By Jason McClain | June 15, 2016 | 0 Comment
No, Google Accelerated Mobile Pages, (Google AMP) is not the latest energy drink on the market. I know I’m being silly, but Google comes out with something new it seems on a weekly basis. Because it’s Google, we have to find out what it is and how we can use it so let’s get on it!
In short, Google AMP is Google’s answer to Facebook Instant Articles. AMP stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages. Even so, there are some differences between the two. The most significant difference is that while Instant Articles are completely controlled by Facebook, Google AMP is an open source project where marketers can decide how they use the platform. That is interesting indeed especially on the heels of the latest algorithm update affecting websites that aren’t implementing mobile optimization.
If your mobile website takes more than 3 seconds to load, 40% of users will leave before it even has a chance to grab their attention. That’s a real problem for webmasters. Services and platforms that offer a work-around for these load time problems are red hot. Google AMP pages are supposed to load 4 times faster than regular web pages.
The search engine optimization community hasn’t fully embraced Google AMP yet. Only 23% of the community has currently implemented use of Google AMP even though 50% believe it will affect Google mobile search rankings.
Of course it will affect search engine rankings! Google doesn’t do too many things that don’t, especially things that are content related. Here’s a quick run-down of the potential benefits for marketers:
Using Google AMP really depends on what platform your website runs on. If you run anything but WordPress at this time, you’ll need some extra knowledge to adopt Google AMP.
As with most things, there is a WordPress plugin to simplify the creation of Google AMP content. This plugin automatically generates the AMP version of your post for you. You can then access the content by adding “amp” to the end of the URL. For example, the URL of your new post is www.yourdomain.com/your-new-post/. To view the AMP version, the URL would be: www.yourdomain.com/your-new-post/amp
The plugin currently only works with posts, so your pages, archive, etc. will not be Google AMP optimized.
Meta Data – Make sure you use the correct meta data from Schema.org in your Google AMP content. Otherwise, Google may bypass your content completely.
Monetization – Google AMP is actually compatible with most ad platforms and could increase your ad revenue.
Get Involved – Publishers that wan to get involved with the Google AMP project can use the contact form to be added to the distribution list and receive notifications of new information regarding the project.
Google AMP is pretty big news to the online publishing community. Platforms like Google AMP and Facebook Instant Articles are providing publishers with the tools to get read in better ways. I’m interested to see how this changes the content marketing landscape.
I think there is also hope in the community that the faster loading times will quell the widespread use of ad blockers in the wake of the recent backlash from the publishing industry. I’d love to hear from you in the comments if you’re currently using the Google AMP platform. Leave some links so everyone can have a look.
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