SEO glossary: AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages)

 

What is AMP - Accelerated Mobile Pages?

More and more users are surfing the internet with mobile devices and using traditional PCs or laptops less frequently. In addition, fast data connections are required to load content in the shortest possible time. AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) was once created to make browsing on mobile devices even more user-friendly.

 

The aim of AMP is to significantly reduce the loading times of content on mobile devices. A mobile website is adapted according to certain specifications and may only contain certain elements that do not slow down loading times.

 

 

How does AMP work?

If website operators and publishers want to switch to Accelerated Mobile Pages, they must create a separate version. Among other things, the HTML code for AMP is much leaner, and the same applies to CSS. In both cases, the file size must not exceed 50 kB and they must also be implemented in the HTML.

 

In addition, AMP works with asynchronous JavaScript. This means that such content is loaded immediately without the use of external scripts. This is because these would also significantly increase the loading time.

 

If a publisher has successfully created their page as an AMP, Google recognizes it independently. At the same time, it is uploaded to a proxy server in a CDN(Content Delivery Network). If users enter the domain of an AMP in the browser, all the data on the page is loaded from the CDN at lightning speed.

 

If website operators want to make their website AMP-compliant, they can get explicit help from Google.

 

 

What are the advantages of AMP?

Search engines use the ALT TEXTto be able to correctly assign the content of an image. Although they index the image for the image search, they are still dependent on a meaningful description text. This is evaluated by the crawler and the image is listed accordingly in the search results. It is therefore all the more important that an image is provided with a sensible and meaningful alt text.

 

During on-page optimization, the image must be examined closely and its content entered in the alt tag. If an alt text is missing, in the worst case the visitor can leave the page again, which can result in a poor bounce rate. So if you label your images properly with alt texts, you can definitely generate traffic from the image search in the long term.

 

The advantages of AMP are listed below:

 

• High charging speed, which is clearly noticeable even in 2G and 3G networks. Charging times of less than 1 second are common here.
• At the same time, the high loading speed means a better user experienceas users stay longer. This means that 2 SEO factors are positively fulfilled and improved at the same time.
• Successfully implemented AMPs are displayed in the SERPs specially marked. Users see a small lightning bolt symbol which indicates that these are Accelerated Mobile Pages. It can send a positive signal to the user.
• Operators of news sites are listed in the Top Story Carousel, which can result in more traffic
• The use of AMP results in less data volume on both sides (operator and user)

 

Does AMP have disadvantages or restrictions?

Depending on the situation, there may be some disadvantages or restrictions:

• Operators can only insert JavaScript in the form of AMP tags. Loading on external scripts is no longer possible.
• Not all forms of advertising are permitted with AMP
• AMP consists exclusively of lean HTML and CSS. This makes the layout much more minimalist and sparse.
• At the same time, some functions such as social media buttons or comment fields are no longer available