Why AMP Could Be the Next Big Thing for SEO Management
Mobile-only SEO and web development strategies have taken the marketing world by storm over the last few years. Many marketers have assumed a mobile-first strategy when building and optimizing their content, and accelerated mobile pages (AMP) are a natural extension of that trend.
What's the big deal about AMP? Let's take a look.
What Is AMP?
AMP is an open-source way to make pages load extremely fast. In a 2015 Whiteboard Friday presentation on Moz.com, Will Critchlow and Tom Anthony call AMP "diet HTML." That's a simplification, of course, but it gives you an idea of how an AMP strategy works. Minimal HTML, slightly limited CSS, and almost no Javascript make a page load much faster than your typical web page.
AMP has existed for several years now, but Search Engine Land reports that Google has encouraged commercial websites to adopt AMP as part of their mobile strategies. While AMP used to belong almost exclusively in the domain of publishers, it's now becoming part of the e-commerce fabric.
Why Does AMP Matter for SEO Management?
According to Business Insider, so-called m-commerce — or e-commerce transactions that take place on a mobile device — will capture almost half the total e-commerce market by 2020. Consumers are shopping for books, shoes, cars, and just about everything else on their mobile devices, so it makes sense to optimize e-commerce pages for mobile.
AMP allows e-commerce marketers to streamline the purchasing process for mobile visitors. It strips away some of the barriers to entry that often cause high bounce rates and abandoned shopping carts. Pages load faster, there's less clutter on the page, and each page offers attractive, informative content that's designed to usher consumers through a conversion.
Does AMP Work?
While the theory behind AMP makes sense, marketers need to know whether it will work in practice. According to Search Engine Journal, early adopters have experienced positive results from implementing AMP on their e-commerce page.
The website reports that organic traffic is converting at a 100 percent lift rate on AMP pages over simple responsive websites. Additionally, early adopters have experienced bounce rates as low as 10 points beneath average, which could indicate that AMP might be the next big thing.
How Can Marketers Implement AMP?
If you're just starting out, implementing AMP might seem like a breeze. You'll use the format for each new page you create. However, marketers who have run their e-commerce stores for years might face bigger challenges.
You don't have to convert every page to AMP all at once, though. Start with some of the core pages that either get the most traffic or that prove crucial to conversions, such as the following:
- Home pages
- Landing pages
- blog
- Microsites
You might also want to convert your most popular product pages to AMP to encourage more conversions.
If you're thinking about implement AMP on your e-commerce website or other digital property, you can check out Google's AMP tags and components, each of which help customize the user experience.
See how one non-profit benefited from using an AMP stragety for their website in our latest case study: Increasing Web Visibility with Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP).
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