Who doesn't suffer from it? Mobile pages that load way too slowly....
All the while, mobile pages are becoming increasingly important. More than 70% of the Dutch have a smartphone and some households even have several tablets. It won't be long before a website without a mobile page can even be called useless.
The only drawback of mobile pages is the loading time....
The average load time is currently 10 seconds. But visitors don't wait longer than three seconds. In other words: does your mobile website load longer than 3 seconds? Then you are losing valuable visitors as a result.
Fortunately, Google has found the solution:
The Web Standard AMP, Accelerated Mobile Pages.
Google's AMP technology allows a page to load up to 85% faster!
AMP keeps heavy and unnecessary content from loading. The most important content comes up first, so visitors don't have to wait. For example, images that are not of immediate importance are not loaded (immediately).
Google's AMP technology instantly recognizes whether a website is opened on a mobile device and then loads only the most important content for the visitor, along with the website's logo. Further components, which are not valuable to the visitor, are not loaded. This shortens loading time and increases ease of use.
An AMP website can be identified by the entry at the bottom of the page, which is where AMP is displayed (see the example below).
By installing a plugin on the website, all posts and messages are stripped of all unnecessary content and only the important content is loaded. Unfortunately, no per-page settings are available yet. The plugin only works on the entire website.
Want to start using AMP? Then make sure to place internal links to still show some navigation on the website. If you are using Yeast SEO, install the plugin: Glue for Yeast SEO & AMP, to make the SEO work properly through AMP.
NOTE: The AMP plugin does not automatically make the website rank higher in Google's search results, but Google does indicate that website load time is a criterion for ranking. Does your website have a fast load time? Then you do have an edge over your competitors in ranking.
If images already don't load instantly on the mobile website, what about my ads? Now you may be asking yourself...
Also, ads do indeed load later on an AMP. The content on the website simply takes precedence, because this is what the visitor comes for. In addition, the ads are resized and content adjusted so that the ads do not cause a delay.
AMP is suitable for websites where interaction is low. Currently, Google's AMP technology only works for connected media such as: news websites NRC and Nu.nl and platforms like Google, Twitter and LinkedIn.
With lots of interaction and images, AMP is less suitable, as they load later.
Want to learn more about AMP check out here a demo about Google's AMP technology. Ready to make your website suitable for mobile devices? Read the AMP manual from Google.
Of course, you can also always contact with our Google specialists
