AMP changing the way we access information online

The way we access information online has changed. The changes have been more dramatic than many of us would ever have imagined. More than 60% of web traffic now happens on mobiles and tablets and this percentage is still growing.

 

Despite the significant growth in mobile online usage the experience is often still somewhat lacking. Pages can be slow to load, some don’t display properly and the result can be frustrating for web users and the website owners.

 

40% of mobile users will abandon a website if they have to wait for 3 seconds or more. That is a huge volume of lost traffic and potential lost business so the speed at which a web page loads is incredibly important.

 

With all of this in mind publishers and global technology companies such as Google have been working together on an open source initiative called AMP or Accelerated Mobile Pages. The idea behind the AMP project is to improve the mobile experience by creating pages which load faster.

 

Accelerated Mobile Pages are just like any other HTML page but with a limited set of allowed technical functionality. Accelerated Mobile Pages or AMPs will load in any modern mobile browser and will load much faster. In most cases the viewer looking at the page wouldn’t be aware that they are viewing a different type of web page.

 

AMP has been widely embraced by news outlets and is already being used by the likes of the BBC, Trinity Mirror, The Independent, CNN and the Wall Street Journal to name just a few. News publications know that they need to be able to get news to their readers on the go. Almost everyone consumes some news on their mobile and publishers are acutely aware that breaking news often reaches the public quickly and via social media platforms such as Twitter. Offering news which is accessible and loads quickly is crucial for them.

 

AMP pages are displayed at the top of your search on mobile in a carousel. They are clearly identifiable by an icon which looks like a lightning-bolt so users can see which pages promise to load quickly. If you’ve been wondering what that lightning bolt means now you know!

 

So are there advantages for businesses embracing AMP? It may not be suitable for all web pages but it is certainly worth considering for certain pages. Mobile friendliness is important to search engines, we know that Google will be rewarding AMP pages with better positioning in search results so if you are concerned about web rankings and driving traffic to your site (and who isn’t?) then you should probably be considering AMP for at least some of your web pages.

 

If you want to learn more there is more information on the project here.  

 

At Entyce we have embraced AMP and started using it for some of our web and blog pages as well as for client projects. If you have questions or are wondering if AMP is something you should be considering then give us a call, we’d be happy to talk it through with you and look at your website and whether it is something you could benefit from.