Google’s AMP: The Fun and User-Friendly Guide to Accelerated Mobile Pages

Google’s AMP: The Fun and User-Friendly Guide to Accelerated Mobile Pages

Reader Comments (33)

  1. Hey Demian,

    Informative read about how Google’s the new AMP and its aim to increase website load speed (I gave it a test using the instructions in your post – the articles that were using it seemed significantly faster than normal, at least to my naked eye).

    I’m still wondering though, if load speed is such a crucial factor in satisfying peoples consumption of online content, in particular web pages, then why does Google not develop an AMP-styled solution for all browsers and viewing platforms, including PCs.

    Or is the reason that AMP works because it deletes the superfluous calls that are still needed on PC yet not mobile, therefore it couldn’t be a viable solution for PC displayed pages?

  2. Didn’t know they had an official plugin for WordPress . Thanks for the info

  3. Great informative article! Thank you! I have one question that I don’t think you’ve addressed (or I’m a little computer illiterate). How does this affect WordPress users that use the free version where in everything is stored on their servers?

  4. This was a very informative article. I think google is the biggest search engine for success and not just because of its age and reputation. For writers/freelancer’s, it’s important to understand how this all works.

    • You are right. You don’t have to master this subject, but you have to be aware.

  5. Thanks for this info, Demian. I’m left wondering, though: What about those of us who use Rainmaker, so we can’t just upload a plugin? Is there a roadmap for this from Rainmaker?

    • We’ve got AMP on our radar screens. We’re not going to rush into anything, given Google’s history of dramatic 180 degree turnarounds. But if AMP does prove to be important in the future, we’ll offer an easy AMP solution to our users.

  6. Damien! Awesome explanation of AMP. I had to put together a piece for the Instapage blog last week on it, and, as a fellow non-techie, it took a lot of digging and reading for me to fully understand and explain what the heck all that coding jargon really meant.

    It reminded me of the English language. When used to its fullest capacity, it has the potential to create amazing stories: novels, poems, ballads etc. Our use of slang, contractions, and abbreviations like omg, bbl, ttyl, are created to help us get to the point more quickly — the same way Google wants us to get to the content more quickly by stripping down more vast coding languages.

    Anyway, great article. Easy to understand, and surprisingly entertaining for sure! 🙂

    Oh — was also fun to find someone else with “wicked” in their vocabulary. Reminded me of home. You from New England?!

      • Ah, I am!

        Was raised 50 miles east of Boston and in both Chicago and San Diego, I’ve been met with perplexed looks every time I used the word “wicked” as an adjective. People have told me it’s strictly a New England thing, but I guess not!

        Either way, great post. Thanks for the entertaining explanation. 🙂

        • It used to be a slang term here in the UK although, as is the way with these things, other words such as “sick” have largely replaced it.

          For those who aren’t familiar with either term, they both mean “great”, “fantastic”.

  7. Nicely explained Demian!
    It will be interesting to follow the development and implementation of AMP the coming year or so. As you mention Google isn’t known to be predictable with all their things.

    I’ll go steady and follow what happens as the inventors and early adopters try things out. If AMP is alive in 2017, it could be the thing of that year.

    But unless our phones get significantly stronger and load content faster, something needs to change on that side of the fence. The WP plugin is interesting, and definitely something I’ll give a try.

    Also, the caching solution is very interesting, indeed.

  8. Great article Demian. I’m not a techie and I was able to follow your explanations of AMP. Your example of the bank teller going back and forth fetching the cash as opposed to giving it all at once drove home the value of AMP.

    I suspect many people will wait and see, especially solopreneurs who aren’t publishing regularly. But if having it gives you an advantage, it’s worth looking into, especially if a large part of your readers are visiting your site through smartphones.

    Great article, clearly explained how it works.

  9. Thanks Demian, really ilustrated article.
    In our case, we have some doubts to implement AMP.
    We are a lead generator site, just you to take a look; http://www.tumaster.com
    The problem is that as far as we understood AMP tecnology does not work in sites where a lead form is included, does not it?

    • Yep, I think as it stands forms are not allowed. That could change in future.

  10. Hi! Thank you for a very good introduction to AMP!
    But I’m still a little bit confused. What will it mean if you have, say, a standard responsive web site. You will have to set up a separate AMP-page for mobiles, in addition to the standard responsive html/css page? Or you have to change the css, so that the mobile part of it is AMP-coded?

    Best regards,
    Peter

    • Hey Peter, a responsive design ensures your site adapts/fits to size in any device, but it doesn’t fix the problem of why your site downloads slow onto a mobile. I explain reasons in the “What makes traditional mobile pages load so slowly?” section.

      Keep in mind, if you don’t have a lot of mobile traffic, I wouldn’t worry about it.

  11. Thanks for the info Demian. If it’s here to stay it would be worth it to get in from the start. Will be linking to this from my article and encouraging my peeps to read it.

  12. You knocked this one out of the park, Demian. Very helpful. I’m always excited about new developments like this, especially when they have the ability to get you into the good or fast graces of Google. From the article, it sounds like my StudioPress sites can just use the Automattic plug-in and be AMP compatible. Will definitely have to test this. Question: Any plans for AMP optimized templates from StudioPress?

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