What is AMP?
People have come to expect mobile apps to be quick and responsive, but are often frustrated when it comes to browsing the web on their mobile.
AMP is a new technology from Google that's designed to make browsing on a mobile feel as responsive as using any other app.
"The AMP Project is an open-source initiative aiming to make the web better for all. The project enables the creation of websites and ads that are consistently fast, beautiful and high-performing across devices and distribution platforms." - AMP Project
AMP achieves incredibly fast loading of web pages by prioritising content and pre-calculating layouts, giving images more time to load without the pain of changing the page layout once everything has finished loading.
That means visitors are able to start reading your content instantly without having to worry about their screen suddenly skipping back to the top of the page due to the images loading in late.
Where can I see AMP pages?
Google will start to provide AMP pages as links in its organic search roughly 9 days after you deploy your AMP pages, but only if there are no errors with your AMP HTML so be sure to validate your pages before making them live.
Do also remember that AMP stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages so in order to find your AMP pages in a Google search you'll need to use your phone.
How does AMP work?
At the centre of AMP is a Javascript library which provides various optimisations to speed up the rendering of web pages.
AMP pages are written in AMP HTML, which is the same as standard HTML but with a few restrictions, and the addition of a few custom elements that improve reliability and performance.
To make pages load even quicker they are always served from the Google AMP Cache, a super fast content delivery network that validates all pages before including them.
What type of content should use AMP?
There are no limits to which types of content you should have optimised in AMP.
You could optimise your whole mobile site to use AMP if you wanted to, but if that's not feasible then start off with your most important content.
Benefits:
So to summarise here's why AMP is so amazing:
- Loading seems instant even on image rich pages
- Layout is set so there's no sudden movement when an element loads in late
- Fast content → Faster reading → More consumption (everybody wins)
- Your sites SEO will improve! Although AMP is not currently a ranking factor. AMP does affect clicks, impressions, and user experience, which in turn affects SEO.
What's next?
Once you have implemented AMP then all that's left is to create some great content and get sharing!
If you're having trouble or would like some help getting started, then take a look at our more technical article on how to configure AMP for Drupal 8 or contact us and we'd be happy to help.