AMP is an open source project designed to help web publishers create mobile-optimized content that loads instantly on all devices, according to Google. “We want webpages with rich content like video, animations and graphics to work alongside smart ads, and to load instantaneously,” Google wrote in a blog post. “We also want the same code to work across multiple platforms and devices so that content can appear everywhere in an instant — no matter what type of phone, tablet or mobile device you’re using.”
Google’s goal with AMP is to deliver the best possible mobile experience to its users. “Google wants to get information to the end user as fast as possible,” says Michael Bertini, a search marketing expert for digital marketing agency iQuanti. “Google doesn’t want the user to have to wait to read or see something.”
Rudy Galfi, Google’s AMP product manager, said at a recent marketing conference that the median load time for AMP-coded content is 0.7 seconds, according to SearchEngineLand.com. In comparison, the median load time for non-AMP pages is 22 seconds, or “the time it takes for you to leave the site and never come back,” Galfi said.
On February 23, 2016, Google officially integrated AMP-powered web pages into its mobile search results. AMP-coded pages appear in a mobile search results “carousel,” and they feature an AMP icon that looks like a thunderbolt, as well as the acronym “AMP.”
2. How does Google AMP work?
The open AMP HTML framework piggybacks on existing web technologies, but it also lets site owners create “light-weight” web pages, according to Google.
“AMP-HTML is simply HTML5 with a set of specifications (requirements and restrictions),” Google’s Galfi told SearchEngineLand.com. “The optimization is powered by JavaScript, styling can be customized via CSS3, and pages are cached.”
Caching is core to AMP, Galfi said. From SearchEngineLand.com:
“[Galfi] explained that Google AMP cache functions in a similar manner as a content delivery network (CDN), that it is free for anyone to use and that it works on ‘stale-while-revalidate’ model. This model helps make sure the content is always up to date in the cache. The process by which it works is quite simple: When a request is made, the client receives the cached version while the document is requested again from its original server to be updated in the cache.”
AMPs are “completely separate from a typical mobile site,” says Jim Robinson, founder and CEO of ClickSeed, a digital marketing and SEO agency. “Assuming your site has a desktop version, a mobile version and an AMP version, the desktop version will be the canonical (preferred version), and the mobile and AMP versions will each be annotated separately as alternates.”
Site publishers can serve their own ads through AMP, “although there are restrictions on sizes and placements,” Robinson says. “Most major publishers serve ads through DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) or OpenX, both of which are compatible with AMP.”
3. What types of sites should use AMP?
Initially, AMP is focused on news stories from online publishers, the primary content Google search users currently see as AMP pages in mobile search results. However, AMP is also relevant for other types of businesses, such as ecommerce organizations, for which the AMP results carousel and other components are well-suited.
For example, on June 30, eBay announced that its AMP-powered mobile shopping experience was live, and about 8 million AMP-based “browse nodes” are in production. Such popular queries as “camera drones” and “Sony PlayStation” are already “AMP-ed.”
The ability to develop AMP-based product pages is likely to “create a huge commercial incentive for websites to adopt the standard,” according to Robinson.
“AMP is an incredibly important part of a balanced marketing strategy for publishers today, given the project’s close ties with search engine results and advertising impression rates,” says Trevor Paulsen, a product manager with Adobe Analytics. “Adoption has been strong, given the battle for mobile ad dollars and the fact that Google prioritizes AMPs in search results. That being said, Google is interested in keeping people within their ad network, so it will be interesting to see whether ads are more successful on the mobile web or in apps.”
“As with any evolutionary change in the search engines, people need to pay attention to AMP and adjust,” says Thomas Petty, president and digital marketing trainer with Bay Area Search Engine Academy. “Over time, it will become an influencing factor. Just as Google has been recommending mobile-responsive websites, this is another step in that direction.”
4. Why did Google create AMP?
Web surfers want rapid search results, according to Eric Enge, CEO of digital marketing agency Stone Temple Consulting. “This means Google wants to give users speed, because they have serious competition in today’s world. And if they can offer superior speed for content accessed via search results, they will maintain or win market share,” Enge says. “Also, Google wants to keep people on the mobile web. While Google has five of the nine most-installed mobile apps, the reality is that their market share is far less certain there.”
