When browsing the web on your phone or tablet, have you ever wondered what the small lighting bolt accompanying the search result means? (No? Then you don’t pass the tech nerd test!) It’s Google AMP—Google’s method to make webpages as fast and portable as the instant articles you read on Facebook.
What is Google AMP?
AMP stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages and is essentially a simplified version of HTML (that cryptic code that virtually every site is built upon). With specific design patterns and imposed restrictions on resource-heavy JavaScript, AMPs are much faster than the average HTML page on the web. Read a play-by-play description of AMP on Shopify.
Why does Google AMP matter?
On-the-go users like their content served up fast. Last year, Google crunched the numbers and found that for every second a page takes to load, that visitor is 10% more likely to bounce off the page. Slow load times could lead to frustrated users and lost opportunities for businesses.
Another important feature of AMPs is that Google prioritizes AMPs and mobile-optimized sites in search results. While last month Google announced it’s working on letting websites that aren’t on AMP get similar prominence as long as they offer AMP’s speed benefits, it will probably take a while to work out the specifics. In the meantime, if you haven’t optimized your site with AMPs, your site traffic from search may suffer.
Ready to get your AMP on? Contact us today.
