Accelerated Mobile Pages Demystified: Everything You Need to Know

According to a collaboration between Google and SOASTA, 53% of users abandon websites unexpectedly if they view too slowly or take more than three seconds to load. Yes! Just three seconds.

The slow loading speed of your web pages can lead to various issues. For example, you may lose a large chunk of your potential customers, lowered engagements, dip in conversion rate and even face increased bounce rate.

What does this signify? That’s right! Speed is the essence of the online businesses’ success.

Today, most people use smartphones to surf the web. This is simply because of its simplicity and portability. Thus naturally, a slow and sluggish mobile page will leave bad taste for your audiences. So, is there a solution?

Certainly! The Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) offers a precise solution.

AMP was introduced by Google to tackle the speed issues of the traditional web pages over mobile phones. It was first announced in October, 2015 and examined thoroughly by the testers and users. Once the technical preview period was over, AMP officially came into being in February, 2016.

Thus, with the lightning-fast speed of web pages, serene browsing experience over the small screen and seamless working for enhanced efficiency, AMP brings innovative solutions for website owners to curb stretched loading time on mobile phones.

In this article, we will discuss Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) in detail. Here, we’ll also learn why using AMP is beneficial for your business website and whether it’s the best choice.

Let's dive in!

What are Accelerated Mobile Pages?

Accelerated Mobile Pages, popularly shortened as AMP, was launched under the open-source project by Google. It is seen as a direct competitor to the Facebook Instant Articles and Apple News. With its HTML framework, AMP enhances the web performance on the small screens.  

AMP employs the streamlined version of the optimised CSS, HTML and controlled JavaScript to optimise the web pages to load almost instantly on smartphones for smoother user experience. 

AMP prioritise the content display, use lazy loading for media and leverage pre-rendering techniques that results in achieving higher search engine rankings, lowered bounce rates and increased user engagements. 

In short, AMP is the modified, optimised and efficient version of traditional web pages.

Why is AMP Important?

By implementing AMP, you can have a powerful advantage in this ever-evolving mobile-first world and publish beautifully designed yet fast loading web pages that help your clients get on the front page of Google. Let's quickly look into why it is so important to your business:

• Enhanced Mobile Performance

  Fast Load Time: AMP reduces the load times of a web page by deploying optimised HTML, streamlined CSS, or asynchronous JavaScript. Faster load time improves user experience, reduces bounce rate and improves user engagement.

• Improved SEO

  Improved Search Rankings: Google places page speed into the consideration when ranking websites to its search results. AMP pages often rank higher and have the potential to appear in a special AMP carousel within mobile search results (Google Top Stories), which can mean improved visibility and CTR.

• Increased User Engagement 

  AMP provides a seamless and constant browsing experience through the different mobile devices. This makes people satisfied, increases the time that a person spends on your website, that leads to more pages viewed per session and  increasing engagement.

• Higher Conversion Rates 

  Reduced Bounce Rates: When users feel that your page is slow to load, they are reluctant to stay. Lower bounce rates and improved user experience lead to higher conversion rates in such cases as building lists of potential customers, selling products or encouraging any other kind of user involvement on your web page.

• Effective Monetisation 

  Ad and Analytics Support: AMP allows you to monetise your content by supporting various ad formats and analytics tools. In addition, ads designed for AMP pages respond quickly without interfering with user activities and performance are therefore maintained while income is being generated.

How AMP Works?

AMP achieves its impressive speed through several key techniques:

1. Streamlined HTML

   AMP HTML is a restricted form of regular HTML. Certain tags and attributes that can cause slow rendering are replaced with AMP-specific tags designed for optimal performance.

2. Optimised CSS

   AMP only allows inline CSS, and it must be below 75 KB. This restriction ensures that the stylesheets are lean and load quickly.

3. Asynchronous JavaScript

   AMP pages only allow asynchronous JavaScript, meaning scripts cannot block the rendering of the page. AMP uses its own JavaScript library to manage resource loading and optimise performance.

4. Lazy Loading

   For the images and other resources, loading is done when they are about to appear in the viewport (screen), which conserves bandwidth and makes for better load times.

5. Pre-rendering

   Search engines like Google have a capacity for pre-rendering AMP pages so that content of these pages is fetched and loaded before a user clicks on it hence making them almost instantaneous.

Components of AMP

Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) are built using a set of components that ensure fast and efficient performance. Here are the key components that make up AMP:

• AMP HTML

  AMP HTML is a subset of HTML optimised for mobile performance. It includes:
  AMP-Specific Tags: Custom tags such as <amp-img>, <amp-video>, and <amp-ad> replace standard HTML tags to ensure optimised rendering and resource handling.
  Restrictions and Validation: Certain HTML tags and attributes are restricted to prevent slow rendering, and AMP HTML must pass validation to be recognised as a valid AMP page.

• AMP JavaScript

  AMP JS is a custom JavaScript library that ensures fast performance by managing resource loading and enforcing best practices such as:
  Asynchronous Execution: All JavaScript in AMP is asynchronous, preventing scripts from blocking page rendering.
  Resource Management: The AMP JS library manages resource prioritisation and lazy loading to ensure critical content loads first.
  No Custom JavaScript: To maintain performance, custom JavaScript is not allowed in AMP pages. Only the AMP library and components can be used.

• AMP Cache

  The AMP Cache is a content delivery network (CDN) that serves AMP pages efficiently. It includes:
  Pre-rendering: Google, a search engine, pre-renders the AMP pages that reside in its own cache so that they load almost instantly to users.
  Validation and Caching: The AMP cache checks if the content of an AMP page is valid and then serves it to the user’s browser from a location close to their geographical position, thus enhancing loading times and reliability.
  Automatic Updates: The cache automatically updates AMP pages to ensure users receive the latest content without delays.

AMP v/s Facebook’s Instant Article

While you were trying to figure out what AMP was all about, you must have come across a Facebook Instant Article somewhere. So what is it? What makes it unique from AMP?

Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) and Facebook's Instant Articles both aim at improving mobile content delivery speed but these two platforms have different goals, perspectives and benefits.

AMP focuses on making superfast mobile web pages that can work anywhere including boosting SEO (search engine optimization). On the other hand, Facebook instant articles only load very quickly within the Facebook app but do not rank on Google because they are tied up within its own closed system and do not benefit SEO directly.

The table below helps us understand the difference between them better:

Types of AMP

It is important to clarify that AMPs themselves are not divided into different categories. AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) is a framework for building high-speed mobile web pages. 

Thus, we can conclude that this versatile framework provides a variety of AMP pages for handling different types of content and information. Let us understand these 4 parts of AMP below:
 

1. AMP HTML

   AMP HTML is the core type of AMP, which includes a subset of HTML with custom AMP tags designed to ensure fast loading times and smooth performance. It is primarily used to create standard web pages that load quickly on mobile devices. This type includes restrictions on certain HTML, CSS, and JavaScript elements to ensure the page is lightweight and fast.

2. AMP Stories

   AMP Stories are a very immersive form of storytelling using rich media. Much like social media, AMP Stories enable the use of pictures, videos, animations and texts to create captivating and interactive narratives.

   This type of content delivery is perfect for publishers and brands looking to reach their audience in an exciting way that can be accessed through mobile devices.

3. AMP Ads

   AMP Ads are designed as fast loading non-intrusive advertisements. These ads use the same AMP-optimised principles to make sure they load instantly without interrupting users from doing what they need on your app or website.

   AMP Ads can be used across different platforms and have viewability optimization leading to higher engagement rates and more reliable performance metrics.

4. AMP Emails

   The interactivity and speed benefits of AMP are brought into email messages by AMP Emails. With AMP for Email, receivers can conveniently interact with dynamic content from within an email such as filling forms, RSVPing to an event among others or even browsing products’ catalogues while at their inbox.

   The format makes emails more functional, interesting and action-oriented.

Implementing AMP on Your Website

Getting started with AMP involves creating an AMP version of your existing web pages. If you want to implement AMP on your website, below are the basic steps:

Step 1: Create AMP HTML

The first step for implementing AMP to your website is creating AMP HTML. It involves converting your standard HTML pages into AMP-compliant pages by adhering to specific AMP guidelines. This is a crucial step; however, it requires coding expertise. 

Follow the below process to create AMP HTML:

• Start with a basic HTML structure, but specify it as an AMP document.
• Include special AMP tags and configure the viewport for mobile.
• Instead of standard HTML elements, use AMP's pre-built components for things like images and forms.
• For non-essential elements, leverage AMP's asynchronous loading to prioritise core content.
• Add the AMP JavaScript library and define any custom AMP styles.

If you lack the tech expertise and coding knowledge, you should think about hiring a professional website development agency that can help you with the process.

Step 2: Validate Your AMP Pages

Once you're done with the first step, next is validating your code using the AMP validator tool to ensure everything meets their specifications.

The validator will highlight any errors or non-compliant elements in your AMP page. Fixing these issues ensures your AMP pages function as intended and deliver the optimal mobile experience.

Step 3: Implement Structured Data

Using structured data is not an easy step in creating AMP pages but it can significantly increase their effectiveness. Structured data gives search engines more information about your content, resulting in better search results and potentially improved click-through rates.

Let’s see how it works:

Using JSON-LD markup allows you to add structured data to your AMP pages. This code snippet lives in the <head> section of your AMP page and uses specific schemas (e.g., schema.org) to parse your content.

For example, you can use a data set to display information such as the title, author, and date of publication in a newspaper or to generate recipes and recipes for a recipe page

Step 4: Test and Optimise

After applying the AMP, check for problems and diagnosis and evaluation of the result of optimization with Google AMP Test and PageSpeed ​​Insights.

These tools will test and highlight areas where you can improve your AMP pages, such as mobile usability, loading speed, and compliance with AMP guidelines.

Monitor whether your AMP pages show some errors or experience some performance problems, and then fix layout problems with graphics or text, including the format.

Also, it is recommended to make an A/B test to compare the AMP pages with the non-AMP ones to notice such changes in users’ engagement, bounce rate and conversion rate.

Step 5: Submit to Search Engines

AMP pages are used on your websites to improve its functionality on mobile devices and therefore, do not need to be submitted directly to search engines like Google.

Google can often find your AMP pages (automated discovery) by following links from your original web pages. Make sure your AMP pages are properly linked to their corresponding canonical pages (basic web pages or AMP versions).

However, although no submission is required, the use of the AMP validator tool (https://validator.ampproject.org/) is highly recommended. This ensures that your AMP pages are flawless and meet Google’s specifications.

Also, use Google Search Console to check how your AMP pages perform in search results. You can find any indexing issues or errors that could be preventing your AMP pages from displaying properly.

AMP Best Practices

Implementing Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) can dramatically improve the performance and user experience of your mobile web pages. Following best practices is essential to getting the most out of AMP. Here are some basic guidelines:

• Validate Your AMP Pages

  Use AMP Validator: Regularly check your AMP pages with AMP Validator to ensure they are compliant with AMP standards. This tool helps you identify and fix any issues that prevent your pages from being recognized as AMP-qualified pages.

  Integrated tools: Use integrated validation tools in your development environment, such as browser extensions or plugins for code editors, and catch bugs early in the development process.

• Optimise Content Loading

  Lazy Loading: Implement lazy loading for images, videos, and other media to improve initial load times. Use AMP components like <amp-img> and <amp-video> which support lazy loading by default.

  Prioritise Critical Content: Ensure that above-the-fold content loads first to provide a faster and more engaging user experience. Defer loading of less critical resources until they are needed.

• Minimise CSS and JavaScript

  Inline and Minify CSS: Keep CSS inline and under the 75KB limit. Minify your CSS to reduce its size and improve loading speed.

  Avoid Custom JavaScript: AMP does not allow custom JavaScript to maintain performance. Use AMP’s built-in components for interactivity and functionality instead.

• Implement AMP Ads and Analytics

  AMP Ads: Use <amp-ad> to integrate fast and efficient ads without compromising the user experience. Make sure ads are optimised for mobile devices.

  AMP Analytics: Use <amp-analytics> to monitor user interaction and collect statistics about how your AMP pages are performing. Set up analytics to capture meaningful metrics that can help you optimise your content.

• Improve SEO and Discoverability

  Data structures: Data structures (Schema.org) have been implemented to help search engines understand the content of your AMP pages and display rich results in search.

  Canonical Tags: Make sure your AMP pages have a valid canonical link pointing to a corresponding non-AMP page. This helps avoid duplicate content problems and improves SEO.

  Metadata: Include relevant metadata, such as title tags, meta descriptions, and Open Graph tags, to improve search engine rankings and social media shares.

Who is AMP Best For?

AMP is best for entities prioritising mobile user experience, fast content delivery, and improved search engine performance. Let us see some examples below:

• Content-Heavy Websites

  News publishers, blogs, and other websites with a focus on text-based content can significantly benefit from AMP's lightning-fast loading times. This keeps users engaged and coming back for more, especially on mobile devices with potentially spotty connections.

• eCommerce Stores with Mobile Focus

  Faster loading times on mobile can lead to higher conversion rates for eCommerce stores. AMP can help product pages load instantly, creating a smoother shopping experience for mobile users.

• Businesses Reliant on SEO

  Since Google prioritises mobile-friendliness in search rankings, AMP pages have the potential to rank higher in mobile search results. This can lead to increased website traffic and brand visibility.

• Websites with Limited Resources

  AMP offers a streamlined framework for creating mobile-friendly content. This can be advantageous for smaller businesses or individuals who might not have the resources to develop a separate mobile website.

Conclusion

Accelerated Mobile Pages offer the best solutions to optimise the functionality and customers’ experience of your mobile site. In turn, AMP lets you benefit from enhanced loading times, improved search rankings, as well as increased audience engagement. 

Since mobile browsing continues to remain the dominant form of internet usage, making sure that your website offers a fast experience is even more important. Employing the service of a professional agency in Melbourne for web design and development may be a sport changer for your enterprise. 

Their understanding and experience will ensure that this voyage of adopting AMP for your business website will be a continuous one, delivering your mobile users the speed and performance that they require.