What is AMP and How to Optimise it?
You are browsing using your phone for a product and found a site you were interested in. You opened it and realised it takes ages to load. So, you got frustrated and went back to search for a better one. We all have experienced it, right! And this is precisely where AMP comes to the rescue. So, what is AMP, what are its benefits, and how to optimise AMP pages? Our SEO experts from Perth will help to uncover these queries.
So, What is AMP?
AMP or Accelerated Mobile Pages is an open-source, web-based solution designed to create web pages that are fast and smooth loading in any mobile device. These features allow AMP to provide users with the best user experience.
What are the Benefits of AMP?
Fast Loading
AMP is particularly designed for a fast and smooth loading experience. In the AMP view, the pages load easily and quickly with accuracy.
Enhance Engagement
Since the web pages are size optimised, mobile users can view the pages even with an unstable internet connection. This factor and the fast loading feature of AMP provide the best user experience, making the users stay longer on the website.
Increase Organic Traffic
Being loved by users allows AMP to rank high in SERPs. Google prefers a good user experience, and AMPs are designed to enhance it specifically.
Reduce Bounce Rate
AMP means fast loading and improved mobile compatibility, which will reduce the rate of people being frustrated and leaving the site because of the long loading time. Furthermore, the longer your visitors stay on your website better the chances of conversion.
Enhance Ad Views
In AMP, the HTML is coded in a way to improve the usability of images and banners. It will increase the ad viewability rate.
No Need of Sitemap
You don’t have to add XML sitemaps in AMP pages because Google will pick it automatically.
These features of AMP make it SEO friendly and favoured by Google and users. Since most users are now using their mobile phones for browsing, AMP plays a crucial role in improving their user experience and improving the site ranking in SERPs.
How to Optimise AMP Pages?
As we already know, AMP pages are designed to load fast by default, but you can do some additional optimisation to help them perform even better and also make them more SEO friendly. Here are some tips on how to optimise your AMP pages.
Ensure Functionality
The content and elements like navigation menu, social media icons, login, forms and ads must be ensured to be fully functional and need to work similarly to the canonical version.
Use SEO-Friendly URLs
Use URLs in a way to display they are AMP pages. Like in Subfolder use “domain/folder/article/amp”, which is considered flexible and SEO ready.
Similar to the Canonical Version
Ensure both the user interface and design schema of AMP and canonical versions are similar.
Ensure the Pages are Discoverable
Both the canonical and AMP page need to have information about each other. Add rel=”amphtml” as link tag in the head of the AMP page and rel=” canonical” as link tag in the head of the canonical page.
SEO Element Consistency
SEO visibility can be negatively affected if the SEO elements used in both versions are not consistent. So, make sure you use the same codes for structured data, H1s and alternative image text as those used in the canonical version.
Mobile-friendly sites are a must in this era of mobile dominancy. The practices mentioned above will help you optimise the AMP and improve its performance considerably, leading to a higher ranking. Need to know more about AMP or SEO related subjects? Contact our SEO experts or email at sales@computingaustralia.group.
Jargon Buster
SERPs – Search Engine Results Pages – Google’s response to a user’s search query includes featured snippets, organic results, paid results etc.
Optimise – A process that modifies how a campaign is delivering, boosting its performance. It includes improving any metric like CTR, Page Load Speed etc.
Sitemap– An XML file that displays all the URLs you want users to discover.
by The Computing Australia Group