If you have browsed your mobile phone for getting the latest scoop on google, you might have seen Google AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) carousel or a small lightning logo, appears in the top search results. You might be wondering what AMP is and why everyone is talking about it. Well, whether you are tech or non-tech, you should know about AMP, as this is going to be the future of mobile marketing.
4.77 bn of world’s population is currently using a mobile phone, and it is expected to pass 5 bn by 2019. The mobile devices have become an essential part of our life. Apart from food, air, and water, we need the mobile phone to survive.
Mobile marketing is not new. Marketers are using this platform for many years to boost their sales, seeing the increase in mobile users, Google has launched new SEO tool - AMP to give customers better loading speed, quality, and experience to increase their engagement with the content.
What is Google AMP Project?
AMP or Accelerated Mobile Pages is a new project that brings in a new coding language (AMP HTML) to the world which increases the loading speed and reliability of the content in the mobile browser, saving the time of customers and improving the engagement rate by giving them seamless browsing experience.
The webpage which is coded with AMP HTML, get displayed with primary images and simplified formatting while the complex page contents get loaded secondarily in the background. AMP enables Google to enhance the speed of page loading ten times faster than that of standard web pages.
To put it in simple words, AMP is a stripped down HTML page which restricts certain CSS, HTML, and Javascript. People want web pages which are rich in content like graphics, animations, and videos along with smart ads which get loaded instantaneously. We want same content to get displayed on multiple platforms and devices with the same speed and clarity no matter what type of mobile device we are using.
Some interesting factors of AMP
- It only allows asynchronous scripts
- It limits styles to 50KB
- It's compulsory to inline every CSS
- Just AMP supported Javascript is allowed, can't use user-written Javascript
- All images and other external resources must put their size in HTML
- Every Javascript must be out of critical path
- Fonts should be uploaded with link tag or CSS
Why is AMP important?
The primary trigger behind this project is the “Time." In this mobile era, speed is all that matters to everyone.Every time if a web page takes more than three secs to load, it loses not only a reader but also the opportunity to earn money through subscriptions or advertising.
Customers do not have much time to waste in searching for information.They want instant answers to their queries without losing a single moment. In this world of overabundant information, people want to find relevant content at the right time without waiting for the browser to load their content.
Mobile devices have changed the way we access the information. We use more often mobile phones to obtain any information which we need. It has become a new promoting tools for companies to create and share their content and attract more customers to their organization. But the main hurdle is the unfulfilled need for customers.
Every time they get interacted with the web, the customer experience is often inadequate and discouraging, leaving a lot more to be desired.
How can AMP benefit your business?
Faster Loading Of Web Pages
AMP will change the loading speed of web pages. It will help the pages to get loaded on mobile devices in no time. Some AMP web pages get loaded ten times faster than standard pages. Faster loading of the page will engage more mobile users to your website, increasing traffic and conversions.
Better CTR
The effectiveness of AMP pages will undoubtedly drive more traffic, as it will attract more visitors due to less loading time, compelling content and seamless experience which will ultimately improve the CTR.
Improved SERP
Although AMP is yet not confirmed as an independent ranking factor, page load time and mobile friendliness are vital ranking factors, so indirectly AMP will play a major role in website ranking. The sites which are developed with AMP will get higher rankings than other sites.
Reduced Bounce Rate
AMP is so fast that it will help in reducing your customer’s bounce rate. When the customer visits your site, if the loading time is high or your page is not appealing, they will obviously go somewhere else, taking away your opportunity to earn revenue and get some conversions. AMP will boost your page loading speed, making it get loaded with lightning speed, giving users less reason to run away from your site.
Increased Visibility For Publishers And Get More Readers
Search results will show small AMP symbols with the pages, of those who have it. This inclusion will make web pages stand out from other pages, increasing the visibility of the page to the users, hence improving the CTR. People who will click on these pages will see the change and start looking for the pages with the AMP symbol for quicker loading times.
Gives Fantastic User Experience
AMP gives an excellent user experience to mobile users. It provides better page loading without making any compromise on the quality of content, making it much easier for mobile users to do web browsing.
Generates higher traffic
Increased visibility and great user experience will automatically generate more traffic by engaging more people with the site.
Provides analytics
Knowing your customer's behavior is very important to know how good or bad you are doing and AMP considers this point. Analytics gives you insights into the effectiveness of your campaigns. Using AMP, you can get information about your visitor's counts, conversions, link tracking, new users as well as returning users count, video engagement and more. It offers built-in support for Google Analytics to its users.
AMP Is Not Entirely Static
You can design AMP pages with video, audio, social sharing buttons, attractive content and more. Seeing the popularity and effectiveness of AMP, we can expect this technology to include more complex page elements over the time to make it more fun to browse through mobile devices.
Support Ads
AMP gives support to many ranges of ad formats, networks, and technologies. The aim is to deliver ads along with the content without compromising on the speed of page and its content, grabbing more viewer’s attention and hence improving the ROI.
Looking at these parameters, even if your website is not impacted much by AMP project, this could be a reminder that loading speed of a page is a critical factor in mobile SEO. Now, it’s high time to implement AMP in your website to generate maximum revenue and to sustain in the market. So, if you’re thinking about adding AMP sign to your website then stop thinking and start acting!