Google AMP to Load Twice Faster: Why It is Important to Know for You

As per the latest announcement of Google, AMP pages will now load twice as fast in the Google search as the search engine giant has been able to cut down the time it takes in rendering the page. The speed gain has been largely due to the improvement in the server-side rendering and decrease in the bandwidth usage of images by half without any compromise with the quality. It has been able to achieve this feat by using a compression algorithm ‘Brotli’.

Apart from this, Google has announced that there are more than 2 billion AMP pages on the web across 900,000 domains. The major chunk of these pages comes from Tumblr. Another popular social media platform Twitter has announced expanding the support for AMP pages to its Android and iOS app. As of now, AMP URLs can only be shared on Twitter through a mobile web client.

Considering the importance Google is giving to AMP, more websites can join the AMP bandwagon in the future. These AMP pages are making serious inroads in the e-commerce websites. Google is also developing new AMP ads to attract new publishers.

eBay has announced to support for AMP to millions of its pages and it has already published 15 million AMP pages so far. So AMP is getting support from major publishers around the world and the momentum is only increasing.

Is Google AMP an SEO Ranking Signal

Google AMP is not a ranking signal as of now but you can’t be sure the status will prevail. Considering the fact that Google attaches a lot of importance to page speed and user experience, it may become a ranking signal. Google will expand the AMP vertical to Google News, Google Now, Play Newsstand, Now On Tap.

Since its impact will be visible in domain authority, page authority, and organic traffic, it’ll affect the SEO ranking of websites soon after coming to the full effect. Irrespective of not being a ranking factor, it affects clicks, impressions, and user experience, which are an important factor in the SEO ranking. So if you’re not in the AMP bandwagon, you will certainly get fewer impressions, clicks, and user engagement.

How to Create Google AMP Pages

It is actually easy and you don’t need to be Matt Cutts or a great developer, you can do it after reading Google’s tutorial. It’ll thoroughly guide you.

• First, create your first AMP HTML file extension.
• Now learn to add an image.
• After that preview the file before launching
• Validate with Google’s validator.
• In the last, prepare for distribution.

If you have a WordPress website, it can be done easily by downloading a plugin. Follow the steps given below:

1. Go to Github https://github.com/Automattic/amp-wp and download the zip file.
2. Now go the plugins section, click “Add New” and then “Upload Plugin”.
3. Upload the Zip file now and activate the plugin.
4. Make sure AMP pages are working by searching on Google.

Conclusion

Most of us don’t pay attention to such things but mind it that anything that affects the user experience should not be taken lightly. So we hope it’ll help you clear confusions related to Google AMP pages.