The average person’s attention span lasts only 8 seconds, which is why you don’t have time for a website that loads even slightly on the slow side. Fortunately, projects like AMP WordPress can help ensure your website runs faster than ever.
Read on the learn more about AMP WordPress and if it’s right for your site.
Before digging into how to set up AMP it’s important to know what it really is and what it was designed for. AMP originally took center stage as an open-source project that was created by Google. The purpose of this project was to make sites made by normal people lightning fast to upload.
Now, this isn’t a recent development. In fact, AMP was first announced back in the fall of 2015. However, when it was announced WordPress was one of the first publishers to see it’s potential and sign on. They were quickly followed by major names like Pinterest, LinkedIn and even Twitter,
So, is AMP really that fast? The short answer would be yes, however, it all depends on what’s going on with your site. The more lightweight your WordPress signs (meaning not a ton of video, flashy graphics or links) the easier it is for AMP to enhance the speed of your website.
This doesn’t mean that there aren’t some restrictions while using AMP, features like forms that don’t fall within the box have still not become supported by the software. The amount of code and its format (HTML, JavaScript or CSS) will also help to determine how fast the final loading page is.
If you’re looking to really get the most out of AMP, it’s important to understand that what you’re actually doing is simply creating a second version of your post and linking them (using rel=amphtml) within the header.
By simply injecting this small section of code, Google can pick up on it and read the following code faster. Now it’s important to note that just because you’re handing over this code to Google, you still own all rights to your content, videos and anything else you put on your sites including ads and analytics.
Faster sites, great, but what does that mean for site owners? Where first it’s important to know that using AMP on your site will create a stronger user experience, especially after considering the short attention span currently held by most people today.
It’s also important to know that this site is ideal for blog or news websites, as these types of forums typically don’t use video and are more text heavy. If you are a WordPress user the good thing is you won’t have to learn how to Install AMP by hand.
While AMP can offer a slight benefit to almost any type of website, it really helps if you fall into the following category:
If you fall into one or more of these categories, than it’s best to install AMP sooner rather than later.
AMP also plays a vital role in SEO. Since AMP enhances overall users experience, it’s no surprise the Google would reward those who use it. Though Trends analyst Gary Illyes announced that AMP “Is not a ranking signal” there are still some important factors to consider.
The first factor is that Google naturally rewards sites that load faster with a higher ranking. The second is that Google both rewards and penalizes users based on their mobile compatibility which is also enhanced via AMP. Read on to learn more about how using AMP can enhance your mobile web presence.
Mobile internet traffic takes up 51.2% of the total global online traffic. This is why it’s never been so necessary for sites to be compatible with mobile devices. Fortunately, through the use of AMP, the mobile user experience on your website can be greatly enhanced.
By simply enabling AMP onto your mobile site, you make it easier for your full page to load up on mobile devices. This is especially important considering the fact that many mobile browsers will time out if the page does not load in the determined period of time.
Once you’ve found the right open source app, you’ll be able to creat a more efficient and moble friendly experience.
For some, the Installation for AMP can be rather complex, especially if you’re working with a platform that has not been integrated into it. Fortunately for those with WordPress, the installation process is a simple one.
1. Start by finding the official AMP WordPress Plugin.
2. Select the most recent version to download.
3. Unzip the file and upload to your plugins
4. Once successfully uploaded, visit your listing of plugins and hit “enable”
5. You should be able to see on the right-hand side that the program has successfully
Now that you’ve installed AMP for WordPress it’s important to take some smart additional steps to ensure that everything continues to run smoothly and you receive the full benefit of the program.
Since the program comes with default styling, you can always visit sites like GitHub to learn how to implement styling hooks and customize the feel.
If you’re looking to have AMP boost your SEO ranking, then we suggest teaming it up with the Team Yoast ranking which also throws optimized metadata into the mix. Combined you should definitely see a difference.
Finding the Right Host for Your Site
With software like AMP WordPress, it’s important to see how choosing the right host from the get-go can save you plenty of time and money in the long run.
Finding hosting and open source apps that cover every angle is really your best bet when it comes to creating a site that’s user-friendly and easy to navigate.
