Why Google Wants You to “AMP” Your Ecommerce Website with Accelerated Mobile Pages
Accelerated Mobile Pages, launched by Google in February, is an open-source project that’s meant to speed up website loading times and serve Internet users faster mobile experiences straight from their devices.
In a nutshell, the project uses AMP HTML code (which is a open framework developed from existing web technologies) that makes it easy for developers to build web pages that are considered light-weight, allowing for a faster mobile experience.
“We want webpages with rich content like video, animations and graphics to work alongside smart ads, and to load instantaneously. 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
AMPing Up The Mobile Search Process
When it comes to using the Internet, people expect things to work fast. Slow load times on a website can really impact performance and sales. Average users online just don’t have the patience to put up with a slow working website, which is why they’ll bounce off your site and hop on one that doesn’t take forever to load.
“40% of people abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load.” – KISSmetrics
Anything over 3 seconds is too long and has the ability to cost your website traffic and conversions. That’s why Accelerated Mobile Pages is a great solution because it improves web performance by delivering mobile web pages at high speeds.
In fact, according to Google, AMP web pages have the ability to load four times faster than non-AMP pages. Plus, they use a lot less data as well.
Accelerated Mobile Pages VS Responsive: Which Matters More?
Just because something new rolls out, doesn’t mean the world will end if we don’t utilize it. Would your website perform better than before with Accelerated Mobile Pages? Obviously. Does that mean you absolutely need it? Probably not, and here’s why…
Not too long ago Google’s main focus was responsive websites, in which one URL responds to whatever device is being used so that the same website (layout and design) is delivered in a mobile-friendly format. Honestly, if you have a mobile friendly responsive website, you’re already on the right track.
Speed is important, but if your website is responsive and built with the mobile user in mind, it’s not really necessary to use accelerated mobile pages. There are, however, companies that are planning to integrate to AMP such as LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, Adobe Analytics, Chartbeat, WordPress and Parse.ly.
Want your website built to be fast and mobile friendly? Contact J.M. Field Marketing’s web design team today to get started!
