Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) All that You Need to Know and 6+ AMP Plugins

In this post, you’ll get to know all about Accelerated Mobile Pages or AMP, what it is, the benefits of using it, and how you can use it as part of your mobile content strategy.

When the major search engine Google launched its Mobile-friendliness update and made it one of the mobile search engine ranking factors, website owners started looking forward to a faster mobile experience.

It is good to optimize your web pages for mobile users but if the mobile browser pages are not loading quickly, it becomes a problem and can discourage users from enjoying your content.

So, what can be done?

The solution is Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP).

What is Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)?

The AMP plugin was created out of a collaboration between Google and Twitter. In simple terms, AMP is an open-source initiative project created to optimize faster mobile pages.

It’s just like taking a page that is already mobile-friendly and making it load faster, by stripping it down to basics.

Accelerated Mobile Pages is more proof of Google’s focus on users.

Whenever Google brings out a new update like this, people may think they are only concerned with making more money.

Yes, that’s true because the happier its users are, the more they revisit Google and that means more advertisers but Google is more passionate about mobile search-engine users, and as a publisher, you should too.

AMP is an open-source initiative project aimed at helping publishers enhance the speed and readability of their mobile content pages.

Faster mobile pages mean more readable content and a better user experience.

 

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So, how does the AMP plugin works?

The Accelerated Mobile Pages plugin makes your mobile page faster, by cutting back on the HTML code tag manager aspect and rendering only the ones that are fit for mobile users.

AMP helps your pages using optimized HTML code. The pages are expected to load more quickly because specific HTML code tag manager aspects that would otherwise slow down the page are eliminated.

If you include JavaScript in your mobile pages, the script won’t be rendered for your Accelerated Mobile Pages.

Other things to note:

• With Accelerated Mobile Pages, you only have to use a streamlined version of CSS
• You are only permitted to use the JavaScript library that AMP provides since you are not in control, you may experience lazy loading and this might be the only downside to Accelerated Mobile Pages.
• For Accelerated Mobile Pages sites to work properly, they must be properly validated
• For a better experience, custom fonts have to be specially loaded
• No forms are allowed on AMP plugin pages
• If you want to have videos on your page, use AMP-approved extensions
• To avoid quirky-looking photos, ensure to declare height and width

So, when you join the AMP plugin and use it to enhance your mobile pages, speed and readability should matter more to you rather than shareability.

Your social share buttons may not even show properly since almost all of them are developed using JavaScript.

 

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Benefits of AMP

Here are the top five benefits of Acceleration Mobile pages;

1. AMP makes web pages load faster

Users love fast-loading web pages. If you have good content and your pages are inaccessible, users won’t read them.  

Studies show that a second delay in mobile browser load time cab lower conversion rate by 3.5%, reduce page views by 9.40%, and increase bounce rate by up to 8.30%.

That’s the main reason why you must make your mobile browser pages very fast and AMP helps you to achieve that.

The way people consume content today has changed dramatically and the rate at which content is being published is extraordinary.

So if your mobile pages are very slow, you won’t convert targeted mobile browser users into customers.

2. AMP increases mobile browser visibility for content marketers

Google has started showing Accelerated Mobile Pages results in organic listings. You can identify these results by the Accelerated Mobile Pages symbols, in green.

These green AMP symbols will surely lead to an improved CTR because these mobile search engine results are different from others.

Mobile search engine users will then start to look specifically for AMP plugin pages since these pages load up faster than the typical mobile pages.

3. AMP improve mobile search rankings

There is a strong relationship between website speed and conversion rate. If your users are happy with your fast-loading site, they are more likely to subscribe to a list or buy a product.  

4. Flexible ad support

Majority of site owners started their site or blog with the aim to make money and possibly replace their day jobs.

If you look at desktop and mobile browser versions of a website’s page, it is easy to conclude if there’re too many distractions.

These distractions are header image, sidebar, navigational menu, social share buttons, popups, forms, and other unnecessary elements that can lower your conversion rate.

But with AMP, you can eliminate these distractions on your mobile browser pages.

That is because not all HTML code tags are executed, you cannot use a streamlined version of CSS, and JavaScript. It’s only 6 times lighter in code – meaning you can make more money easily from your ads.  

When displaying ads from a third party on your AMP, ensure that you deliver ads that load quickly as well as grab the user’s attention and deliver immense value.

The content marketing approach as you already know is the easiest way to increase your influence, help users get answers to their questions, and enhance ROI on ad spend.

If you are ready to monetize your AMP-optimized pages, below are some of the well-known ad networks that are currently using the AMP-ads functionality.

• AdReactor
• Amazon A9
• Flite
• Google Doubleclick
• AOL Adtech
• Google AdSense
• Plista
• Taboola
• Adform
• Smart AdServer
• DotAndAds
• Yieldmo

 

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5. AMP helps you track users easily

Sending traffic to your mobile browser pages it’s not enough, you also have to know how they arrive at your website.

Tracking helps you to determine where people came from, which pages they viewed, and much more.

Tracking users and website performance are really easy on AMP because there are analytical tools in place, where you can study your AMP versions in greater detail.

User behavior can only be influenced when you track it and with AMP, web owners can use such tag manager analytics to choose from two tags.

These tags help to automatically track important data like clicks/conversions, video and link tracking, visitor counts, news, returning visitors, and many more.

WordPress, Linked In, Chartbeat, Twitter, Adobe Analytics, Parse.ly, and Pinterest are also already supporting AMP.  

AMP WordPress Plugins

Using AMP technology is easy especially you are using WordPress. Below are 6 of the best AMP WordPress plugins.

Note: Before you try any of these AMP WordPress plugins, make sure you:

• Create a backup version of your site
• Make sure it works in your hosting environment
• Ensure it matches your goals for the website
• Have a good developer at hand to make sure it can be configured properly
• Ensure it works with your theme.

1. AMP – The official AMP plugin for WordPress

If you are not sure which plugin to choose from in this list, you almost can’t go wrong with this one as it is designed by the official AMP project.  .

Here are some things this plugin can do:

• Support for core themes – the plugin is compatible with the “core” themes like Twenty-Twenty.
• Compatible tool – at times, it is impossible to automate AMP mark-up insertion. When that happens, the plugin will show which components are causing problems so you can fix them manually.
• CSS tree-shaking – This tool will remove unused cascading style sheets (CSS) so you can stay under the AMP-mandated 50k limit.
• AMP Stories – The plugin helps you to create, edit, and publish AMP Stories.

You can as well configure the tool to follow one of the three template modes:

• Standard – Use the AMP plugin for your site, no need to separate AMP and non-AMP content.
• Reader – Shows pages with simplified designs that meet AMP standards. Every page has a canonical URL as well as an AMP URL.  
• Transitional – Delivers AMP and non-AMP experiences with similar looks and feel.

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2. AMP for WP  

Another higher-rated AMP plugin for WordPress. AMP for WP offers a rich feature set that includes:

• AdSense Support
• Email opt-in support
• Contact Form 7 support
• CTA support

In other words, if you want to transform your site into something resembling a mobile app and use it for digital marketing, this plugin might be your best bet.

This tool also plays nicely with some of the more popular WordPress SEO plugins, including Yoast SEO, All in One SEO, SEOPress, Rank Math, and The SEO Framework.

Also, developers of the plugin offer premium support if you would need help getting things up and running.

3. Schema & Structured Data for WP & AMP  

If you would like to add a markup to your pages so that they appear as rich snippets in search results then consider the Schema & Structures Data for WP & AMP plugin.

This tool also supports 33 different schema types, including blog posts, news articles, recipes, local business details, products, and videos.

This tool even supports conditional display fields, so you get to decide which pages, posts, or other content gets marked up.

You can as well import markup data from other schema plugins including SEO Pressor and WP SEO Schema.

The Premium version of this tool helps you to add reviews and offers priority support.

4. Glue for Yoast SEO & AMP  

If you are using Yoast SEO plugin and the official AMP plugin for WordPress then you are also going to use the Glue for Yoast SEO & AMP plugin too because it is the “glue” that helps the two plugins to work together.

This tool gives you an easy way to customize your AMP content. Also, the “glue” adds rudimental styling so you can retain at least a little bit of the website’s look and feel for AMP visitors.

 

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5. PWA for WP & AMP

If you would like to transform your site into a progressive web app (PWA), consider the PWA for WP & AMP plugin. Use this tool to take your user experience up a notch with the latest and greatest web tech bells and whistles.

For beginners, and most importantly for this article, the plugin offers full AMP support. The tool also comes with UTM tracking, multi-site support, and a cache expiration option.

PWA for WP & AMP also offers a service worker feature that optimizes your site and translates to faster load times for visitors.

The premium version of PWA for WP & AMP gives you access to a loading icon library, CTA, and data analytics.

6. WeeblrAMP CE 

This plugin goes beyond what other plugins offer by empowering you to create an almost complete AMP version of your entire website.

Also, WeeblrAMP integrates with various tools like Google Analytics, Disqus, Google Tag Manager, Yoast SEO, Facebook pixel, Jetpack, Gravity Forms, Contact Form 7, and WooCommerce.

Also, this plugin also helps you to fully customize the AMP experience with template overrides.      

Should you use AMP?

While AMP caching does offer enhanced speeds and is probably favored by Google Search Results, using AMP for your site does come with some caveats.

For beginners, AMP only works if a user clicks on the AMP version of a webpage as opposed to the canonical version.

Studies have shown that the Accelerated Mobile Pages library can reduce the number of server requests to fetch a document by as much as 77%, but the AMP version is not always served if it is not implemented correctly.

Tracking data from AMP pages over Analytics, ads or DoubleClick is still fairly limited, although analytics for this is growing.

Implementing AMP means sacrificing lots of UX elements of your webpage.

AMP HTML prioritizes efficiency over creativity but more tangibly, not only are you missing out on using some images on your website, AMP pages only let one advertisement tag per page.

Also, implementing this code was really difficult before the WordPress Plugin.

Should you implement AMP on your site? Not necessarily but there are solid benefits.

AMP is very useful for publishers and will have a major role in mobile search moving forward but unless you have easy access to implement AMP with WordPress, you might be ok just sticking with dynamic pages served over a responsive design or mobile-friendly page.

Fortunately, various commands let you customize AMP documents in order to make them more amendable to your SEO strategy.

 

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How to customize AMP pages

Using Google Search Console or your HTML, webmasters can optimize AMP code to make them more customizable and trackable.

Publishers can update their AMP cache by using the “update-cache” request. Below are some examples of how to customize your AMP HTML document.

• Amp-pixel: tracking pixel
• Amp-animation: add animations
• Amp-analytics: analytics tracking
• Amp-access: paywall access
• Amp-dynamic-CSS-classes: dynamic CSS elements
• Amp-iframe: display an iframe
• Gtag.js tag implementation allows for events tracking across Google Ads and Search Console
• Amp-app-banner: fixed banner
• Amp-live-list: update content in real-time
• Amp-access-later pay: integrates with LaterPay
• Amp-list: download data and create a list

Frequently Asked Questions