The influence of smartphones on the world of web design has been immeasurable. Modern sites must be built to look good and work well on touchscreen devices, or else face being shunned by visitors before they can ever be converted into paying customers.
Retailers are especially aware of this fact, with a recent report suggesting that mobile optimisation will again take priority in 2020 after dominating in 2015.
Google’s instrumental role in encouraging mobile optimisation has expanded again recently, with the introduction of accelerated mobile pages (AMP) giving businesses and webmasters something else to consider when redesigning sites.
But what does AMP involve and should this be something that you dedicate your resources to in the coming months?
AMP Advantages
The idea behind AMP is to get rid of all the superfluous parts of a page’s design and stick to the basics, ensuring the key elements of text and embedded images remain while stripping out unwieldy elements.
The upshot of this is that sites can load up to ten times quicker on mobile devices than would otherwise be the case. And with AMP-specific HTML tags developed as part of Google’s project, it is possible to apply these benefits to everything from images and videos to ads and beyond.
Javascript functionality is also included, allowing resources to load in the background while delivering the main components of a page, namely the text and images, almost instantly. This minimises the burden which is placed on the network connection and device hardware.
Caching content in geographically advantageous locations so that it can be delivered to users in specific regions quickly is also part of the AMP project, meaning page requests made in key markets need not be beset by sluggish load speeds.
Companies like https://www.rycomarketing.co.uk/digital-marketing-belfast/seo-belfast/ which offer SEO Belfast services and web design and other parts of the Country and other parts of the country can assist businesses looking to learn more about the benefits of the AMP project.
Search Considerations
Accelerated mobile pages not only make it easier for smartphone users to access a site quickly, but could also have ranking benefits for businesses wanting to make an organic SEO impact.
AMP-enhanced pages appearing above the fold on Google’s results pages make them more prominent, even more than some promoted listings, and as long as this trend persists it may be wise to take advantage of it.