5 Reasons Your Website Should Be AMP Compliant

It’s official — we’re living in a mobile world. In fact, more people now view all things online from a mobile device than from a traditional desktop PC. And more than 90 percent of mobile users go to their device to get information on the brands they prefer and more than half of those users also look for local business info while on-the-go. All of this mobile talk brings us to Google’s open-source project known as Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP). Launched in 2015, AMP is designed to literally get your website up to the speed that mobile users prefer. And here are five reasons why your site should be AMP compliant if you want to stay competitive.

1. Mobile Speed Impacts Conversions

You can unleash all of the SEO techniques you want, but it’s not going to do you any good if visitors to your site have to wait. And many mobile visitors will abandon a website if they have to wait longer than three seconds for a page to load. And there are plenty of competitors out there going after the same consumers, so mobile searchers definitely have plenty of choices. Plus, for every delayed second, conversion rates can drop by as much seven percent.

2. Slow Websites Could Affect the User Experience

Google considers the overall user experience (UX) when determining how a website ranks. Visitor to a website who have trouble quickly getting from one page to another, especially the checkout page on an e-commerce site, are more likely to have a poor user experience. If UX is perceived as poor, users are less likely to:

• Visit a website again*
• Recommend a brand to others
• Leave positive feedback if they do complete a purchase

*One survey found that nearly 80 percent of visitors to a site with slow page load times were less likely to return.

3. AMP Could Help with SEO

In early 2017, Google officially shifted to a mobile-first approach to viewing websites for ranking purposes. It’s also no secret that Google is taking steps to make the content it presents as appealing to mobile visitors as possible. This is part of the reason why local intent is assumed with all searches (most mobile users search for local businesses). Google has already announced that websites that embrace AMP implementations may see a boost in organic rankings at some point. And slow site speed can definitely have an impact on factors Google already considers when ranking websites, such as bounce rates (number of visitors quickly leaving or abandoning sites they visit without taking an action).

4. Accelerated Ad Load Times Mean More ROI

Google has extended its AMP open-source project to include accelerated ad displays on mobile devices. AMP HTML ads load nearly instantly, which means you’ll likely see more return on your investment when ads within content are able to be viewed quickly. Faster page load times can also help you monetize your website if you have third-party ads on it. Rapidly loading AMP ads may also discourage searchers from blocking ads or abandoning sites altogether when ads slow down the time it takes to view their desired content.

5. Less Redundant AMP Analytics

AMP Analytics provide detailed data about your mobile activity and goes a step further by eliminating redundant info from multiple analytic tools. Conflicting data from multiple trackers can have an impact on your site’s performance. AMP Analytics uses one set of tags to report to multiple analytics tools, which ultimately leads to a better user experience. Finally, consider the fact that keeping your page load times to under five seconds by embracing Google’s AMP could:

• Double your ad revenue
• Improve your ad viewability by 25 percent
• Reduce your bounce rates by one-third
• Boost the amount of time users spend on your website

The average consumer turns to their mobile device for info more than 100 times throughout a typical day and most users tend to gravitate towards fast-loading content. Also keep in mind that the average online attention span is now just five seconds. It’s even less than that on mobile devices because there are so many things to tap, scroll, and take attention away from slow-loading pages. By taking advantage of Google’s Amplified Mobile Pages technology, you’ll be able to quickly deliver the content online searchers expect today and, more importantly, you’ll make it easier to turn visits to your site into conversions and encourage repeat visits.

Contact our expert team of designers today to get up to speed and turn your website into a blazing fast experience for your customers.