Why is AMP an Indispensable Part of SEO?

The advantages of Accelerated Mobile Page (AMP) in SEO can be witnessed from the number of online brands embracing it for giving a user-friendly experience to its prospective clients. What is AMP? Continue reading to find the answer to all the questions that you have in mind related to AMP.

With technological evolution, more and more businesses are going mobile, aiming to give a user-friendly experience to their prospective clients. Gradually, they are embracing the open-source coding AMP aka Accelerated Mobile Pages, developed by Google in association with Twitter to compete with Facebook Instant Articles and also Apple News.

What is AMP all about?

AMP is the stripped-down version of HTML that boosts website performance with fast loading speed for smartphones. It includes open source code restricting certain HTML tags and all JavaScript code to boost site performance. 

The primary focus of the platform is to improve the readability factors with accuracy. That is why different website development industries, premium news agencies like BBC, New York Times are embracing it to boost the loading speed of their site.

How does it reduce the loading time?

Google saves the AMP cache between the server and the user to store data and limits the use of certain HTML codes, all JavaScript code. It further uses an updated version of CSS, eliminating the parts that impact the loading time. Thus, it becomes easy for Google to host those pages. 

Let’s take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of using Accelerated Mobile Page (AMP)

Have a look at the Advantages of Accelerated Mobile Page (AMP)

1. Optimize Loading Speed– By excluding all non-essential elements AMP helps in boosting site performances on smartphones. In fact, it becomes easy for Google to render the page instantly thereby reducing the chances of cart abandonment and increasing conversions. 

2. Quick Response from Server- Saving the cache between the server and the user, Google reduces the load on the server, thereby boosting the server performance. Also, users can instantly fetch data without much load on the server.

3. Improves Mobile Ranking-Directly we cannot acknowledge the implementation of the AMP Plugin as a ranking factor, but it definitely aids in website ranking. By boosting site loading speed and enhancing performance AMP helps in driving site traffic, which by default helps in improving mobile ranking.

4. Expect more Click-Through Rates- With the increased number of smartphone users who start visiting your website, the CTR (Click -Through Rates) increases drastically, resulting in more sales and more ROI. Those businesses that are solely dependent on organic traffic have to rely on CTR, which is possible to improve by installing AMP plugins.

Now comes the Disadvantages of using Accelerated Mobile Page (AMP)

1. Reduces Revenue from Ad- By excluding some of the essential features from websites always reduces the chances of the sale. It is a major drawback of the AMP plugin. Since you need to get rid of non-essential elements, engaging traffic sometimes becomes difficult. Also, in spite of the fact that the AMP plugin supports ad campaigns,  implementing them on pages is not at all an easy task. As a result the chance to generate more revenues decreases. 

2. Installation is time-consuming- AMP plugin needs to follow Google guidelines, which has a restricted framework and its installation process is quite difficult. Popular CMS tool like WordPress have AMP integration tools, but it often clashes with other SEO Plugins like Yoast SEO. 

3. Difficult to collect Analytics data– Although AMP supports Google Analytics, it is under separate tags taking much of your time to place those tags and analyse accurate data. So tracking customer’s data is time-consuming and may not be available instantly.

4. The total dependency of Google cache- It is because Google’s AMP-enabled cached version holds page information, the loading speed of the site improves drastically. In reality, Google is storing the information on the page that appeared on the search results page. As a result, it has become a matter of fear for the publishers as they feel Google might revolutionize the way the mobile web is operated by tracking necessary information.

How to set up Google AMP Plugin on your WordPress Site?

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1. Visit Plugins

2. Add new- find AMP

3. Activate it

4. Go to Appearance

5. Click AMP and check how your site looks on the smartphone.

AMP uses minimal HTML and CSS code you won’t have many visual options. You can only change the background colour, header, and the link text colour apart from choosing light and dark colour schemes. However, one thing not to be forgotten is that AMP Plugin by Automattic doesn’t support pages. It supports only posts. 

Furthermore, Automattic’s AMP plugin uses default metadata, you can always edit the same by installing Yoast SEO.

Visit Yoast SEO on the left side panel and select AMP.

Click on  Posts Types -Choose the categories where you want AMP support.

Choose Design- For the icon, you would like to use for AMP. You can also use a default image if your posts don’t contain any image.

Likewise, to edit colours, visit Content Colors-

 For AMP header colour- Edit the colour of the header background

 Title Color- Change the colour of the Title of the posts, 

Post meta info colour- Modify the colour of the meta info that is displayed on the top of the page.

Visit Links– If you want to edit the text colour, Hover Color and Underline option.

For additional CSS code visit Extra CSS and

Extra code in<head> for adding meta tags and link tags.

However, to ensure that Google Analytics shows an accurate result, you must make changes manually. Anyways, this portion is a little tricky and complicated. 

Select the Analytics tab and add the below code- 

<amp-analytics type=”googleanalytics”>

<script type=”application/json”>

{

“vars”: {

“account”: “UA-XXXXX-Y”

},

“triggers”: {

“trackPageview”: {

“on”: “visible”,

“request”: “pageview”

  }

 }

}

</script>

</amp-analytics>

Make sure to replace “UA-XXXXX-Y” with your Google Analytics Tracking Id.

In case you are looking for the Analytics tracking code, visit Google Analytics first you can also copy it from there and then paste it directly here in this section.

Additionally, if you want AMP to support both pages and posts then you must consider installing AMP for WP.  In fact, make sure to install both the Plugins, rather choose any one of the two’s.

The advantage of AMP for WP is that you are loaded with options. For instance, from displaying Logo in the header section to supporting pages apart from posts, advertisements and even social media sharing buttons, you can do lots of activities.

So, all you need to do is install and activate the Amp for WP plugin. Then visit Appearance> AMP

Once you are here you will be able to modify the following categories-

• Meta info
• Title
• Featured Image
• The Content
• Categories and Tags
• Social Icons
• Comments
• Related posts
• Header Text Color
• Header Background & Link 
• Colour Scheme

Upon clicking the general settings you can do the followings-

• Upload Logo
• Choose Custom Logo size
• Enable AMP Support for- Posts, Pages, Homepage, and Archives.
• Save the changes.

Who must consider Accelerated Mobile Page (AMP to boost SEO ranking)?

Gone are the days when websites used to attract the majority of the traffic from the desktop.

Today, the ample use of smartphones has made it compulsory for website developers to create a scalable website, giving a seamless experience to the users across any smart devices. Certainly, they are installing the Google AMP plugin to improve the loading speed of the website and drive more site traffic, thereby optimizing website search engine ranking, even if they lose other essential features like widgets, lead generations and many more.

However, it has to be noted that installing AMP plugin without any rich content will be of no use to a business. The content of the website matters as well for boosting site visibility.

Whether or not to install AMP Plugin?

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Since you are aware of the advantages and disadvantages of the AMP plugin, also know the easy steps to set up the plugin, the decision is yours whether or not to install the same to boost your website ranking on smartphones?

Additionally, if you are looking for responsive website designs or mobile app development services, don’t forget to reach out to the experts of Esolz Technologies, the leading website development company in India, also offering high-end mobile app development services in India.