Take a look at Google’s home page. What catches your eye? Not much. Google has proven that (on the internet at least) simplicity is king. Recently we have seen a trend towards simplicity in page layout, imagery, and even written content. Finally, web developers are getting on board.
The Google Developers team has lead the charge in developing AMP HTML, which they describe as “HTML with some restrictions for reliable performance and some extensions for building rich content beyond basic HTML.” (For more on that, click
here.) This new type of web design rolled out in 2016, but now it’s really taking root and becoming a big player in 2017.
What is AMP?
AMP stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages and you may have used it without even realizing it. If you’ve ever looked up a hot-button news item and been met with a carousel of different news agencies to choose from, you were using AMP. You can know for sure if you spot the AMP logo—a small circle with a lightning bolt through it. Google has boosted these sites in their mobile search results because these sites have been optimized for mobile use and are supposed to load “instantly.” At the very least, the structural changes from the old system use eight times less data, which does greatly reduce load times.
Boosting your Business
Aside from the decreased load times, the greatest part of AMP has got to be its accessibility. Google’s AMP project has laid out six steps to making your web page accessible, but aside from the actual change in structure between the old HTML and AMP HTML, there is the question of how AMP will change content creation and SEO.
While I explained Google’s carousel as a “boost” to that site, that explanation was not entirely accurate. As of now, AMP is not a ranking factor in organic search results which means that Google is bringing up pages, just because they use the new technology, however, if your page does end up in the carousel with a thumbnail, you’re going to see more clicks and views. This means that your competition is going to be a little bit steeper.
This could be a good thing or a bad thing. We won’t be sure until Google decides how to prioritize these types of pages. What it means right now is that you can either try for a top-result in the traditional sense, or you can shoot for making the carousel. Either way, SEO is essential.
For help with SEO using AMP to grow your business, please reach out to us. We are trained and ready to give your website that boost it needs.