Optimize your articles for mobile with Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)
Posted: Wed Dec 04, 2024 9:35 am
For a few years now, Google has been insisting that it is increasingly prioritising the mobile version of our web pages. First it was the responsive version, the adaptation of a website to the format of mobile phone screens. Now it has arrived with another new feature that affects the loading speed and the format presented by the articles. It is called Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP).
AMP has become one of the most important formats for loading speed . This format currently works for WordPress blogs with different plugins, although it is possible to modify the HTML code.
If you have any doubts about whether your website is AMP formatted or not, add the following to the end of the URL of a post: /amp/. If the URL shows the content in a different format than the original, more simplified format, it means you have already implemented AMP. If it doesn't, it will return a 404 error.
What does it mean to apply AMP to your articles?
AMP creates a simpler version of your articles so that the loading speed on mobile devices is much faster. It is a version of HTML code, developed directly by Google, to modify the article.
It modifies the elements that make the website architect phone number list heavy, such as CSS and JS: the elements that make up the menu, buttons, comments and everything that is not relevant information about your article or website; displaying a totally simplified format that is made up of featured photography and content.
You will find cases where this does not happen. The explanation is that the AMP format is modified with a plugin.
The advantages of using AMP are:
Optimizing loading speed
Improve positioning and speed up indexing
Increase in visits
How do we add AMP to a website?
Implementing the AMP format in WordPress is possible by modifying the HTML code or by installing plugins. Google has created a guide for developers where it explains how to do it.
Yes, we already know that we should not overload WordPress with too many plugins because it will affect the loading speed, but for AMP we do recommend resorting to this practice.
There are many plugins for installing AMP. We advise you to use the official and original Automattic plugin in conjunction with the Yoast plugin for AMP. The Automattic plugin will only convert the articles to the AMP version, it does not allow further modifications. If you want to customize it, install AMP for WP, which will only work if you have previously installed the other one.
With AMP for WP, in the general tab you have different options to customize your AMP articles. You have the option to add the Analytics code (this can also be done with Google Tag Manager). Activate redirects, create AMP pages for the front page or include a “NO-AMP” link so that the user can change the version.
Another option is to change the design to adapt the AMP colors (which come by default) to the colors of your website so that users can identify you.
The Yoast plugin for AMP is much simpler and you can hardly make any changes to it, except with CSS code. Among its options, you can only change the colors of the header and links.
To verify that AMP installation was successful, go to Search Console and its Accelerated Mobile Pages tool. Check if your pages are being indexed or if there are errors to fix.
Conclusions on AMP
In short, if you want your website to be up to date with regard to SEO positioning , adapt your articles to the AMP version. For now, this new feature is only for news websites, such as blogs or newspapers, with static pages; therefore, it still needs to be adapted for e-Commerce .
The fact that your news is optimized and its loading speed is around 1.5 seconds, makes the number of visits increase and you receive much more traffic. But keep one thing in mind, AMPs do not always appear in the search engine. It is random, sometimes Google decides to show it and other times not.
AMP has become one of the most important formats for loading speed . This format currently works for WordPress blogs with different plugins, although it is possible to modify the HTML code.
If you have any doubts about whether your website is AMP formatted or not, add the following to the end of the URL of a post: /amp/. If the URL shows the content in a different format than the original, more simplified format, it means you have already implemented AMP. If it doesn't, it will return a 404 error.
What does it mean to apply AMP to your articles?
AMP creates a simpler version of your articles so that the loading speed on mobile devices is much faster. It is a version of HTML code, developed directly by Google, to modify the article.
It modifies the elements that make the website architect phone number list heavy, such as CSS and JS: the elements that make up the menu, buttons, comments and everything that is not relevant information about your article or website; displaying a totally simplified format that is made up of featured photography and content.
You will find cases where this does not happen. The explanation is that the AMP format is modified with a plugin.
The advantages of using AMP are:
Optimizing loading speed
Improve positioning and speed up indexing
Increase in visits
How do we add AMP to a website?
Implementing the AMP format in WordPress is possible by modifying the HTML code or by installing plugins. Google has created a guide for developers where it explains how to do it.
Yes, we already know that we should not overload WordPress with too many plugins because it will affect the loading speed, but for AMP we do recommend resorting to this practice.
There are many plugins for installing AMP. We advise you to use the official and original Automattic plugin in conjunction with the Yoast plugin for AMP. The Automattic plugin will only convert the articles to the AMP version, it does not allow further modifications. If you want to customize it, install AMP for WP, which will only work if you have previously installed the other one.
With AMP for WP, in the general tab you have different options to customize your AMP articles. You have the option to add the Analytics code (this can also be done with Google Tag Manager). Activate redirects, create AMP pages for the front page or include a “NO-AMP” link so that the user can change the version.
Another option is to change the design to adapt the AMP colors (which come by default) to the colors of your website so that users can identify you.
The Yoast plugin for AMP is much simpler and you can hardly make any changes to it, except with CSS code. Among its options, you can only change the colors of the header and links.
To verify that AMP installation was successful, go to Search Console and its Accelerated Mobile Pages tool. Check if your pages are being indexed or if there are errors to fix.
Conclusions on AMP
In short, if you want your website to be up to date with regard to SEO positioning , adapt your articles to the AMP version. For now, this new feature is only for news websites, such as blogs or newspapers, with static pages; therefore, it still needs to be adapted for e-Commerce .
The fact that your news is optimized and its loading speed is around 1.5 seconds, makes the number of visits increase and you receive much more traffic. But keep one thing in mind, AMPs do not always appear in the search engine. It is random, sometimes Google decides to show it and other times not.