You have experienced this problem first-hand on mobile. You do not even need to be a tech geek to have had the privilege. Long loading times lead to viewer abandonment. No one wants to wait around for a page to load, and so a person will simply move on to another search option. This hurts advertisers and publishers. Audience eyes move away from the possibility of viewing an ad and publishers lose subscribers. Google addresses the issue with Accelerated Mobile Pages. Will the initiative improve loading time, add to advertiser revenue and impact SEO? Explore how Accelerated Mobile Pages may change the user and publishing experience.
What are Accelerated Mobile Pages?
Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) are an open source initiative put forth from Google. Google wants the production of rich content webpages, including:
- Video;
- Animations; and
- Graphics.
These embedded items are to work alongside any smart ads and load instantly. The coding should be the same and work across the multiple devices and various platforms available to end users. The point of the project is for desired content to appear instantaneously on any phone, mobile device or tablet.
Why is Google Interested in AMP?
Google is interested in the user experience and in generating advertising revenue. Google hopes “the open nature of Accelerated Mobile pages will protect the free flow of information by ensuring the mobile web works better and faster for everyone, everywhere.” AMP will hopefully load relevant pages faster for mobile users and seamlessly integrate ads along with graphics and video. This will result in less frustration for an end user and allow them to view all content easily.
Advertisers generate more revenue from tapping into the audience that once was turned off from less than ideal loading times. David Besbris, vice president of engineering and search writes, “we want to support a comprehensive range of ad formats, ad networks and technologies.”
As for publishers, “It’s a core goal of the project to support subscriptions and paywalls.” With AMP, publishers can ensure that their subscribers can view quality engaging content from any location. Distribution across all platforms is an essential requirement. The best thing about AMP is that Google’s cache servers are available to anyone free of charge. Initial tech specifications are available on GitHub.
How Could Accelerated Mobile Pages Impact SEO?
AMP HTML, a new open framework, provides the opportunity to build light-weight webpages. View the demo on Google Search. Nearly 30 Publishers will be taking part in the initiative and major social media and web development are charging ahead with the integration. Expect AMP HTML integration in sites including:
- Twitter;
- LinkedIn;
- WordPress.com;
- Chartbeat; and
- Adobe Analytics.
Want to get started? View ampproject.org to get more details on this open source initiative. Technical introductions, AMP file tutorials and available source code needed to create a “light-weight” webpage are offered. According to Bresbis, “webpages built with AMP load an average of four times faster and use 10 times less data than equivalent non-AMP pages.”
The whole point of search engines and mobile technology is to make it easy to search, find and access the information desired. It is likely to see landing pages with AMP HTML receive more views and conversions because audience members can quickly see website content. This may lead to an improved ranking on the SERPs eventually. Search Engine Land recently reported that AMP may become a ranking signal in their algorithm. Accelerated Mobile Pages are currently useful for making web content mobile-friendly. Stay ahead of the competition. Contact Zero Gravity Marketing to keep pages current with the latest Google initiatives today.
