A Night of SEO in Portland: Google AMPs are the Future of Mobile SEO

October 17, 2016

Man throwing cell phone in the trash after coffee shop menu took 5 seconds to loadLast week the web team at LegalRev strapped on our learning hats and headed to SEMpdx‘s monthly seminar to learn about AMPs from our industry friend Mike Arnesen. In this post, we’ll pass on our knowledge and explore everything you need to know about AMPs. Let’s dive in!

What is an AMP?

AMP stands for “accelerated mobile page.” It is essentially a stripped-down web page optimized for mobile to make loading content on portable devices way, way faster. This is accomplished by placing AMP-specific tags in the code of the page, which suppresses all extraneous content except for text and images. Google released this open-source coding software over a year ago, and we harbor little doubt that it will soon become a major factor in the way the search engine ranks results.

Are people really that impatient?

In a word, absolutely. Google reports that 53% of mobile users will leave a site if the page they’re trying to view doesn’t load in three seconds or less. Considering more than 50% of web visitors are accessing data from their phones, this really does matter.

Content Shares the Throne

While we’ve all heard ad nauseum “content is king,” the new phrase, from Malte Ubl (tech lead of the AMP Project), includes, “…and user experience is queen.” What this means is that all of us — Google and consumers alike — care way more about the substance of a website — and, perhaps more than ever before, the ease with which that content can be found — than fancy functionality and intricate design. Put simply: your site needs to contain useful information that is quick and easy to access. Anything less is likely hurting your page views and conversions.

The Impact is Already Major

According to Google and reported by Search Engine Watch, early adopters of AMPs have seen significantly positive results:

  • Washington Post — 23% increase in mobile search users who return within 7 days.
  • Slate — 44% increase in monthly unique visitors and a 73% increase in visits per monthly unique visitor.
  • Gizmodo — 80% of Gizmodo’s traffic from AMP pages is new traffic; 50% increase in impressions
  • Wired — 25% increase in click-through rates (CTR) from search results, with CTR on ads in AMP stories up by 63%.
  • Relay Media has converted over 2.5 million AMP pages for publishers like The Daily Dot, Hearst Television and The Miami Herald in the last 30 days alone.

Putting SEO to Work

It’s our job at LegalRev to provide the best web management service possible to each and every client. We’re constantly updating our SEO processes to reflect changes in algorithms and best practices. Our goal is to help you consistently rank higher than your competitors by crafting relevant and engaging content. If you need help making sense of your web presence, call us today at (800) 893-2590!

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