Meet AMP, created to help mobile websites become faster. But how will it impact SEO? Here are some of your answers

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So, what is AMP?

AMP has become quite the buzzword for some time now.

When Google first introduced AMP listings into their mobile search results in February 2016, we knew very little about what to expectfrom it.

Everyone started to wonder if it was a magic wand that claimed to speed up mobile websites by four times. Some also wondered if it was to impact the search rankings.

If I were you, I’d rather not panic. I’d wait and watch.

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Let’s start with an understanding of AMP. AMP is an answer to our growing impatience. Accelerated Mobile Pages or AMP for short (and I thought it was the short form of amplifier) is known to amplify the web. Mobile web has been known to be slow and sluggish (and you just can’t ignore the fact anymore). In times to come, the performance of mobile websites will be more critical than any other platform.

So what does performance entail? It is accessibility and ease of use of features and user engagement. Of course, speed still ranks at the top of any website’s performance parameter.

AMP or Accelerated Mobile Pages, an open-source coding standard that is also known as diet HTML, is meant for publishers to help them load their mobile websites really fast. One of the most common mistakes, that people often make, is to replicate a desktop website as mobile website. A lot of things that are available on a desktop website are not required on the mobile website. Even if you don’t have a fast internet speed, a website that is built using AMP will have optimized performance.

Google will rank AMP enabled websites higher than others. And when you click on the link listed in the carousel, the article loads instantly. The pages are believed to load in less than a half a second (compared to a few seconds as of now).

To test how fast can AMP work, you can use your smartphone and access g.co/ampdemo from the browser. Now search for anything, let’s say Muhammad Ali and click on any of the first few AMP optimized content pages. Did you see how fast it loads?

What AMP cannot do?

One of the drawbacks with AMP is that a lot of features of the original website are stripped down (how else can you offer something four times faster). It does not support complex user experiences. Websites (mostly publishing sites) that have a lot of content to offer will benefit the most from AMP.

AMP and SEO

Even though Google has confirmed that AMP will not be a factor as far as rankings are concerned but the truth is otherwise. Since it will make the AMP optimized content appear at the top (it will appear in the top news carousel), the organic and paid search results will be pushed down. Looks like that it will impact SEO (both organic and paid).

Can you imagine than more than half the world is searching on mobile and they want speed. AMP is giving them just that. Let’s see how fast everyone adopts it.

Wish to explore more about AMP? Speak to one of our experts.

Image source:

https://www.theguardian.com/help/insideguardian/2015/oct/07/todays-developer-release-of-accelerated-mobile-pages-amp

http://www.businessmojos.com/blog/2015/10/15/googles-accelerated-mobile-pages-content-marketing-will-love-it/

Tags:- Accelerated Mobile PagesAMPamp demoAMP enabled websites