How To Increase Your Website Speed With AMP Pages
By Justin | May 13, 2019 (3 min read)
SEO | Video | Web Development
If you have a slow website or are finding that pages on your site take a little while to load, it may be affecting your website’s success.
Fortunately, thanks to Google, there is an easy way to increase your website speed with something called AMP.
What does AMP Stand For?
The term ‘AMP’ is an acronym that stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages.
AMP was originally announced in 2016 by Google as an open-source initiative to help enhance the site speed of many mobile pages.
An AMP page is a stripped down and deconstructed version of your webpage written in HTML. There is no fluff, animation, there is nothing there that isn’t needed.
If you have noticed the small lightning bolt symbol on your phone’s browser, that is an indicator that the page is an AMP page.
Why is AMP so Much Faster?
AMP pages are all stored on Google’s own server cache (meaning they load directly from Google’s server instead of your own websites hosted server).
Being stored on Google server means the page typically loads in 1 second, compared to a normal non-AMP webpage where the average load time is 7-10 seconds.
Why Does Loading Speed Matter for a Website?
Even with an additional second in load time, people are more likely not to wait for the page to load. Research has shown that pages that take more than 5 seconds to load have lower page views, higher bounce rates, and can even lower the conversion rate of a website.
There is a lot of truth in the old saying that ‘every second counts.’
How do You Setup AMP for Your Website?
If you are running a WordPress site, you can simply install a plugin that lets Google know to cache your pages in the AMP format.
Some other platforms will also have this plugin available, but in some cases, you may also need to work with a developer to implement the AMP component.
In conclusion, the reason that AMP is so important is that site speed is a critical success factor in this day and age. This enhances your site visitors experience, and also gives them the data they need as quickly as possible.
