How Google AMP changed the SEO?

Hello SEOs! Doesn’t time fly?

It’s high time for planning and strategizing for your SEO success. I’ve been all eyes and ears on Google steps and new updates only for my readers. With the announcement of Google AMP step in October last year in the mobile revolution.

Every day a new update come in SEO field and continues at rocket speed. Within the list, AMP is one of the most important updates by google.

What is Google AMP?

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AMP is a protocol that force webmaster to create the web with fully accelerated for mobile pages. AMP stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages. It is an open-source framework developed by Google in collaboration with other Twitter, LinkedIn and WordPress.

With AMP Google wants to show the importance of a fast mobile website. Google’s research shows that you lost an average of 40 percent of your mobile visitors as a web page is not loaded within 3 seconds. By deploying AMP Google allows in an accessible way to further enhance the mobile experience.

Not just Google sets an optimal user experience for mobile visitors But AMP project is also described as a counter-reaction to the Instant Articles of Facebook, which allows items rapidly to load the Facebook app. In addition, Apple is working on the road with the Apple News app, which allows users still need to be made faster with the latest news.

The Technology behind Google AMP

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An AMP is a stripped-down version of regular HTML. Only required to displayed information to a mobile user. As a result, there is used up to 10 times fewer data compared to a regular web. Technically, an AMP comprises AMP HTML and JavaScript. Optionally AMP cache.

AMP HTML:

AMP HTML is a variant of regular HTML, a simplified version. An AMP HTML file can be identified by a lightning bolt in the code. While most tags match regular HTML tags, a number of replacement tags or modified for optimum performance.

AMP JavaScript:

AMP JavaScript is an optimized JavaScript library. Externals are asynchronously loaded therein. Therefore, no single element can block the view of other elements. It also ensures that slow CSS selectors are disabled. Finally, scripts from third parties are not loaded by default.

AMP Cache

AMP Cache is an optional element and allows AMPs are cached by Google. These are then delivered through a content delivery network (CDN). By making use of AMP cache, all JavaScript files and graphics loaded from the same source. In addition, the AMP Cache includes a validation system, which ensures that the page is fully functional and not dependent on external sources.

The Rollout of AMP

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The first deployment of AMPs took place in February 2016 and focused purely on English-language news publishers who were closely involved – and are – in the development of AMPs. Think include BuzzFeed, the Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.

From that moment, AMP been at the top of the search engine results pages (SERP) in the so-called Top Stories Carrousel displayed. Within this carousel is possible to swipe between other relevant news articles, which are also loaded quickly.

Further developments regarding Google AMP

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In addition to the start of the rollout in India more news out Google released last August. The deployment is ready for the next step and AMP will no longer alone in the Top Stories. Add to this the fact that AMP’s no longer only available for new sites and you will understand that AMPs gradually become accessible to more and more websites.

To make us accustomed to this development, you can see the Google AMP sneak preview (of course only on mobile) what Google has in store for us. Promising seems in any case if you look at the example of online marketplace eBay, which product pages are available through AMP. Again, make very clear what opportunities there are and how they can be exploited in the near future.

The effect of Google AMP on SEO

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Shortly after the first deployment, many people wondered what effect AMPs to the rankings in search results. Google stressed that AMPs are not drawn into the search results. it contributes to better user experience.

An official ranking factor is not AMP. However, AMPs contribute to improved loading speed, which in itself it is seen by Google as an important ranking factor. It is also known that if there are two versions of a page – a regular and an AMP – Google prefers AMP variant. Although AMPs so may not have a direct impact on SEO, they do indirectly certain advantages.

Implementation of AMPs

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The large, well-known CMS systems like WordPress and Drupal plugins to offer. Through these plugins, you can organize AMPs in a relatively simple manner. Do you work with a custom CMS, then there’s more work to implementation? The official website of the project offers this much support and examples. Keep in implementing at least consider the following issues.

• If there are two versions of a page, regular and AMP, it is important to make the search engine aware. You do this by “rel = amphtml”. The AMP version you refer to a canonical to the regular version.
• If a page exists only AMP version, imagine a self-referencing canonical in.
• An AMP only works as expected when the page is valid. Please check in advance the validation of your AMP.

Within this console, under the heading Search Formatting is in fact-finding it accelerated mobile pages’ report. If Google AMPs found on your site, they are shown here.

So, you can determine here whether all AMPs are actually indexed. In addition, AMP-specific errors are displayed in the report. These errors are displayed on the error type. Then you can see which pages that contain an error. In addition, it is also to be found which errors insight per page.

Google AMP and Analytics

Of course, you wonder how your AMP’s doing and you want to see these results in Google Analytics. AMP’s, it is not possible to use external JavaScript tracking code snippet (analytics.js), as this is an external source. This does not mean that you can not measure more statistics because this is a special AMP analytics tag created. Using this tag, it is possible to measure statistics.

It is recommended to create a separate property within Google Analytics which you AMP data is measured. The statistics that are measured are limited compared to regular web pages. It is expected that more and more statistics are available.

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