Google launched accelerated mobile pages (AMP) as a way to improve the experience that mobile web users get. AMP is an open source initiative that publishers can utilise to increase the load speeds of mobile pages. The advantage that AMP has over other optimisation strategies is that publishers don’t have to compromise on ad revues. With Amp, users get an improved mobile web experience without altered core functionalities.
What is it
Understanding the effect that AMP has on marketing requires some knowledge of how it works. Accelerated mobile pages use a subset of the HTML markup language – the AMP HTML. With this particular language, web pages get more restrictions in comparison to HTML, and there are also custom tags present. The reinvented version of HTML gets rid of features like JavaScript and third party scripts that slow down the loading of web pages. Any publisher that understands the working of HTML can easily adapt web pages to the AMP HTML language.
How it Works
To get AMP right, publishers will have to keep two versions of any page. One of those is the original, and the other one is the AMP version. With AMP pages, users will not have features usually available with conventional implementations like on-page comments. For a publisher to be able to deal with the restrictions that come with the AMP version, they will need to create templates. An example is using an amp-font extension because custom fonts are intensive when loading.
Extended Components
Various aspects of mobile web pages will need special extensions to work in AMP. Locally hosted videos will need amp-video to embed on pages. Images will need amp-img with width and height restrictions. For animated GIFs, a publisher will have to include the amp-anim extension. Image lightboxes will require amp-image-lightbox and slideshows need amp-carousel. There are also extended components to embed social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Visibility
Publishers will need to modify their original pages to AMP versions for Google and other AMP-supported technologies to notice. There is a canonical tag that makes it possible to make these modifications. Shema.org metadata is another requirement that some technologies will need to specify the type of content on a particular page.
AMP and Advertising
With the stripping down of a lot of the aspects of mobile web pages, advertisers will have to restrategise their marketing. Most of the features that are no longer there are the ones that support current marketing plans. There are speculations as to how the AMP version of mobile web will affect online marketing. One impact that AMP will have is on search rankings. A site that offers users better usability will always rank better than others. Google boasts that AMP will increase loading speeds considerably. Faster loading pages tend to attract more users, and that is one factor that search engines will look on favorably. Currently, Google indicates the sites that use AMP when showing search results. Online users hate it when they have to wait more than a few seconds for a site to load. The faster the loading speeds, the more traffic a site will get. It means that AMP will increase the page views that a certain site gets. More page views translate to more ad views, and that is the objective of any online marketing campaign. When addressing AMP and advertisement, Google said that there will be more control over the placement of ads. Advertiser will also be able to use ad servers of their choice to monitor ad traffic, and they will also be able to measure ‘viewability’.
Analytics
For AMP analytics, there are two very crucial features for advertisers. The amp-pixel is a tag that utilises GET request to facilitate counting of page views. It also allows for different variables. The second one is the advanced amp-analytics extended component, which supports greater configuration levels in comparison to the amp-pixel.
Conclusion
By announcing accelerated mobile pages, Google hopes to provide a better mobile user experience in an uncomplicated manner. It is essential for online marketers to understand the core principles of advertising on AMP if they are to enjoy its benefits.
