Does Your Website Need Accelerated Mobile Pages (Google AMP)??

Google will prioritize mobile pages in search. And it seems that implementing AMP is the best way to make a website display pages quickly. Is that right??

When I first heard about Google's "Accelerated Mobile Page Project", I was happy to join the AMP trend as soon as possible. Say goodbye to slow, clumsy, and unoptimized websites. I started experimenting with accelerated mobile pages, only to realize that despite their many advantages, they also have disadvantages. I wholeheartedly accelerated the speed of web page access on mobile devices (which means better user experience and higher mobile device rankings), but I am not ready to sacrifice advertising revenue.

Website owners, webmasters and digital marketers need to eliminate the hype and determine whether their websites really need to deal with the Google AMP project. The search giant has done a great job, highlighting all the benefits of real-time loading of pages (especially after announcing mobile-first indexing), but avoiding obvious shortcomings.

In this article, I will discuss all the pros and cons of using accelerated mobile pages. I will also answer some questions, such as: Can AMP make your website magically point to SERP success? Does it make sense to implement AMP on all pages? Which is better-AMP or responsive design? So let’s dive in!

What Is AMP?

AMP or "Accelerated Mobile Pages" is a free open source framework that allows you to create mobile pages that deliver content quickly. It consists of HTML, JS and cache libraries, thanks to specific extensions and AMP-centric attributes, even if they have "rich" content (such as infographics, PDF, audio or video files), it can speed up the movement of pages Loading speed.

AMP is the basic version of the mobile page of your website. The content it displays is important, but it eliminates all factors that affect the speed and performance of the site. The mobile pages with and without AMP are as follows:

Responsive design, the page without AMP (on the left) looks very attractive. However, it has many elements that are missing from AMP-enabled pages. The navigation bar is more detailed (with search icons, breadcrumbs and hamburger buttons). At the same time, you can access the social buttons of the AMP version at once, and it is easy to click, which simplifies sharing.

Why Is AMP Important?

AMP is important because it helps web pages load faster, making it possible to increase usability and persuade visitors to stay on your website longer to attract your content. The logic is simple: faster loading times can lead to better engagement, which reduces bounce rates and improves mobile rankings.

However, AMP itself does not increase participation. It will not make your content more useful or interesting. If your load time is perfect (less than 1.5 seconds according to HubSpot), but your content is boring, your SERP will not increase due to the high bounce rate. In order for AMP to work properly on your website, you need to have both advantages: fast loading time and good content.

AMP has the potential to satisfy your visitors, which means a lot to Google. Moreover, if you like Google, you will get a higher ranking, bring more traffic and increase revenue. But don’t be misled: installing AMP does not magically increase SERP.

Does It Make Sense to Implement AMP?

The short answer is: It depends.

Before I give a more detailed answer to the question above, let’s look at the big picture and figure out the pros and cons of implementing AMP.

AMP Pros

#1 It speeds up website load time

This is obvious. Since there are no useless elements to reduce their speed, AMP is streamlined, smooth and fast. Pages that users like won’t make them wait, so AMP basically ensures that your website attracts more visitors.

#2 It increases mobile ranking

Although AMP itself is not a ranking factor, it has a positive impact on mobile rankings due to faster loading times. If Google begins to prioritize AMP, it may have a greater impact on SERPs.

#3 It improves server performance

If your site generates tons of traffic from mobile, AMP will reduce the load on your servers and improve their performance. But this has a huge downside (see con #3).

AMP Cons

#1 Ad revenue is reduced

Although the "Accelerated Mobile Page Project" supports advertising, its revenue potential is severely limited. It is not easy to implement advertisements on pages run by AMP.

#2 Analytics are a bit stripped

AMP supports Google Analytics, but requires a different tag, which needs to be implemented on all AMP pages. Obviously, placing this tag and being able to collect and analyze data takes a lot of time.

#3 Amazing speed is achieved, thanks to cache

Google does not provide any specific technology to make your pages super fast. Its actual role is to save the cached version of pages with AMP tags, and whenever a visitor visits them, they only need to provide them from the cache. You find the rest.

AMP can make your site load faster and guarantee better UX, but its shortcomings cause several serious problems:

Are you ready to sacrifice at least part of your advertising revenue?

Can you live without all the charts in Google Analytics?

And, most importantly: are you sure you want to rely on Google through caching?

These are not simple questions, but you should definitely consider detailed answers to them. But before doing this, let's compare AMP and adaptive design.

AMP vs. Responsive Design

Responsive design is a must, because it is recommended by Google. But when we have AMP, does it make sense to invest in responsiveness? My answer is: yes, it is true.

AMP has many advantages, such as faster loading speed, better user experience and lower bounce rate. In theory, AMP is also easy to install. All you need to do is add a line of code under "Specifications" in the page title. like this:

<script src="https://cdn.ampproject.org/v0.js"></script>

The side benefit is that AMP makes it easy for you to prepare your website for mobile-first indexing. Just select the high-priority page and place a few other tags and a line of code. Don’t forget to use Google’s structured data testing tool to test your web pages.

However, AMP associates your website with Google. Without storing the cache on Google’s servers, you don’t have any mobile pages at all. As Benjamin Franklin said, you will exchange some of the temporary ranking gains with the freedom of the website (by the way, this is not guaranteed).

But the most critical disadvantage is that AMP is not so easy to install. If you are using a WordPress website, you can always install the AMP plugin, but it does not run smoothly (at least, if you use conflicting plugins, such as Yoast or Monarch). You only have one choice: manually place all necessary tags and codes-this takes time.

In short, I suggest you wait a few months until we understand Google’s next move with AMP and the Mobile First Index. But until then, it makes sense to apply the rapid demand method and accelerate the development of responsive websites as much as possible.

Conclusion

At this time, I do not recommend that you implement AMP (at least if your site is mobile-friendly and responsive). Wait until AMP becomes a ranking signal. Let it stand the test of time. After all, Google can still abandon AMP as a failed technology.

However, if Google sets mobile-first indexing as a web standard, which will undoubtedly harm desktop-related SERPs, then you should consider implementing AMP on certain key pages of your website: information pages, blog posts, contact us, etc. This will help you to "move" the link source from the desktop to the mobile device and support your SERP.