Why Your Shopify Store Needs AMP
It’s been over 3 years since Google first introduced the AMP framework to the web; a project that aims to make everyone’s mobile experience as fast as possible. Now that Google has added advanced functionality to these instant-loading webpages, what benefits can this bring to e-commerce?
Real AMP for Shopify examples pictured above: Wonderchef (AMP, non-AMP) | Hemp Wellness (AMP, non-AMP) | Red Alternative (AMP, non-AMP)
What is AMP?
AMP is a framework for building websites that are optimized for speed and user experience. When you create websites with the AMP framework, you will be given search engine benefits in Google, like this:
This lightning bolt signifies an extremely fast page built with the AMP framework, and Google actually caches the page and preloads it so that when a user clicks on the search result, it is nearly instantaneous.
As you can imagine, that’s pretty beneficial for Shopify merchants.
Aside from the speed benefits, there are significant SEO benefits. Google tends to rank AMP pages higher than non-AMP pages. There’s also the fact that users who see the AMP lightning bolt are more likely to click on that link rather than on other pages.
Where do AMP pages appear?
- AMP pages with this lightning bolt icon appear in Google when searching through a mobile phone. You will never find an AMP page on Google when performing a desktop search.
- You can also use a direct AMP link to share an AMP page or to use it in Ads (Facebook, Google, Adwords, etc). The direct AMP link for a Shopify AMP page by default will be the same as the original link, but with
/a/safter the.comportion of the URL.
Example link: Normal (non-AMP) product page: https://www.redalternative.ca/products/half-body-light-therapy
Example link: AMP product page:
https://www.redalternative.ca/a/s/products/half-body-light-therapy
As you can see, there is simply an extra/a/sin the AMP URL. It is necessary to have the AMP page on a unique URL.
AMP is inherently a bit complicated, so it’s extremely common for users to not fully grasp it right away. That’s why we here at Shop Sheriff have a dedicated help channel, and we’re available 18 hrs a day, 7 days a week, on our live chat.
If anything in this blog isn’t clear enough, feel free to drop us a message and we’ll be happy to help you out.
How can AMP benefit me on Shopify?
SEO and Page Load Time. Both of which relate directly to the probability of a visitor converting into a customer. The primary reason that AMP is beneficial is because of the search-engine benefits given to AMP pages. AMP tends to increase a shop’s SEO, and the differences are trackable right from within Google Search Console.
AMP pages also are often drastically faster than their non-AMP counterparts. With AMP by Shop Sheriff, you will be able to create a beautiful Shopify AMP home page that scores 100% on GTMetrix. Yes, you heard that right: 100%.
Remember that an AMP page is basically a “lighter, faster, parallel version of your site”, but that your original site remains untouched. You will still have your “normal” non-AMP site, and you will also have the AMP version of your site. Creating AMP pages is basically a way of giving mobile visitors a much faster (nearly instantaneous) version of any page on your site, which Google ranks higher in search results. The AMP by Shop Sheriff app makes creating AMP pages extremely easy.
It’s no secret that Page Speed and SEO are incredibly important for any Shopify business, and by now we’ve heard that AMP improves these metrics, but let’s discuss the importance of page-speed with some statistics from both Shopify and Google.
Page load time and abandoned carts
A two-second delay in your page’s load time could increase abandoned cart rates 20%. And a third of your customers won’t complete a purchase because they found a better deal elsewhere. — Shopify
Shopify cites that as page load time increases, you are likely to notice a significant increase in the dreaded abandoned carts metric.
If you consider the Customer Lifetime Value of that new visitor, you’ll be missing out on everything from the initial purchase, to their potential email signup, and any future purchases. And your competitors will be reaping those benefits instead of you.
Page load time and bounce rate
Google published metrics regarding load times and bounce rate. They found that 53% of users left a site that took longer than 3 seconds to load. And 50% of users expect a page to load in under 2 seconds. Users are more likely to return to a website that provided them an optimal experience.
There is nowhere that bounce-rate impacts revenue more than in ecommerce. The more potential customers leave your site, the more your conversion rate drops, and with Google’s intelligent SEO algorithms of today, a non-converting ecommerce store will ultimately lose even more SEO. In short — Google will know your pages aren’t valuable to a customer, and your competitors will outrank you.
The popular marketing toolkit SEMRush ranks bounce rate as the #4 most important ranking factor.
Not only that, but the #2 (Time on site) metric and #3 (Pages per session) metric are also directly affected by those customers leaving your site early. A high bounce rate, low time on site, and low pages per session, is a recipe for some seriously terrible rankings.
Page load time and overall SEO
The popular SEO blog OptinMonster recently rated Page Speed as the #2 most important ranking factor in it’s list of the top 10 ranking factors of 2019. If your pages are slow, not only are you losing visitors and potential customers, but you are directly hurting your SEO.
In 2019, Google also rolled out Mobile-first indexing, which means that your site will now be crawled using Google’s simulated mobile phone crawler. It is more important now than ever before to have a fast-loading mobile site that adopts the best practices for mobile search results, and AMP is a huge advantage!
How AMP helps even if your Shopify store is already fast
Some people may be wondering — “My site loads fast, so why does this affect me?” and that’s a great question.
First, the AMP lightning bolt is a huge factor on perceived trust and desirability. 9to5Google.com conducted a poll where they asked users: “Are you more inclined to click on an AMP link than a regular one?” Over 51% of people said yes to that question. Here are the detailed results:
Second, it is widely known that Google prefers AMP pages when displaying search results. From their “Top Stories” carousel, to announcing this year that page-speed will become a bigger SEO factor, the search behemoth gives preference to it’s proprietary framework. Google cites that “85% of publishers are seeing higher viewability and higher click-through rates on AMP pages.”
Higher viewability means better SEO, and better SEO means more visitors that you have the chance to convert into customers.
AMP leads to a 10% increase in website traffic with a 2x increase in time spent on page. For e-commerce websites using AMP, the study also found a 20% increase in sales conversions compared to non-AMP pages. — The AMP Project
Why would someone Not use AMP for Shopify?
AMP for Shopify isn’t for everyone. The primary reason someone wouldn’t use AMP for Shopify is because they might be using third-party JavaScript apps which aren’t compatible with AMP. As we mentioned before, AMP doesn’t directly support third-party JavaScript, so if these apps are critical to your mobile experience, then AMP wouldn’t be a good idea. In practice, however, we’ve seen that most shops don’t have critical JavaScript-based apps on their front-end, or if they do, then AMP can almost always at least benefit one other part of their shop.
For a better understanding of what is allowed and what isn’t allowed on AMP, check out this video!
Who actually uses AMP for Shopify?
AMP by Shop Sheriff is trusted by over 15,000 Shopify shops to add AMP to their Shopify store. Among these are hundreds of Shopify Plus customers. Shopify Plus customers are big brands who spend at least $2,000 a month on their Shopify subscription, so they are a great indicator of what “works” in the Shopify realm.
Wonderchef is a household cookware brand based in India, and uses AMP by Shop Sheriff.
Durex is an international household brand for contraception, and they use AMP by Shop Sheriff.
Wild Earth is a pet food brand featured on the popular T.V. show Shark Tank, and they use AMP by Shop Sheriff.
Pork Barrel BBQ is a bar-b-que craft foods brand sold in places like WalMart, and they use AMP by Shop Sheriff.
Ronnie Coleman is an 8-time winner of the most prestigious bodybuilding competition in the world, and his supplement line uses AMP by Shop Sheriff.
The list goes on…
Shop Sheriff is trusted by more brands and more Shopify Plus brands than any other AMP solution, and they have been around the longest of any existing AMP product. The team is fully committed to continuing to add integrations and upgrades every week throughout 2020.
Does AMP for Shopify require an app?
It is technically possible to build some AMP pages on Shopify without using an app, but the use-cases are extremely limited and managing the pages ends up being a very difficult endeavor. Our contributor, Stephen, has published a great blog post about how to get started if that’s your thing. You can find that here.
Using an app to create AMP pages
To get started on using AMP for Shopify, install the AMP by Shop Sheriff Shopify app. The app will integrate directly with your existing product catalog and give you a familiar Shopify-like page-builder to get started building your AMP pages.
Once you’re onboarding, you can view your AMP dashboard, create new AMP themes, customize your theme’s appearance, turn AMP on/off for different parts of your shop, and more. The app makes it extremely easy to navigate, as it is modeled after Shopify’s existing dashboard, so you should be comfortable in maneuvering through the app.
Does the AMP for Shopify app require setup?
AMP for Shopify is “partially plug-and-play”. While you are automatically AMP-enabled with a beautiful looking default theme just by installing the app, the reality is that you’ll want to configure your theme to match your existing branding. This means it’s not completely automatic, but you’re getting a 100% AMP compliant theme right out of the box, and that’s potentially impossible to create on your own.
Needing to configure your theme again might be a turnoff to some users, but we’ve never seen an AMP app that didn’t require some degree of configuration. Further, by installing AMP for Shopify, there is probably hundreds of hours of coding done for you automatically. All of your product descriptions are automatically converted into proper AMP HTML, and all updates to your product descriptions are captured via Shopify Webhooks, so that the app can automatically re-AMP and re-cache your pages, without you even pressing a button.
If you’re familiar with the standard Shopify Editor (which we’re guessing you are), then this should be relatively quick. Within 10 minutes or less, you should be able to have AMP Product Pages that reflect your store with elegance and clarity. You can even add your favorite product reviews or related products with the click of a button.
If you’re digging into more time-intensive customizations like custom CSS, then this setup process can of course be longer. And since your homepage can’t be automatically converted into AMP, your homepage could take longer than other pages. Though overall, it’s an amazingly simple setup process, and anyone familiar with Shopify should be able to do it with ease.
Is now the right time for AMP?
AMP for ecommerce has had it’s fair share of ups and downs. Shopify themselves haven’t even been able to get it right. On their own blog post they noted that they had discontinued their alpha version of their AMP project, leaving many merchants scratching their heads. However, more recently, Google expanded upon the ability to have “stateful” components in AMP pages, giving users the ability to finally see real-time updates from their click-and-tap interactions, like selecting product variants or sizes.
Throughout 2019 Google accelerated its improvements upon the AMP framework, and even did a full redesign of the now beautiful AMP documentation website. The project is extremely active on GitHub and new releases are constantly in the works. These consistent upgrades to the AMP framework continue to push the envelope and prove that AMP is a viable tool for ecommerce. The AMP project has even published their own case studies about ecommerce brands that have been converted into AMP, and how much it benefited their shop.
Today on Shopify, there is AMP by Shop Sheriff, which picks up where the Shopify team left off in their AMP Alpha project. Shop Sheriff has converted real Shopify themes into 100% AMP-compliant code, and made them accessible to all 1 million Shopify merchants. If you’d ever been interested in setting up AMP on Shopify, we recommend trying the app out — there’s even a free tier, and a 14-day trial for any paid plans. You can even preview and edit your site on AMP without even starting a trial.
The fact remains that custom JavaScript or custom JavaScript related apps are likely not to work completely with the AMP, but it’s highly likely that some part of your store (Homepage, collections, products, blogs, or custom pages) can benefit from the robust AMP solution that exists today. If you’re still confused, check out our blog post “Should you use AMP with Shopify” to get a complete rundown of what is and isn’t compatible with AMP.
Continuing to create the most customizable AMP solution yet
Shop Sheriff continues throughout 2020 to improve on its AMP customizations, page speed, and caching mechanisms to make the powerful addition of AMP pages as frictionless as possible. If you have support questions or plugin suggestions, you may contact support at support@shopsheriff.com or by visiting the contact page today for access to our email form and even live chat.
