Are most of your website traffic comes from mobile devices?

Do you want to get more visitors from search engines?

If the above issues are currently in your mind, then AMP could be the solution for you.

AMP is a scaled-down version of standard webpages. Therefore it loads very fast. It improves certain ranking factors such as page loading speed, CTR, engagement, etc. As a result, your ranking position on the SERP increases automatically.

But AMP is not a ranking factor on its own. It helps to improve some ranking factors indirectly, thus improve the overall ranking for mobile searches.

So, let’s see what the AMP is exactly and why it is so important for SEO.

What is Google AMP?

AMP stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages; it is an open-source platform designed to make web browsing on mobile almost instantly. It is a stripped-down version of regular web pages; if a webpage has its AMP version, the URL of this version is placed on the standard web pages through an HTML tag. When a mobile user lands on the page, it redirects to the AMP version.

AMP pages are 8 times faster than standard webpages, according to Searchenginewatch. As mobile data is unstable, the idea was to provide lighting fast mobile browsing experience for mobile devices.

Importance of AMP for SEO

1.Faster page loading is the number one benefit of AMP

When it comes to AMP, the biggest difference is page speed. One of the main aims of AMP is to load web pages as fast as possible.

And webpage loading speed is a direct ranking factor. According to Google, 53% of users leave a webpage after waiting three seconds. This is more than half of the users who come from search engine results. That’s why Google takes this matter on its own hand to solve this problem. Google wants to make sure that users can read the information as soon as possible after landing from the search engine results.

Another research conducted by Neil Patel shows that the sixth result is average 20% slower than the first five results. That’s why Google promotes AMP. Google wants to make the results pages as fast as possible.

If you compare the AMP version with the non-AMP webpage, the AMP version is 2.5 times faster than the non-AMP version. So, if you use AMP for your webpages, its loading speed will increase without any doubt; therefore, ranking on the SERP will increase also.

2. Improve user experience

User experience is the most crucial search engine ranking factor. It doesn’t matter how many backlinks you built; everything will go in vain if your website user experience is dull. Bad user experience means less dwell time and a higher bounce rate.

Having said that, the bad user experience as a whole sends a negative signal to Google.

Here AMP comes into the game. AMP improves the user experience a lot by reducing webpage loading speed.

3. Acquire rank on positions that are specially reserved for AMP

Is it true that Google reserves positions for AMP pages? Yes, it’s 100% true. There are positions where Google only allows AMP pages. If you have non-AMP pages, then your chance is very slim to acquire those positions. One of those positions is news stories. In the news stories, more than 80% of the results are AMP pages. First, check you’re on those AMP categories or not, if you publish news stories, you should consider using AMP to improve your ranking on the news stories section.

4. Reduce bounce rate

Bounce rate has an indirect effect on SEO. Do you know what the main reason for the higher bounce rate is? It is the lower loading speed.

So, how can AMP help here?

AMP implementation will increase your webpage loading speed by a few times more than your current non-AMP version. Therefore, the bounce rate will decrease automatically.

On the other hand, when a user lands from the search result on the webpage, they might leave the page for other technical issues. By implementing AMP, you can solve those problems; thus, your bounce rate will improve dramatically.

5. Increase CTR

How can a user differentiate between AMP and non-AMP pages? In the search result, AMP pages are marked by an AMP icon.

So, when someone sees the AMP icon, he/she might be interested in clicking the AMP one. AMP webpage will provide a faster and smooth user experience. Therefore, the CTR will increase naturally.

CTR rate is an important ranking signal. If your CTR rate is higher, that means your content is better than others, and your ranking on the Google SERP will improve a lot. In other words, improving CTR means ranking improvement.

6. Mobile SEO

Mobile searches have been increasing day by day. Now mobile searches are more than desktop searches. More than half of the searches are coming from mobile. Even Google introduced the mobile-first index a long time ago. The mobile-first index indicates Google’s priority of indexing the mobile version over standard pages. So, these days conventional SEO tactics are not enough. You must optimize your website for mobile devices.

You can achieve mobile-friendliness using a mobile responsive theme/design, but AMP is a dedicated Google-backed platform for making mobile responsive web pages. That’s why Google reserve some categories where you can’t rank without AMP pages. Even AMP webpages get extra attention from Google as they are marked by the AMP icon.

So, it’s better to use AMP to achieve mobile-friendliness. It will improve your mobile SEO a lot.

7. Boost server performance

Do you have a lot of mobile visitors? Then AMP can help you out on removing the traffic burden on the server. If you use AMP, it will reduce the load on your website server significantly. Thus, your website server performance will improve a lot. Ultimately your website speed will increase. And we already know that a faster website tends to rank higher on Google search results.

8. Improves overall SEO ranking

What is the main search engine ranking factors? There are a lot, but few things that have a huge effect on rankings are website loading speed, mobile-friendliness, user experience, bounce rate, site dwell time, etc.

By implementing AMP, you can improve different ranking factors at a time. If you can improve several ranking factors at once, therefore your overall SEO ranking will improve without any doubt.

Final words

It is a proven fact that AMP provides huge benefits for mobile users. AMP delivers a smoother browsing experience for the mobile user. It also improves website overall performance and ranking. If most visitors to websites come from mobile devices, then AMP is a must-have for them regardless of its SEO benefits.

Don’t you yet implement AMP for your website? If not, it’s time to do it now. For implementing AMP, you need some technical skills. If you’re not capable of doing it, don’t worry. Devsynech’inc  are here ready to help you. If you want to implement AMP for your website, feel free to knock us, as our expert team is always ready to help you in this regard.