The internet has transformed the way we live, work, and connect. But, at the same time, it has caused our attention spans to be shorter than ever. It may even be the case that you start a video, see that it lasts longer than a minute, and move along to the next. And it may be the case that if a website loads for a second too long while you’re on your phone, you decide to take your search elsewhere. No matter the case, in today’s digital age, speed matters.
As a website owner, you may be considering using Accelerated Mobile Pages, also known as AMP, to improve the speed of your site. AMP is Google’s open-source initiative that aims to enhance the mobile browsing experience. Essentially, it simplifies and streamlines the code of your web pages. But what kind of an impact does this really make? Here is everything that you need to know about improving the speed of your website with AMP.
Factors Contributing to Page Speed
Web pages are so complex. They don’t just have text, but also images, videos, and other types of media. Your site might even have interactive elements like a map or contact forms. Because you have a multitude of elements on a given web page, it can impact how fast that page loads. With that in mind, here are three things that could affect how long that loading time is:
Code Optimization
When you take the time to optimize your website’s code, you ensure efficient utilization of your system resources. One example of this is browser caching, which stores and retains certain files from your website on a user’s local device. This might include media assets like images. When your assets are cached, page speed is reduced because the browser is retrieving them from storage rather than making a new server request. Asynchronous loading is another great idea. How it loads scripts allows web pages to render and become interactive more quickly.
File Sizes
Larger file sizes require more time to download. This is true regardless of how fast your network connection is. For mobile devices that have more limited processing power and memory than computers do, it is especially true. So, if your website contains several high-resolution images, you are at risk of dragging the rest of your content down. To optimize your image files, it is recommended to compress them. Doing this reduces the file size without significant loss in quality. If you have a WordPress website, there are plenty of plugins to choose from that compress photos, including the very popular option of Smush.
Web Hosting
It is always important for websites to have a good host. After all, having a bad web host could spell a world of trouble for the experience of both your users and your team. When you don’t have a reliable host, the reliability of your website is simultaneously impacted. You could wind up having an excess amount of downtime, or other sites using server resources could cause slower response times. Make sure that you have a web host who offers the bandwidth you need to succeed online. Having a robust network infrastructure is crucial in the event you have an abundance of traffic.
For an optimal website experience, it is recommended to keep your page loading time at two seconds or less. With each additional second of load time, your conversion rate drops by 2.11%.
Photo by Anna Shvets on Pexels
Components of Accelerated Mobile Pages
Users are presented with a stripped-down version of web content with AMP. What this means is that only the most essential content and images of a website are shown. The rest of the content and additional media (including your videos, animations, and advertisements) is stored within a cached version on Google’s servers. The goal is to deliver content faster on mobile devices. AMP achieves this through its core components:
AMP HTML
Most of the tags in AMP HTML are regular HTML tags. That said, they do have restrictions, for the sake of gaining you a more reliable website performance. Some of the tags are replaced with AMP-specific tags, which enable specific functionality. These include <amp-im> for optimized image loading, for example.
AMP JS
Third-party JavaScript is not permitted with AMP. Instead, AMP provides you with a JavaScript library. You may experience lazy loading when utilizing the library’s resources. This is an optimization technique that identifies resources as non-blocking (or non-essential) and only loads them when necessary. Given the strict guidelines that AMP JavaScript follows, it may modify or remove certain elements to maintain the user experience.
AMP Cache
Web pages are delivered efficiently with AMP CDN. It retrieves the HTML, JavaScript, and other resources and stores them on servers. It allows for the distribution of web pages and other content across the internet. Every time the AMP CDN caches a page, it ensures that it is in compliance with AMP specifications by performing validation checks. To do this, it must regularly monitor the original pages.
Benefits of Accelerated Mobile Pages
AMP can be a great asset to your mobile search engine optimization (SEO). SEO consists of a set of practices that are designed to improve the positioning of your web pages in organic search results. Google ultimately expects your website to meet certain criteria. Because page speed is a major factor in how users and search engines perceive your site, AMP’s optimized performance could help you get noticed. When it does that, you will experience:
- Optimal performance with faster loading
- Improved user experience for small-screen users
- Reduced bounce rate
- Increased search engine rankings
- Greater visibility and reach
Disadvantages of Accelerated Mobile Pages
Although AMP has certainly gained popularity for its ability to improve mobile browsing, it does have some drawbacks. This is because of its restrictive nature. After all, your users are going to be missing out on some of the content that you might find essential that AMP doesn’t. Luckily, there are other ways to increase site speed outside of AMP. But when it comes to the cons of this method, three of them are:
- Restrictions on web design
- Additional development effort
- Limited functionality of interactive components
- Reduced ad options and revenue
- Less content control
Ready to make your website mobile-friendly, whether or not it’s with the help of Accelerated Mobile Pages? The team at WEBii is here to help! With over 27 years in the industry, we are committed to designing your site to be usable on any device. To learn more about the SEO-friendly services that we can offer you, all you have to do is send us a message.