Google Launches Accelerated Mobile Pages in 2016

Google has launched its latest initiative in moving toward an increasingly mobile-centric internet – Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP). The Google Accelerated Mobile Pages Project, announced last October, is an open source initiative that focuses on dramatically improving the performance of the mobile web.  The objective is to have web pages with rich content such as video, animations and graphics, to load instantaneously alongside smart ads. The AMP HTML platform removes  most elements, such as JavaScript, which cause web pages to load more slowly on mobile. As with any Google development, the question is what Accelerated Mobile Pages mean for online marketers.

AMPProject.org reports that AMP HTML pages load between 15% and 85% faster than non-AMP pages. Unfortunately this speed comes at a cost. According to Search Engine Watch, “by stripping down the experience of using the mobile web, Google is stripping out a lot of the infrastructure advertisers and marketers currently depend on to deliver impactful brand messages to users.”

While marketers will have to reconfigured their approach to digital ads, the result should be more effective ads. We have all had the experience of clicking on to a page with a mobile device only to abandon the page soon thereafter, due to  slow-loading ads. If the page and ads load instantaneously, the ads inherently become more visible and effective.

Although the new AMP initiative means more changes for online marketers, it also presents an opportunity. As with  Google’s past mobile friendly roll outs, as this new platform develops, we should see big ranking rewards for websites that get onboard. For now, however,  the AMP initiative still seems to be in the early stages, and not impacting all types of sites. As with all Google roll outs, we will be watching as this develops.

In the meantime, there are plenty of options for increasing load speed – caching is one of the most effective. Caching refers to methods that speed up the loading of a website. Caching makes a static copy of your dynamic site to reduce server rendering times. It is all saved as a type of image, which is served every time the site is visited. As changes are made, an updated copy is stored in the server’s memory. An effective caching plugin goes even further, optimizing the JavaScript and CSS files by compressing and reducing file size. WordPress is one of Upright’s preferred platforms for many reasons, including the many caching plugins available.

If you are concerned about site speed or the overall effectiveness of your website, contact the team at Upright.