Over the past few years there has been a massive shift in the way that people are browsing the internet. With well over 60% of users now browsing on mobile, users want instant access to the websites they are viewing and as such, a focus on decreasing the loading time for websites on mobile was inevitable.
Enter the Google AMP project.
What is Google AMP?
AMP stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages. The Google AMP project enables the creation of websites that are consistently fast, beautiful and high-performing across all devices and platforms meaning users will have pages that load quickly (if not instantly) on mobile devices!
Studies show that around 40% of mobile users will click away from a website if it doesn’t load within at least 3 seconds leaving both the user and the website owner disappointed. With Google AMP you are much more likely to get people clicking on and engaging with your content.
How does Google AMP reduce loading speed?
There are a few ways that AMP helps to reduce loading speed, below are a few of the key areas.
JavaScript
Whilst powerful, JavaScript can delay page rendering and increase the amount of time a page takes to load. Accelerated mobile pages don’t include any author written Javascript. Instead any interactive pages are handles in custom AMP elements. Whilst the custom AMP elements may contain JavaScript they are carefully designed not to reduce the performance of the page.
Layout before External Resources
Additionally, AMP loads the main layout of the page before waiting for resources to download. This allows the page to render much faster than it would otherwise.
Only Inline CSS
As CSS blocks all rendering and page load, AMP HTML pages only allow inline styling. This helps to remove 1 or more HTTP requests from the rendering path. This can massively reduce the the amount of time a website takes to load.
Preconnect API
To keep HTTP requests as fast as possible, the AMP project uses the new reconnect API. This API allows pages to be rendered in the background before the users specifically clicks to say they would like to navigate to it.
Who is Google AMP for?
Google AMP is great for anyone who wants to offer a premium user experience on their website. Web page loading speed improves the user experience and makes visitors to your website far more likely to continue browsing. AMP pages load virtually instantly, which enables you to offer a fast experience across all devices and platforms that link to AMP pages like Google, LinkedIn and more.
Should you use Google AMP?
If you are looking to offer a better experience for your users, increase the number of people browsing your website and marketing content and also get a slight advantage in your Google rankings, then the answers is YES!
Google AMP can be a very simple and effective tool for getting more out of your blog and website content. To find out more about Google AMP and how it can be incorporated into your website, get in touch with our team or take a look around our blog for more information!
