AMP stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages, a framework designed to reduce the loading time of web pages on mobile devices.
It is a technology developed by Google as an open source project starting in 2015. Its main goal is to improve the user experience, meaning how satisfied users are with a product.
In this case, it refers to how quickly a website loads and can be browsed on mobile devices such as smartphones, laptops, tablets and so on.
How does an AMP page work?
Let’s get into the details. AMP pages are built with HTML, CSS and JavaScript, but they are special because they are subject to restrictions: rules and tags designed to strip out non-essential components in order to reduce their overall weight.
The result is “minimal” pages, more focused on content than on graphics and design. In other words, pages without navigation menus, widgets, buttons, icons and images that aren’t strictly needed.
What are the benefits?
Estimates suggest that AMP pages are four times faster than traditional pages and use ten times less data to achieve that performance. This is significant because it also means longer battery life.
In addition, AMP pages:
- are fully optimized for search engines
- are recognized by major social networks such as Twitter and LinkedIn, which open them instantly
- boost your visibility on Google and increase traffic to your site
- can include contact forms
- improve server performance by reducing the number of incoming requests
The AMP standard is supported by all major browsers and used by around 25 million websites worldwide.
How to create AMP pages
The easiest way to build AMP pages is with the WordPress CMS. A recommended plugin is AMP for WordPress – Accelerated Mobile Pages, an advanced extension of the official plugin developed by Automattic.
It installs in a few minutes and lets you configure several useful options, such as enabling AdSense and Google Analytics to track your data.
Finally, you can preview any page by simply adding /amp/ to the end of the URL.