The case for Google AMP
It’s no secret that mobile’s on the rise. As smart phones have become more accessible to average Americans, the number of people and the amount of time spent on mobile devices have risen.
With mobile in mind, Google introduced its Accelerated Mobile Pages initiative in February 2016.
Google Accelerated Mobile Pages load instantaneously, using less cellular data. And since mobile users like faster loading pages, Google Accelerated Mobile Pages are likely to show up higher in Google search.
In the example below, a search for “meth lab” shows that results for national media outlets with Google AMP pages (indicated by the tiny lightning bolt in the corner) show up above the mobile search results for local Buffalo media outlets who broke the news. An AMP page for The New York Daily News loads four times faster than a search result for The Buffalo News.
A search for “Buffalo” also shows the Google AMP carousel above an article by The Buffalo News. The carousel shows that local media outlets like WGRZ and WIVB have already adopted Google AMP. Not only do their articles appear in the Google AMP carousel, but their pages load instantaneously on Google mobile search.
The pressing need to adopt Google AMP is growing.
In August 2016, Google announced plans to expand its Google AMP project beyond news publishers. With the new update, you might encounter Google AMP pages within your mobile search results. While Google says the change “is not a ranking change for sites,” its likely that AMP pages will consistently appear on top of Google mobile search results since the faster loading pages deliver a better user experience. Google may also change their algorithm in the future to favor AMP.
A demo of the new update will look like this:
You can also preview the new search update by visiting g.co/ampdemo on your mobile device.
How to implement Google AMP
Wordpress supports Google AMP. With a Wordpress site, a Wordpress plugin automatically publishes articles in the Google AMP format:
- Download Automattic’s AMP plugin to your Wordpress site.
- Upload, install and activate it.
- Confirm the plugin is working by searching an article on your site and adding “/amp/” at the end of the URL.
- Validate your AMP page.
To ensure the smoothest Google AMP transition, familiarize yourself with these 6 common mistakes when publishing to Google AMP and what you can do to prevent them.
Tracking Google AMP with Google Analytics
Google AMP is supported by analytics companies including Google Analytics and Chartbeat. This article details how to set up tracking for Google AMP in Google Analytics.
Revenue and Google AMP for ads
It doesn’t cost anything to become part of the Google AMP project. Publishers can sell their own ads on Google AMP and keep 100 percent of the revenue. Publishers can also install a paywall on AMP pages to control access to their site.
AMP’s fast, stripped down pages, however, eliminates the use of JavaScript and most third-party scripts regardless of whether they’re used for native ads or analytics.
Google unveiled its new plan to speed up the mobile web today - Accelerated Mobile Pages, or AMP - and it's the latest…www.niemanlab.org
Ads would work best if formatted for AMP. In June 2016, Google introduced AMP for ads. These ad formats load instantaneously with the AMP article.
What publishers are saying about Google AMP
The Washington Post saw a 23 percent increase in mobile search users returning to their site within seven days.
David Merrell, Senior Product Manager at The Washington Post, says:
“Before AMP, 51% of mobile users who visited “The Washington Post” from Google search returned within seven days. Now, with AMP, that number’s up to 63%. And we give a huge amount of credit to the speed of AMP for that data there.”
Google AMP articles load in an average of 400 milliseconds, says Merrell.
Merrell’s demonstration begins at 12:00 and ends at 17:30 in following video:
Gizmodo has been using Google AMP since May 2016:
Slate incorporated AMP documents to build their Android app:
Wired has been using Google AMP pages to archive their stories:
