AMP Pages: Pros and Cons

We don't think it's necessary to say that in the era of smartphones, mobile versions of websites are a must for every entrepreneur. But have you ever noticed that when loading a website on a mobile device, there are often slowdowns and page elements are not displayed correctly? Especially for these cases, Google has launched its own development - AMP pages. Let's take a closer look at what the AMP mobile standard is and whether you should use it in practice.

What are Google AMP pages?

So, you are going to launch your own website and want to reach the target audience that uses mobile browsers. You should definitely learn what AMP technology is.

While standard mobile versions of a website use the basic page structure as a basis, accelerated mobile pages (which is what Google has been offering us for 5 years) allow you to speed up and optimize the loading of the most important content. This abbreviation means the same accelerated pages for mobile in English (Accelerated Mobile Pages).

At the same time, despite downloading in a simplified mode, AMP is guaranteed to users:

• Access to all the main options and links of the page;
• The user-friendly design makes it impossible to miss the buttons.

Google AMP does not use responsive design, as in the development of standard mobile versions of the site. There are no complicated design elements, such as hamburger buttons for drop-down menus or unnecessary inserts for beauty (for example, a beautiful view bar), but when using AMP, each user gets maximum access and only useful functions of your site.

Why is AMP technology so important?

First of all, the importance of AMP sites lies in the improvement of user experience. To put it simply, the usability of such versions of the site is at a high level.

The AMP format allows:

• Accelerate the download of your site;
• As a result, it will make it more convenient and make the user stay on the site longer;
• Increase website conversion (this is especially evident when comparing order statistics with a simple mobile version);
• Get thank you bonuses from Google. If you have implemented AMP and use it on your website, you will receive revenue, customers, and bonus traffic from Google.

But don't think that the AMP version of your website is the solution to all your problems. Even the best AMP will be ineffective if you have no content at all or if the content doesn't attract users' attention. Who will stay on a website that has nothing interesting, even if it loads quickly?

Hence the conclusion: AMP technology cannot exist separately from SEO: optimize your content and shorten it in favor of performance with both of these tools.

Plushy AMP

Let's take a closer look at the advantages of this technology for converting mobile versions of websites.

• Speed is the main trump card of AMP, for which, in fact, this technology was created. It is this technology that will allow your customers to visit your website 15-85% faster when contextual ads appear in their field of vision or search results (and try clicking on the necessary link and waiting a minute or two for it to load in Chrome or another browser). There is a high probability that without AMP, your site (especially if it is "hung" with fancy flash videos and design gimmicks) will simply not get the deserved portion of customers who will leave before it loads. AMP reduces this probability.
• Your mobile ranking will grow when you use accelerated pages. Although Google itself regulates the freedom of ranking (i.e., when promoting a website, your position in the top of the SERPs is not affected by the use of Google services), in fact, if you use this technology, your ranking will be higher than that of a website with similar content but without AMP.
• Reduced server load. Whether you're using your own server or a hosted one, if you're experiencing high levels of traffic from smartphones, AMP will reduce it. This means that your server will be faster.

Material on the topic: How does the mobile version of a website affect SEO promotion?

The advantages of the technology are very tangible, and it's hard to argue with that. But what about the disadvantages, do they exist?

Cons of AMP

The first and foremost thing that will seem unpleasant to website owners is the limited advertising option. It is supported by AMP, but in a very limited mode.

You also need to be prepared for the fact that you will be able to get real Google Analytics statistics only if you use a special tag that you will need to put on all pages of the site adapted for accelerated browsing.

If this is not done, the statistics will not be valid. However, in the future, Google promises to fix this issue and make statistics accurate using AMP.

But the main drawback is that any AMP is essentially just a Google cache sent to the user, not an autonomously configured page. That is, the service cuts off everything unnecessary, caches the page, and then transmits its data to users.

That is, setting up AMP pages will come in handy in such cases:

• If you don't use Google analytics and don't care how it is displayed;
• If you are confident that you are completely satisfied with the income from advertising on desktop versions of your website, you can ignore mobile advertising;
• Or, if you are ready to depend on the search engine cache when opening your page on a mobile device.

Keep in mind that unlike responsive design, accelerated pages are not a prerequisite. You can set up AMP on top of it.

Setting up and creating accelerated mobile pages on your website

So, how do you create an AMP page?

Let's start with the basics: to create it, the following technologies are provided:

• CDN: this technology simply caches website pages by accessing a server that is directly accessible;
• HTML markup with special tags designed to speed up loading;
• JavaScript: allows you to customize the page using tags.

If we consider the layout for individual CMS, it is carried out as follows:

• For WordPress, you will need a plugin of the same name. After that, you need to insert a snippet of code into the .htaccess file with a redirect from the main pages to the corresponding AMP pages;
• For Drupal sites, you can download the corresponding module, themes, and libraries;
• If you have a Joomla website, you can also download the corresponding module.

АBut the owners of custom CMSs will have to work harder, because the process of installing AMP for such systems is not easy: you need to disable dynamic elements, prescribe fonts and tags, create separate templates for all pages, scale them, and customize them.

How to check an AMP page?

Even if you have installed plugins, you still need to test your AMP and check your AMP page for relevance.

Unlike setting up and debugging, how to check an AMP page will amaze you with its simplicity. To do this, Google provides you with the AMP Page Checker tool. With its help, after uploading the full URL, you will receive a detailed report on the functionality and errors.

Conclusions.

If you still don't know about Google amp and what these pages are, you should learn more about this tool. It will be especially useful for those who focus on the clientele that uses mobile devices. Faster loading, simplicity, efficiency - these are the distinctive qualities that make AMP service so popular.