What is AMP?

Started by Google, the goal of the AMP Project was to develop a highly optimized method for delivering content to mobile devices. Accelerated mobile pages, or AMP is a way to build web pages for static content that render fast. Essentially, they utilize a number of optimization techniques for super-fast load times, especially on mobile.

Why use it?

It’s a great format for boosting your performance on mobile. Since it is a much simpler form of markup, your mobile device is able to render much quicker than HTML. AMP was designed to be highly optimized for speed and the mobile user experience. As a result, page load times are reduced significantly. With such a simple change, pages now are able to load 15%-85% faster on mobile devices.

How does it work?

The open-source AMP framework takes traditional HTML and strips away the many unnecessary web page elements that bog down a mobile page’s performance. Gone are advertisements (mostly), JavaScript, third party scripts, and any content or code not essential for the mobile web experience.

Is it easy to implement?

Depending on your site info structure, it could be extremely simple or more complicated to implement. If you have a vanilla page and data model, you should be able to get all of it done with a basic installation. On the other hand, if you have a heavy amount of customization, it will take a large amount of work to deploy it.  

Download the Wordpress plugin: (https://wordpress.org/plugins/amp/)

Or Drupal (https://www.drupal.org/project/amp)

How does it affect search rankings?

We know that mobile-friendliness is a factor in search rankings, and sites that pass Google’s Mobile Friendly Test appear higher in the search results. AMPs, designed to load quickly and provide a great user experience, also get a search-ranking boost. All in all, implementing AMPs is an extremely easy path to get rewarded by Google.

How does it differ from Responsive Web Design?

While both accelerated mobile pages and responsive websites work on a mobile phone, they have different goals.  A responsive web design is optimized so that it works on every device, from a desktop computer to a mobile phone. RWD is all about flexibility. On the other hand, AMP is all about speed. AMP is a web framework that delivers content to mobile users instantly.

AMP can be used exclusively, or added to an existing non-responsive or responsive website, without a site re-design. Ideal uses range from news articles, blog entries, informational pages and other various published content.

Does your website need AMP?

If you have a website where the majority of users are using mobile, then yes. Site speed is a huge factor in site visitors. AMP is the shortcut to achieve that positive user experience.

Our goal at Traktek Partners is to always provide clients with the best and newest technologies to increase your website user experience. If you’d like to learn more about AMP or would like our help in implementing it on your site, please contact us.