Google has recently integrated AMP into its mobile search results. It claims pages will load "blazing fast," and viewers will be able to easily scroll without wasting time. Google explains pages built with AMP load approximately four-times faster and utilize 10-times less data than similar pages without AMP. Since this trend is taking media advertising by storm, it is important to get a better understanding of how it affects website owners and digital marketers.
What is AMP?
AMP is an acronym for Accelerated Mobile Pages. It is an open-source coding procedure that removes many elements that often cause web pages to load at a slow pace, especially on mobile devices. It is a stripped form of HTML. The idea behind AMP is to have a platform designed purely for speed and readability. To aid the process, images do not load until a viewer scrolls to them, and JavaScript handles everything. Since page speed is one of Google's algorithm obsessions, it is logical to assumes that websites with AMP tags will rank before websites without AMP.
The goal of AMP is to help website owners and digital marketers improve a mobile user's experience by eliminating the clunky elements of a desktop website. As Google has embraced this idea and has started implementing it, many websites are naturally following suit. Taking the plunge means they will need to begin a different approach to mobile advertising.
Benefits of AMP for Digital Marketing
Digital marketers will bask in some of the advantages that come from AMP.
--- Boosted Search Rankings. Mobile-friendliness and speed play large factors in search rankings. Since AMP pages load fast and offer a positive mobile experience, SEO is (theoretically) boosted, especially if your competitors don't readily adopt AMP.
--- Increased Page and Ad Views. Digital marketing experts understand the short attention spans of mobile users. When a page loads quickly, it raises the likelihood a viewer reads the page and its ads. To make things even better, Google is ensuring AMP traffic can be quantified and analyzed like conventional pages.
--- Heightened Ad Control. As AMP launched on Google Search, it included the ability to traffic ads with a choice of servers, gave support for multiple demand sources, provided control over ad placement, and offered the ability to measure views. These were welcoming features for all marketing teams.
How Digital Marketers Will Implement AMP
After speaking to Adster Creative, a top digital marketing agency in Canada, it was possible to get a glimpse at how AMP will be integrated by an actual working entity. According to Adster's leading marketing executive David Forster, "preparing clients' sites includes a two-step process." To begin, this agency is creating AMP pages and is making sure they are "valid". All tags must be in the correct places and in the proper order. To validate an AMP page, Chrome offers a helpful tool.
The second part is streamlining building pages. It is important to make sure as many pages as possible are paired with AMP versions. To make things easier, the most common CMSs, including WordPress, contain plug-ins, which do a great deal of the necessary work. "As with any boxed solution", says Marty Martin of technical SEO agency Adapt Partners, "there's no perfect fit. AMP is a very nascent technology and many developers are experiencing a high degree of validation errors, even with AMP plugins, AMP modules or custom integrations. The reality is, it's still a time-consuming solution for most websites, but one which shows a great deal of promise for those who implement it correctly."
Meanwhile many digital marketing firms are facing adversity to their advertising-focused business models. Many web surfers are blocking unwanted ads on various websites, which is forcing advertisers to uncover ways to get their marketing efforts viewed. Google is one of the largest digital media companies dealing with these issues. To combat the problem, this entity has implemented AMP, and it's a critical part of Google's mission to heighten search revenue on mobile platforms. As a result, many digital marketing agencies are taking advantage of the benefits and are joining the wave of new developments.
Follow HuffPost Canada Blogs on Facebook