In October, Google introduced the AMP Project “for a faster, open mobile web.” This comes as no surprise since back in May, Google claimed “more Google searches take place on mobile devices than on computers in 10 countries including the US and Japan.” With the technology advancements integrated into smartphones and tablets today, the way we access information has simply revolutionized. People consume a tremendous amount of information this way, and you want to ensure your business is prepared for this open source initiative, Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP).
What Exactly is the Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) Project?
If your website takes too long to load or your navigation is clunky, you’ll lose visitors to your website or mobile app. For this reason, the AMP project was incorporated after discussions with publishers and technology companies around the world to dramatically improve the performance of the mobile web. Most content on the web is free because the websites or mobile apps are monetized by displaying ads or affiliate links. The project relies on AMP HTML to assist webpages with rich content. Webpages with animations, graphics and videos will load instantly. Websites can now build light-weight webpages utilizing the same code in order for the content to appear everywhere in an instant regardless of the mobile device in use.
Why Should AMP Be Important for Your Business?
As a business leader, you want your business to stay ahead of technology like this one. Would you have been a first adaptor to broadcast a radio commercial in the early-1920s? How about a TV commercial in the early-1940s? Why not a digital banner ad in the mid-1990s? Did you adapt AMP technology into your website in the mid-2010s? You get the point as Google named companies like Twitter, Pinterest, WordPress.com, Chartbeat, Parse.ly, Adobe Analytics and LinkedIn as among the first group of technology partners planning to integrate AMP HTML pages.
Look for Future AMP Enhancements
Within the next few months, Google is working with other participants to build more features and functionality focused in these four key areas:
1. Content
Since businesses rely on rich content to attract readers, having webpages load quickly is essential. The initial technical specification is already in the works on GitHub thanks to AMP’s open source.
2. Distribution
Since your content has the potential of being read overseas and around the world, distribution across all devices and platforms is crucial. As part of this effort, Google has designed a new approach to caching that allows us to continue to host our content while allowing for efficient distribution through Google’s high performance global cache. Since Google offers free of charge, open access to their cached servers this is an outstanding addition to Accelerated Mobile Pages.
3. Advertising
Since Google’s bread-and-butter is digital ad revenue, it’s a no brainer they would add Advertising to the mix. AMP will support a comprehensive range of ad formats, ad networks and technologies just as long as they don’t detract from the user experience. It is also a core goal for Accelerated Mobile Pages to support subscriptions and paywalls. Google will continue to work with agencies like ourselves to ensure they define the parameters of an ad experience that still provides the speed we are all striving for with AMP.
4. Analytics
Development for a richer analytics framework has already begun as early as November. Preliminary end-to-end testing is just right around the corner with full testing starting in mid-to-late January. Other companies expressing interest in this feature not already mentioned are Nielson and ClickTale who plan to support AMP in 2016.
What We’re Doing for Our Partners
As a reputable SEO company, we have to stay ahead of search engine technology like this for our partners. We’ve already worked out a strategy to begin implementation into current and new web designs, and look forward to contributing to the community of open source – where technical advancements win every time!
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