How often do you pick up your smartphone to look up a product or service? Every day, right? According to a study, 50% of business-to-business (B2B) search queries today are made on smartphones, and this is expected to rise to 70% by 2020.
Mobile friendliness has become a necessity in our technology-driven world; the faster your company’s page loads on a smartphone or tablet, the better. One way to make your site load faster on a mobile device is to use an Accelerated Mobile Page (or AMP, for short) framework. AMP is a project from Google and Twitter designed to make really fast mobile pages Using AMPs can attract and engage more customers and help your business stand out from competitors. Here are four ways AMPs can help businesses market themselves online.
1. AMPs are built in an open-source format, so users can decide how to present their content.
In 2016, a group of developers, publishers, and websites started the Accelerated Mobile Pages open-source initiative to improve the content ecosystem for everyone, for speed and site design. These web pages and ads are built in an open-source format that loads almost instantly and gives the owner the ability to decide how to present the content. As of May 2017, there were more than 2 billion AMP pages covering some 900,000 domains.
2. The first AMP pages appeared in the Google News carousel.
Even if you’re not familiar with the world of search engine optimization (SEO), you’ve probably seen AMP in your own Google searches. AMP pages generally appear in the “Top Stories” news section of Google mobile results. They have a special card with a lightning bolt symbol in the corner. When you click through to one of these articles, it will look a little different than the normal mobile version of the website. The format is simpler; there are notbanner ads or pop-ups, and there’s an extra bar at the top of the window displaying the website URL.
3. AMPs load faster than non-AMPs.
Have you ever left a website for a competitor’s because it was taking too long to load? You’re definitely not alone. Google estimates that 53% of mobile website visits are abandoned if a mobile site takes longer than 3 seconds to load. With AMP, load time is less than half a second, on average.
4. AMP can improve your website’s organic rankings.
If you want to improve your organic rankings, AMP pages are a great starting point. Page load time is a ranking factor in Google, and it’s often affected by loading ads. Here are some ways AMPs affect page results:
Faster page load time. By blocking banners, pop-ups, and ads, as well using a standard set of design elements, AMPs can speed up the page load time.
Enhanced mobile experience. Your visitors won’t see banners and ads and can benefit from quicker load times and a simple design.
Improved engagement. Visitors can easily click your calls-to-action CTAs and fill out forms with simplified fonts, design, and straightforward content.
Featured content on Google. AMP content can get a featured spot on the news carousel, enabling more people to see and click-through to your content.
AMPs can improve the mobile experience for your visitors, and can help improve your organic rankings in Google. In essence, the AMP platform analyzes the resources on your page content, determines which elements can be removed, or loaded faster, all in an effort to deliver your website content to your customers more efficiently.
Author Bio
Jenna Sims is the blog manager at Your Marketing People. Your Marketing People is an Orange County, California–based growth agency specializing in inbound marketing, SEO, PPC, SEM, social media advertising, creative content, and more. We serve our clients as an extension of their team, managing all marketing channels that need a lift and building the brand around their products and services.