In its ongoing effort to take over the digital world, Google is once again changing the web as we know it.
As smartphones and tablets continue to transform the way we access information, the amount of people using their phone to consume the news continues to rise. In fact, the percentage of people using mobile to access media is now significantly higher compared to desktop. However, the mobile experience can often leave a lot to be desired.
With the introduction of its new Accelerated Mobile Pages, Google is aiming to dramatically improve the performance of the mobile web.
What are Google Accelerated Mobile Pages?
The mobile web experience tends to be frustrating. In fact, 75 percent of users will leave a website that takes longer than five seconds to load. This is not just bad for people trying to access what they want online, but for publishers whose content goes unread when people click away in annoyance.
Accelerated Mobile Pages, or AMP for short, was started as an open source initiative that’s aim is to have web pages designed to load instantaneously. It is essentially a minimalist approach to web page construction to allow for greater page speed.
The concept of Accelerated Mobile Pages seems great in theory, but how does it work and what kind of impact does it have on your website?
How Does Google Accelerated Mobile Pages Impact My Website?
Accelerated Mobile Pages are just like any other HTML page, but with a limited set of allowed technical functionality. Basically, the site is pared down to the bare minimum to take advantage of structural approaches that prioritize speed to create a more favorable experience for users.
In addition, by using the AMP format, your content is now hosted on Google’s servers. The ultimate goal is to promote better performing pages, but it drastically changes how Google search engines work, thus impacting the rankings of your site.
When searching for a story or topic on Google from a mobile device, webpages created using APM will be given priority in the search results. This means it you want to continue to rank high in Google’s mobile search rankings, it is imperative to use the AMP format.
What do you think of Google Accelerated Mobile Pages? Do you think it will change the way people view the mobile web experience?
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