Google AMP is your go-to solution to create fast-loading web pages on mobile devices. Let’s learn what is Google AMP and how to set up AMP for fast-loading websites:
Introduction
Media consumption has grown multifold over the past few decades. Consumers today have more options to buy their desired products. In order to sustain the competition, your business should get what it takes to stay on top of Google SERPs.
Page Speed is one of the ranking criteria for Google Search Engine. According to the 2019 report by Unbounce, nearly 70% of consumers revealed that the website’s loading time affects their willingness to buy. People have more access to smartphones than ever before. If your website doesn’t load fast on mobiles, people abandon your website and you are already out of competition. Google AMP comes to save you.
What is Google AMP?
AMP stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages. Google AMP is an open-source website publishing technology that lets you create instant-loading websites on mobile devices.
The Google AMP creates websites with rich media content, and graphics & can load instantly. The core idea behind Google AMP was to provide an open-source framework to make the mobile experience faster and better than ever.
Slow loading websites irritates users and can drive away them to your competitors. These AMPs are created by Google to let publishers and businesses avoid websites that annoy readers. Google AMP is compatible with popular browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Safari, and UC Browser.
Top global brands like Facebook, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Pinterest, BBC News, and Twitter have adopted Google Accelerated Mobile Pages to deliver better customer experiences.
Is AMP Essential?
Google AMP is one way to accomplish your SEO goals, but it is not always necessary for SEO.
- If your website doesn’t contain a high volume of news articles or blog posts, AMP may not be so useful for your business.
- If you already have a website with good mobile optimization features, you don’t ever need AMP or it complicates performance or Google AMP limits your growth.
- In 2021, Google stated in its documentation that AMP itself is not a ranking factor but, page loading speed is. Irrespective of the technology used, Google Search has the same standards on all pages.
Benefits of Google AMP
1. Improved User Experience
The lightweight AMP displays your content very well even with mobile users with less-than-stable internet connections. Also, faster web pages provide search results immediately which makes customers happy and creates an overall positive user experience.
2. Reduce Bounce Rates
Google AMP speeds up your website pages and lets users stay on your site for longer times. Fewer people abandon your website and thus lower your bounce rates. Also, more time spent on your website creates higher opportunities for conversions and then makes higher sales.
3. Attracting Higher Traffic
Page Speed is one of the ranking factors of Google Search Engine. AMPs are specialized in improving page loading speed on mobile devices. With AMPs on your site, you stay on the top of search engines and attract organic traffic.
3. Improved Ad Views
With AMP, HTML code is optimized to elevate the usability of banners and images. Thus, your ad gets a higher visibility rate. AMP provides higher opportunities to monetize the content.
How to Use AMP?
Since its launch in February 2016, Accelerated Mobile Pages has been revolutionizing the digital world by delivering fast-loading websites. Thanks to AMP, we are now able to load websites in less than half a second. Learn how to get started with Google AMP:
- Create another version of your website that complies with the Google AMP standard.
- Your Google AMP website will get its unique URL which is compatible with most web browsers.
- If you use Shopify for creating your eCommerce store, you can pick from plenty of AMP applications on the Shopify App Store.
- You can also receive assistance through AMP guides & Tutorials on their official websites.
How to Disable Google AMP?
Some users began to disable the Google AMP due to various reasons. If you have used on your website and found that it is negatively affecting your site’s performance, you should disable Google AMP. Google doesn’t penalize you for not using AMP. it is totally fine if your mobile version is working great without AMP. Let’s find out how to disable Google AMP in WordPress:
- Though there is plenty of AMP plugins in WordPress, the basic settings remain the same irrespective of the plugin you use.
- You are supposed to deactivate the respective AMP plugin you have installed.
- Go to the Dashboard Page, click Plugins, and then proceed to the Installed Plugins Page.
- Scroll down to find your AMP Plugin and click Deactivate.
The above steps help you disable the AMP support on your WordPress website. However, you need to follow a few more instructions to ensure that your website is completely AMP-free.
Also Read- Best WordPress Hosting Services of 2023
Setup Redirects for AMP Pages
If you have used it for mobile SEO for more than one week, there are good chances that Google has already indexed those pages and keeps showing them in the search results. But, the users receive a 404 error page on clicking your site since the content is now missing.
To avoid this, you need to redirect users from AMP Pages to the non-AMP pages. You can take the help of a plugin to set up redirects.
Redirect Plugin
- You can set up redirects in WordPress by using All-in-One SEO (AIOSEO) plugin. It has a powerful redirection manager.
- However, you need an AISEO Pro license to access the redirection manager.
- Install the AIOSEO and activate the plugin.
- Upon the plugin activation, go to Dashboard and click Redirects.
- Now tap the ‘Activate Redirects’ button.
- It will install the AISEO Redirection Manager add-on. Once activated, you are guided to the Redirects tab.
- Now, enter the source and target URLs in their respective fields.
- Click on the Gear icon and enable the Regex checkbox.
- Under the Redirect Type dropdown menu, select the 301 Moved Permanently option. This step will let your users permanently redirect to the non-AMP Pages.
- Click Add Redirect button to save changes.
- Now, head to the old URL of the former-AMP page on your website and see if the redirect is working effectively.
Wrapping Up!
Here you go! We’ve discussed what is Google AMP, how it affects SEO, and other details. If you are still in doubt, visit the Google AMP for guides and tutorials. Thanks for reading!