stopped.
For AMP, within the HTML the size of any external media (e.g. images, video, ads) must be specified. The reason is so that AMP can accurately examine the resource and download it to the most effective size and placement. This means the page is already loading before any other resources need to be downloaded.
All AMP pages remove excess CSS and style files with HTTP requests. This way the rendering path is as easy as possible, loading the webpage faster.
Going back to resource downloading, AMP managers all the downloads. It determines what needs to be loaded, and only the content that is needed. Whatever item is most important currently, is prioritized. In a sense, it uses smart loading to adapt to the user’s behavior. For example, an ad or image only is prompted to load if the user scrolls the page to where it should be.
Any page rendering is never interfered with by any other extensions. Even if AMP supports that extension, and it does support many, when the extra HTTP request comes up, the page will still began rendering. The layout will remain uniform, and nothing will be blocked.
On mobile platforms, adapting font to a proper sizing can be tricky. AMP handles this by downloading the fonts first before any request is processed. This works because only inline style sheets are permitted, and all the JavaScript is being loaded asynchronously.
Finally, the API used by AMP makes at HTTP requests so quickly, that a page can be rendered first. Before the user even decides to navigate the page. This is very impressive. The result being that some load times will feel like they are actually instantaneous.
How to Install AMP to WordPress:
Installing AMP support for your WordPress site is pretty simple.
First, login in under your admin account. Head on over to the plugins menu and select “add new.” Here you can search directly for the AMP plugin.
Now, go ahead and install the plugin for AMP, and activate it.
Next, once the plugin is live, you can check to see how your page looks. Type in the standard URL for one of your website pages. At the end of the URL, include “amp/” to see the AMP version.
Finally, you can make any changes after viewing the page. Go to the appearance tab and select AMP in your dashboard. Click on the design tab and start building the look to your AMP pages. And that is all you need to know. Now you have fully optimized mobile AMP content for all your viewers.
Summary:
AMP may not be perfect for everything, but overall it is an amazing tool most people should be using. If anything, it will help increase your search rankings. All with faster load times, better content, lower bounce rates, and higher conversions.
Google doesn’t seem to be using AMP to directly affect content SEO. At least not yet. But as we have seen, the effect on your SEO will be huge regardless.
With the 5G capabilities coming soon and voice search improvements, mobile searches will continue to grow. Very soon we expect to see a complete domination over desktop use. Even if you are reluctant to start using AMP for your webpages, all the above reasons should be more then enough to show you why AMP will most definitely be the future.
Take the time the familiarize yourself with AMP plugins across your websites. Trust on this one. Once you see your web traffic take off, you can be sure to thank us later. Best of luck building your content!
Author Bio: Ravi Sharma
Ravi Sharma, CEO of Webomaze is a highly enthusiastic entrepreneur. His love for making every business reach the greatest heights in their industry made him establish his digital marketing company delivering the best local SEO services. He has got a great grip on the idea of effective SEO process and tactics which are vital for virtual exposure. He is a fun-loving person and a keen traveler who always hunts to find adventure in new places.
