What exactly is AMP?
Google and Twitter collaborated on the Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) initiative, which was released in 2005. Its goal is to have mobile sites load as quickly as possible. It accomplishes this by removing anything that slows down a website.
How Does AMP Work to Improve Page Speeds?
- Plugins, large images, and many pages, as well as JavaScript and other third-party scripts, slow things down. Eliminating or reducing these elements results in a more streamlined website that loads faster.
- According to the AMP study, over 70% of traditional websites take 7 to 10 seconds to load. Accelerated Mobile Pages load in a fraction of a second.
- According to Kissmetrics, 47% of consumers anticipate a page to load in less than two seconds, and 40% will quit a website that takes more than three seconds to open.
- It’s essentially a stripped-down version of HTML code that helps mobile devices to load pages faster. It accomplishes this by removing any unwanted multimedia and rich media elements as well as codes.
- It is, above all, an open-source project. As a result, it features a lot of open components that supporters and enthusiasts may fix and enhance.
What Impact Does AMP Have on SEO?
To begin with, if your site is slow, visitors will not wait for it to load; instead, they will click the back button, quitting your site before seeing it in order to go to a quicker site. If visitors click on your links from search results but then leave within a few seconds, it might hurt your SEO due to a high bounce back rate.
If your web pages are created using AMP, users will see a quick label next to your result on search engine results pages, encouraging them to click on it. As more mobile searchers understand what the sign represents, it’s likely that they’ll choose AMP results over others on a regular basis.
Google favours AMP-enabled web pages over non-AMP-enabled sites. This implies that if you use AMP, your site may rank higher in organic searches. Furthermore, quicker sites generally result in greater conversion rates and engagement metrics.
When Would You Use AMP Pages?
While AMP optimization is critical for creating accelerated mobile pages, it may not be feasible for everyone to implement AMP. Before adopting AMP optimization, there are a few things to keep in mind. Consider the following advantages and disadvantages:
Pros
- AMP speeds up the loading of your website. AMP pages are compact, slick, and lightning-quick, which pleases your visitors and, by extension, Google.
- AMP can assist you in improving your mobile rating. To be clear, AMP isn’t a ranking criterion in and of itself. However, because AMP optimization reduces your site’s load speed, it can have a beneficial influence on your mobile rating. Implementing AMP optimization for your mobile sites will improve your SERP (search engine result page) ranking because quicker load time is a factor in Google’s Core Web Vital page experience metrics.
Cons
- Users must click on the AMP version of a webpage for AMP to operate. The AMP version of your website will not always be the page that appears on the SERP if it is not done appropriately.
- Analytics for tracking data from AMP pages are currently quite restricted. Aside from being rather restricted, AMP requires a separate tag to enable Google Analytics, which must be incorporated into all of your AMP sites in order to effectively gather and analyse data.
- Only one advertisement tag is allowed per page in AMP. Yes, AMP sites allow advertisements; but, owing to the one-ad-per-page constraint, your potential ad income is restricted. Ads on AMP sites are similarly difficult to integrate.
Best Practices for AMP
Are you still thinking about putting AMP on your site? There are several instances where it may be appropriate for your website. Follow these important practices before deploying AMP.
- Check to see whether it’s required for your website: AMP is no longer as beneficial as it once was, so read the section on who AMP is ideal for to determine whether it makes sense for your site.
- If you don’t have WordPress, here’s where you can get help: Although the AMP WordPress plug-in is quite user-friendly, setting it up on your own is not easy. Make contact with a web developer or employ one.
- Don’t use AMP on sites with a lot of traffic or a lot of conversions: Because AMP removes components like opt-in forms and branding, it’s not a good idea to utilise it on sites where you’re trying to establish your brand or create leads.
- To assess if AMP is worth it, do A/B testing: Because AMP allows for A/B and multivariate testing, keep an eye on metrics like conversion rate and time on the page.
Conclusion
When AMP was originally introduced, it drew a large number of advertisers. However, it is becoming obvious that for most websites, the disadvantages of AMP exceed the benefits. It’s doubtful that AMP will generate more visitors to your site now that it’s no longer a requirement for Top Stories and the AMP mark has vanished from search results.
Rather than focusing on AMP, concentrate on increasing site performance and ensuring that your website is user-friendly on mobile devices. That is the most effective method for attracting mobile consumers and expanding your business.
