Learn how Accelerated Mobile Pages can help optimize web pages for your mobile phone

According to a 2017 study conducted by SimiliarWeb, comparing the usage of mobile phones for web browsing to that of desktop, total online visits on mobile phones increased to 63% (as compared to 57% in 2016). At the same time, internet browsing on the desktop computers decreased from 43% in 2016 to 37% in 2017. Other than the number of mobile phone visits, other factors such as bounce rates, average user time on websites, and total number of page views have also shown an upward trend in mobile phones.

Considering the need to optimise mobile pages for the increasing number of mobile internet users, the Accelerated Mobile Pages (or AMP) technology has been developed by Google for the sole purpose of faster webpage loading. By industry statistics, web pages built using AMP framework load 15-85% faster than the non-AMP version of the webpage.

What Is the Accelerated Mobile Pages Technology?

Announced by Google in October 2015, the Accelerated Mobile Pages (or AMP project) is a framework designed to optimise a variety of web pages on the latest mobile devices. Primarily, AMP framework comprises of the following three components:

1. AMP HTML: Comprising of specific HTML tags that are optimised to parse information on a mobile phone.

2. AMP JavaScript.

3. Content Delivery Network or CDN: A crucial element of AMP optimised for faster delivery of online content on mobile web pages.

Since its initial launch in February 2016, Google AMP technology has shown improvements including:

• Support on standard web browsers.

• Easy to locate by web crawlers, search engine tools, and other websites.

• Improved performance including shorter loading time in Google search results and use of lesser data than non-AMP webpages.

• Growing industry support including search engines (Google, Bing, and Baidu), social media platforms (Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit), and e-commerce platforms (eBay, Snapdeal, BigCommerce).

Google AMP is supported on multiple browsers including:

• Google Chrome

• Mozilla Firefox

• Microsoft Edge

• Apple Safari

Google AMP pages can also be cached on gstatic URLs and render the same on both, desktop and mobile devices.

While the Facebook Instant Articles framework is also designed for hosting web content on mobile phone browsers, Google AMP has a more open and flexible framework.

5 Benefits of AMP Technology

Listed below are five key benefits of using AMP technology:

• Reduce webpage loading time

Did you know that the average attention span of an Internet user on mobile phones is around 5 seconds?

AMP technology has been developed to reduce the average webpage loading time of the content to less than 1.5 seconds (as recommended by HubSpot). Faster webpage loading translates to lower user bounce rates and an increase in incoming traffic.

• Leverage caching

By loading cached versions of AMP-tagged webpages, AMP framework ensures that your webpages achieve faster speeds and guarantees better user experience for your mobile customers.

• Improve your SEO ranking on Google

Due to its faster loading time, AMP-enabled webpages are ranked higher on the Google search engine. Additionally, AMP developers do not need to customise AMP webpage content for SEO, thus making it easier for search engines including Google to locate your web page and rank it higher on search engine results.

• Better digital ad performance

Along with higher click-through-rates, 90% of the AMP-optimised content have recorded higher eCPM (or effective cost per thousand impressions). AMP pages are also better for digital ads due to the following reasons:

o   Higher visibility due to higher viewership of AMP content.

o   Faster loading of ads due to faster loading of the overall AMP webpage.

o   Better integration as AMP supports ad technologies such as sticky ads and flying carpet ads, which are more integrated and optimised for mobile phones and attract more user attention.

o   More difficult to block, as AMP does not allow the use of JavaScript.

• Improves overall customer experience.

The AMP framework provides a leaner version of your webpage (as illustrated on the right side of the above image). Users can see all the content that matters to them, while all the elements that can reduce your website speed and performance are removed. Additionally, it is easier for users to share the page on social media platforms due to easily available social media handles. AMP’s flat and cleaner webpage look ensures a better online customer experience, thus ensuring higher number of visits and customer engagement.

When Google AMP Must Not Be Used

Despite its many benefits, Google AMP has its share of disadvantages and must not be used under the following instances:

• When you want to track online user visits since Google AMP delivers a cached version of the requested webpages to users.

• Would require additional development effort for existing pages if you choose to stick to only AMP pages.

• Webpages built on standard HTML design are difficult to implement using Google AMP and can be rendered differently on the desktop and mobile version.

Conclusion

This article outlines why the Accelerated Mobile Pages (or AMP) framework from Google is required for better online engagement from mobile phone users.

Based in Hyderabad, India, Pennywise Solutions offers digital software solutions to its international clients including customized application development in both, web and mobile-based technologies. Founded in the year 2003, Pennywise Solutions became part of The Ogilvy Group in the year 2013.