What are AMP pages?

AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) is an open-source HTML framework developed by Google in collaboration with Twitter. It's a project designed to make web pages load faster for mobile users. By creating AMP versions of your web pages, you can potentially improve your site's performance and visibility.

Here's a quick-fire guide to AMP pages:

1. Understanding the Purpose of AMP:

AMP isn't for every website, but it's especially useful for publishers and e-commerce sites. It provides a streamlined version of your website to mobile users, loading faster and delivering key content more effectively.

2. AMP Components:

AMP consists of three core components:

• AMP HTML: This is a subset of HTML with some custom AMP properties. Some HTML tags are replaced with AMP-specific tags.

• AMP JS: This is a JavaScript framework for mobile pages. It manages resource handling and asynchronous loading.

• AMP Cache: This serves cached AMP HTML pages. Google's AMP cache is commonly used, and it improves page performance by pre-loading key resources.

3. Converting Pages to AMP:

To create an AMP version of a page, you need to use the specific AMP HTML format, which includes using a limited set of pre-defined technical functionality. JavaScript is not allowed, which helps keep the pages lightweight and fast.

4. Common AMP HTML Components:

Several AMP-specific HTML tags replace traditional ones. For example, the  tag is used instead of  for images. Other examples include , , and more.

5. Validate Your AMP Pages:

Google provides an AMP HTML Validation tool. You can use this tool to make sure your AMP pages meet the requirements and will be cached correctly.

6. Keep Track of Your AMP Pages:

Google Search Console can track the performance of your AMP pages, helping you spot issues and areas for improvement. This tool can provide you with useful metrics on how your AMP pages are performing.

7. Understand the Limitations:

While AMP can improve your mobile site's performance and potentially your SEO, it's not without its limitations. For instance, you have limited control over the look and feel of your site, you can't use third-party JavaScript, and implementing AMP can add complexity to your site's maintenance.

8. Stay Updated:

AMP is an evolving project with frequent updates. Make sure to keep up with these updates to ensure you're taking advantage of new features and improvements.

9. Submit Your AMP Pages to Search Engines:

Once your AMP pages are ready and validated, you can submit them to Google and other search engines. This can be done using an XML sitemap.

10. Monitor AMP Analytics:

Use AMP analytics to measure user interaction with your AMP content. With it, you can understand which content is engaging your audience and where there's room for improvement.

Remember, while AMP can offer some benefits in terms of speed and SEO, it's important to carefully consider whether it's right for your specific site and needs, given its limitations. AMP is one of many tools you can use to improve mobile performance, so consider it as part of your broader strategy rather than as a standalone solution.