According to an article posted on Kissmetrics, 40% of mobile site visitors will abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load. But don’t worry Google has a solution. As of today, February 24th 2016, Google has fully launched Accelerated Mobile Pages (or AMPs). If you’re curious about what AMPs or Accelerated Mobile Pages are and how they work, the simple answer is that web developers now have access to a code that makes web pages load almost instantly on smartphones.
“It’s how reading on the mobile web should be—fast, responsive and fun”. – David Besbris, VP Engineering, Search at Google
gif courtesy of Google
As seen above, mobile search results will now have a new look on Google. Webpages created using the AMP framework will appear in the Top Stories section of the search results page. And the stories will load extremely fast. Thanks to quick scrolling, reading results has also been simplified. Just flip through the search results by swiping from one story to the next.
Based on open source framework from Google, Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) were created to cut page load times on mobile devices. By limiting JavaScript and CSS, pages become lightweight versions of their former selves, which helps display content like video, animations and graphics quicker than ever. AMP also uses “lazy loading” meaning the content is not loaded until a visitor scrolls it into view.
During a recent page speed test, AMPs loaded an average of 15% faster for the first view of a webpage and a 72% faster for repeat views.
Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages have some strict guidelines but it could be worth it if your site sees significant inbound traffic from Google, such as a news based site or a site that publishes multiple pieces of content daily. If your site runs on the WordPress platform you can get the free AMP plugin here. Still curious? Read more about the AMP project on the official website.
