How Google Accelerated Mobile Pages affect Mobile Application Development?

Are you thinking about switching to AMP to improve load time and user experience? But before adopting any protocol, you must be aware of pro’s and con’s and how to properly implement them. AMP or Accelerated Mobile Pages is an open source project that is supported by Google & Twitter. Google AMP is platform-agnostic as it can be used by any app, browser or web viewer. In the present era of mobile app development, there are various platforms that are currently using it such as Google, Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit etc. The main purpose is to enhance the mobile user experience. AMP consists of HTML, JS and cache libraries, specific extensions etc. As AMP is based on lighter coding and this is the reason that content can be hosted on Google AMP cache.

Recently Google has updated AMP with two types of optimizations –

a) Images

Once images are cached, they will be loaded more quickly. For this, Meta could be removed but make sure it does not affect user experience.

b) A Lite version

This version is available for places where the internet signal is quite slow as this allows them to display some information. Some areas like Vietnam and Malaysia are more concerned but this version will be available worldwide.

Pros and Cons of Google AMP

There is no doubt in saying that AMP seems to the best solution to improve load time on mobile websites and also user experience, traffic, and positions but on the other hand Google AMP also has few drawbacks.

Pros

1. Although AMP is not an official ranking factor, Google is positively pushing AMP content in the mobile so that it can create a positive influence.
2. AMP aims to speed up the mobile website and hence it improves load time. There is no doubt in saying that AMP pages are fast, lean and hence users don’t have to wait for too long.
3. AMP improves server performance. If the main part of your traffic comes from mobile then definitely AMP will help you to reduce the load on servers and hence improve the performance.

Cons

1. AMP has a small set of HTML, JavaScript, and CSS; app developers can’t add features or widgets.
2. AMP has Analytic platform restrictions while Google Analytics is accepted with a different tag but this is not the case of every analytics platform.
3. AMP has ad restrictions and hence it is more complicated to insert ads that run on AMP.
4. It is hard to switch back but you can still do a 301 redirect. It can be more difficult to return to normal if it is required.

How to setup AMP for Wordpress?

If you are using a Wordpress website and still thinking about switching to AMP then follow these steps that can really help you.

Install AMP Plugin

Once you install AMP plugin, just head over to “Appearance” AMP page to check how your site looks on mobile devices.

Setup Template

We can also modify the text color, header background, and links of the page. Once you change the site’s icon, just save the changes.

Customize Template

If you want to add a touch of branding then this plugin does not offer you the choice of customization. If you work with Yoast SEO then you need to install and activate Glue for Yoast SEO & AMP. Once you do this, navigate to SEO > AMP page to configure plugin settings.

Monitor with Google Search Console

Using the Google Search Console, we can check how AMP content is behaving on Google. All you need to do is just log in to your console dashboard. After that, choose Search Appearance > Accelerated Mobile Pages.

Benefits of Accelerated Mobile Pages

Enhanced SEO

In present times, it is extremely important for publishers to pay attention to their search rankings as Android app development services are increasingly on mobile. Page load time is important in terms of SEO as this initiative is being speared by Google so AMP pages will be prioritized in their search algorithms. Because of all this, it has a positive effect on SERPs.

Low Bounce Rate

The biggest side effect of faster loading pages is that visitors are less likely to leave. AMP is basically a framework that is used for creating mobile web pages that consist of AMP HTML, AMP JS, and AMP CDN etc. The publishers who implement AMP should see a decreased bounce rate and hence increase the time spent on site stats.

The potential for increased ad views

HTML is coded in such a way that it enhances the overall usability of banners as there should be higher ad reviewability rate. Overall, it is also increasing a publisher’s ability to monetize the site.

Speeds up website load time

According to a study from Google, approx 53% of website visits are abandoned especially if a mobile site takes longer than 3 seconds to load. We all better know that AMP has decreased page load time as it contains a set of standards. A few of these guidelines include asynchronous JavaScript, resources sized statically only inline CSS, etc. No one can deny that page load time has a great influence on traffic and user engagement and this is the reason it is very important for site owners to monitor the website performance.

Conclusion

There is no doubt in saying that AMP provides a relatively easy way to improve the speed of mobile websites for publishers. It is expected that Google News Lab conducting regular office hours via Hangouts, we can expect to Google to roll out its integration soon. Although Facebook is also reacting and that appears to be a response to the AMP Project’s momentum.

Find more top mobile app developers worldwide on AppFutura.

Originally published at www.appfutura.com by Fluper.