In today’s fast-paced world, people are demanding more and spending less time waiting for it. Mobile page load times are a prime example: More than half of people will leave a page if it takes more than three seconds to load.
What is Google AMP?
In response to this instant gratification attitude, Google released Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) in 2016. This open-source technology helps mobile web pages load almost instantaneously, and often with less data usage.
Read on to discover the benefits of using Google AMP on your mobile pages.
More than 1.5 billion AMP pages have been published since 2016.
Keep it simple
Google AMP technology is based on design principles that favor using simple features and components that offer the same mobile experience without sacrificing speed. The user experience comes first, even if it involves additional design work to make it happen.
That doesn’t mean that Google AMP design is drastically different from what you’re already doing. For instance, AMP HTML is relatively similar to regular HTML; it just involves a few restrictions for more reliable performance. Google’s AMP Project website offers specific design best practices and technical guidelines that explain the steps you should take to build a functional AMP page.
How to tell if a page is designed with Google AMP technology
If built correctly, a Google AMP page will look almost identical to a standard page on a mobile device. However, you will be able to tell the difference on Google search results pages.
Source: Google
All results that use Google AMP will have a lightning bolt icon next to the domain name.
How to measure Google AMP?
The best way to measure the performance of your Google AMP pages is by tracking your landing page bounce rate and page conversions. Regardless of the content on your page, if your site loads instantaneously, you’ll already improve your bounce rate by keeping those visitors who got frustrated waiting for your site to load. It’s also a fairly good assumption that, the more people who land on your site without bouncing, the higher your chances to increase page conversions.
Compare the metrics on your mobile landing pages before you implemented AMP to after utilizing the new technology to get a good idea of your performance. Just make sure to account for any other big changes that could impact your traffic, such as a new targeting campaign.
In the long run, faster load times using AMP could also positively impact your overall domain authority.
Does it really matter?
There’s a common saying among digital marketers that the best place to hide a dead body is on page two of a Google search. More than 75% of searchers click on a link that’s on the first page, so it makes sense that you would also like to appear on page one of Google.
Google favors AMP articles and prioritizes their positioning on search results pages. Think of them as paid ads without spending any money on keywords. Just like with recent changes to the Gmail promotions tab, AMP gives Google even more control over what digital marketers must do to be successful in their campaigns.
What now?
Now that you understand the benefit of using Google AMP technology when building your mobile pages, you should familiarize yourself with the latest best practices for developing these pages.
Once you go live, you can then keep an eye on your key landing page metrics to see if there are big changes.
If you’re still confused about whether or not AMP is really making a difference, take some time to learn more about landing page conversion rates to see if your performance is above average.