Google announced the Accelerated Mobile Pages project as one of their newest projects in October 2015. Most people surf the internet using their mobile phones and publishers realized that most of their readers would view their web pages using mobile devices.

The Search Engine Land study reveals that mobile searches were more than desktop search activity. If you have ever heard the term “AMPs,” you might want to know why you need them and how they work. In SEO, there is a division between the technical factors of your site and its quality and trustworthiness. You need to use Accelerated Mobile Pages for the better performance of your site.

 

AMPs at a glance

An Accelerated Mobile Page is a set of protocols used to restructure a site so that users can load it better and view it on a mobile device. It is, therefore, a form of HTML that has been stripped down.

You shouldn’t confuse it with optimizing your site for mobile devices. AMPS are different because they involve making your pages to load faster so that users can get content very fast. Optimizing your website for mobile phones include making pages loadable and viewable on mobile devices. Examples of AMP are the instant articles of Facebook in search results body and Apple News.

 

Why is AMP so fast?

Have you ever wondered why publishers such as The Guardian, Vox and Buzzfeed among others deliver their content at a blazing fast speed? It is because they use AMP pages. AMP is more like HTML version. JavaScript doesn’t exist, and images may not load until the user scrolls them into view.

AMP is fast because Google doesn’t have to fetch content from the site of the publisher every time a user makes a request. Google says that AMP loads 85% faster than traditional websites. Therefore the response of AMP is similar to platforms such as APPLE News, Facebook and Instant articles. It is also fast because it only allows what is essential.

 

How will you benefit from AMP pages?

Below is what AMP can offer you.

  • It boosts the visibility of your site

While having AMP pages protocols won’t make your domain and page authority better, it makes your page to qualify for the AMP carousel which rests above average results. This boosts the organic results of your page and increases traffic to your site.

  • It increases speed

AMP pages have a pace that is twice as fast as a mobile page. This is an excellent speed with one-tenth the latency. Having increased speed helps customers to access your content quickly and are likely to go through the whole content and make a purchase since everything runs smoothly.

Most people look for information online before purchasing anything. If you promote products or sell anything online, people are likely to get access to your content and take action quickly.

  • They increase engagement with your visitors

How do you ensure that you engage with your visitors? AMP pages enable you to connect with your visitors who can access the features that you offer, e.g., videos, links, forms, buttons and online shopping. With AMP pages, your site provides more functionality and looks attractive.

  • AMP pages increase dwelling time on your site

How much time do visitors spend on your site? Evidence suggests that AMP pages increase the number of time that visitors spend on your site compared to traditional counterparts. The reasons why visitors spend much time on AMP pages could be because the fast loading speed encourages them to stick to the page and read more content. This increases dedicated traffic naturally.

  • Competitive element

You need AMP pages because your competitors use them regularly. If you don’t use them, you might be left behind. Even if your competitors haven’t started using them when you use them you stand out as the best.

If you use AMP pages, you are likely to improve your online visibility and impress your visitors. Most people leave sites that tend to load slowly because they have no time for that.

As much as AMP pages are useful, one of their downsides is that they are quite challenging to implement. You can get resources from Google which will assist you to achieve it.

 

 Should you use AMP pages?

You should use AMP pages because they are likely to do better in future. Research shows that by 2020, 80% of all website traffic will be coming from mobile devices. Since people have no time with slow sites, having a mobile page that loads fast will be the way to go.