Every blogger wants to have the pleasure of reduced bounce rate, only 2-4 seconds we get to impress our readers before they bounce off if the clicked page does not load.
If your website takes beyond 4 seconds to load probably 40% of users will leave and this is what we never want.
If we are running a website to create a brand and earn revenue then page abandonment would always be terrible incident for publishers. It directly affects the bounce rate and ad revenue negatively.
Now Google Accelerated Mobile Pages project (Google AMP project) is going to help you out of this problem. As the mobile user are increasing drastically, Google is trying to make the mobile web more faster by displaying simple content view on your phone.
Why is Google doing this?
Actually this page abandonment may not affect small websites but for large ad network like AdSense which is owned by Google it adds up to a large amount – this is foremost reason they decided to overcome from this situation by launching Google AMP.
Lets us discuss more about it.
What is Google AMP?
AMP is an open source project based on AMP HTML, a new open framework built out of existing web technologies, which allows websites to build light-weight webpages.
The main motive of Google AMP project is to deliver the web content on mobile devices faster by removing the unnecessary elements.
Google uses 200 ranking factors in its algorithm, both bounce rate and speed is included within it. And website receiving high bounce rate from mobile devices will no longer have the perk of better ranking. Now over 50% of all traffic on the web comes from mobile devices.
Will Google AMP speed up content delivery on mobile?
Yes.
The most advanced technology company WordPress.com, Twitter, Pinterest, Chartbeat, Parse.ly, Adobe Analytics and LinkedIn already implemented AMP and getting huge success in terms speed.
Jon Parise, software engineer at Pinterest, said, “Accelerated Mobile Pages load four times faster and use eight times less data than traditional mobile-optimized pages.”
It is totally free.
If you again don’t believe me, you can have a look on Google AMP demo (this will only work on your mobile device).
Official Google Blog- Introducing the Accelerated Mobile Pages Project, for a faster, open mobile web
Does AMP improves SEO?
Google said it will not be a ranking signal but for sure your website is loaded fast.
Matt Southern from Search Engine Journal elaborates:
“My question is, what does it matter if AMP is a ranking signal or not if AMP content already has a one-way ticket to the top of the first page? For the most part AMP content is already ranking above organic results, which is one of the greatest ranking boosts one can ask for.”
Now again, does it improve the SEO? theoretically no. but practically it will help SEO as speed is considered one of important factor in ranking.
After opening an Google AMP pages you will notice — the complete page content is delivered smoothly with no time difference. They are much better than normal webpages on the mobile devices.
Copyblogger’s post on AMP discuss this in numbers:
Have you thought of loading webpage on mobile before you blink twice, Google AMP made this possible.
Does AMP Support Advertisement?
Yes. It supports ads.
This is a first question every publishers ask before they get ready to use Google AMP. Google AMP project supports AdSense, A9, Adblade, Adform, AdReactor, AdTech, Criteo, Dot and Media, Double-click, Flite, Industrybrains, OpenX, plists, Smart AdServer, Yieldmo, Revcontent, TripleLift, Teads, I-Mobile, and Webediads.
Let’s see what Google says about it.
With AMP I am sure ads revenue will increase, those who were kicking off your site because of speed will stick around to see the ads.
What’s the secret of dashing speed?
That’s the thing I always search when some more promising products I get to use – defects. It doesn’t support third party Javascript. It is the only secret to great speed.
Social media plugins, image carousels, videos, Analytic software, tracking scripts most of time are not likely to load. So you may loose up above mentioned perks after implementing AMP on your blog.
AMP guidelines include:
- no form fields
- no external javascript
- no external stylesheets
- no inline styles
- everything must adhere to limits for file size
So you may not able to collect email as email forms are supported by Google AMP.
That’s the deal.
When it comes to creating AMP content, some knowledge of HTML is required. Read this guide to know the complete process to create AMP.
Steps to use Google AMP on WordPress?
Using WordPress is always worth. It quickly integrate with latest technology and develop some easy ways for their user to use it. Automattic released an official WordPress plugin for AMP that dynamically converts all your post pages into AMP-compliant versions.
I am lucky and you may be.
- Go to the Plugins section and click “Add New”.
- Search for “AMP”.
- Activate it. That’s all.
Wait ! one more step is left.
When you use the AMP plugin from Automattic.
Go to Dashboard, Settings->Permalink and save changes.
It may sound stupid but the plugin doesn’t take any change into effect until the save change on Permalink is triggered.
Also, you can see whether or not AMP has been indexed in Google by logging in to Webmaster tool and see it under Search Appearance->Accelerated Mobile Pages.
It takes some time before Google starts taking not of change.
Are you already on AMP? Have you tried it yet? How has it worked out for you? Let us know in the comments!
How to check AMP on WordPress
This is very simple and you don’t need to be a tech savvy to test it. Open any of your blog post and look for the source code. Just right click on the webpage and click View page source.
Now, find the <head> section of the page and look for the link that is directing crawlers to your “amp.html” version of the page.
Why AMP Is Important
Now over 50% of web traffic comes from mobile devices, so website should be fast and responsive, I am talking about delivering content. Elements such as larger graphics, complex scripts ads are meant for a rich user experience big screen devices like desktop or laptop but those elements may feel clustered on a phone. And that’s what Google Accelerated Mobile Pages strips away.
Google AMP project goals to improve the speed and user experience for content. This increase the readability and reduce bounce rate too.
Are you already using AMP ? If yes, then please share you experience below.
If your answer is no, try installing AMP WordPress plugin and let me know your views on comment box.
If you found this information useful, do me a favor and share this article on your social media sites.