ACCELERATED MOBILE PAGES: AMPing UP THE MOBILE EXPERIENCE

It is no question that Google influences how web developers design and build websites. Remember when the mobile-friendly note was added to Google search results, or when Google removed sites that did not have a mobile-friendly experience from the search results?  If we did an in-depth review, we could list many ways Google has swayed the web design industry.

Organizing information and making it easily accessible to the world is Google’s mission, and the company has incorporated optimizing the mobile web experience in its strategy. Keeping true to this clause, Google introduced Accelerated Mobile Pages or AMP. Although AMP is still relatively new, it has quickly changed how some significant companies design web pages.

What are Accelerated Mobile Pages?

AMP is a framework used to improve internet performance when using smartphones and tablets. AMP web pages use ten times less data, and some reports show a 75% decrease in web page load times when compared to non-AMP web pages.

How do you know if a website uses the AMP framework? 

Do a quick Google search on your smartphone. Enter “chocolate cookies” for your search. Once you scroll past all the paid ads, you will begin to notice a small lightning bolt icon next to some of the search results. The results with the lightning bolt are web pages that are AMP. 

With the endless amount of advances in technology, no one expects to wait for websites to load. At times, errors in loading can be more annoying when on smartphones. Users seeing the lightning bolt icon are more confident that content will be delivered almost instantaneously with less likelihood of error.

What does AMP mean to your online business?

Considering 5.6 billion Google searches are performed daily, and online consumers continue to increase (2.14 billion online consumers projected by 2021, Statisa); not incorporating AMP with your business web design could lower your search rank on Google and reduce your brand awareness. Not integrating AMP can cost you potential clients and negatively impact your bottom line.

You may have heard the phrase “speed kills” used when referring to driving safety. This phrase can easily apply to your business’ website performance.  Speed kills: meaning fast loading speeds kill your competitors, while slow loading speeds kill your business.

How are Accelerated Mobile Pages integrated into a website?

If you take a look at how to format your current website to the AMP framework, you may find the process to be a bit challenging being that it will require coding changes to the existing program languages.

There is not need to worry. Many web design companies, like Eternal Works, have integrated AMP in its designs process. Eternal Works is also a HubSpot Agency Partner. The websites we set up on the HubSpot Content Management System (CMS) are automatically formatted as Accelerated Mobile Pages too.

AMP is a great reason to consider a redesign of your existing site.  With the majority of people accessing the web through their smartphones; implementing AMP should be an essential part of your digital strategy.

For more specifics, you can visit the AMP Project; the website will provide the latest updates and trends on AMP. I have included some stats in case you need some numbers to help push/motivate your team to move toward AMP.

• 61% of mobile searchers are more likely to contact a local business if they have a mobile-friendly site. (Junto, 2019) (Source: https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics)
  
  

• If clients have a negative mobile experience, they are 62% less likely to do repeat business. (Google, 2018)

  
  
• 70% of the world's population is projected to use smartphones by the year 2020 (Ericsson Mobility Report).

Google, the number 1 ranked online search engine in the world, has made an effort to point out to mobile users which websites utilize AMP technology. The ever-increasing number of mobile consumers expect a quick and reliable experience. Using a framework like AMP to optimize the user experience to improve business opportunities would be a sensible strategy.

There’s no indication that Google will treat non-AMP sites the same way they do websites that do not provide a mobile-friendly experience and omit them from search results on mobile devices.  While we can’t say that they will do this for sure, I would not be too surprised if they did.  However, we’ll find out eventually. Google’s search modifications are usually shrouded in mystery.

Although, it is not definite that not integrating AMP in your website will get it removed from mobile searches or ranked lower in search at some point. The best course of action would be to pay attention and adapt to marketing trends based on consumer analysis.

If you are ready to enhance your mobile experience by integrating AMP to improve your client experience, we’d love to take a look at your current site and discuss how we can upgrade it or redesign it for you.

If you want to learn everything you need to know about developing a website that generates leads you should check out Website Design Made Simple: A step by step guide.