AMP (formerly known as Accelerated Mobile Pages) was created by Google in 2015, although controversial topic, technically it is great innovation. I want to talk purely on technical level and what advantages it might have to websites like Ecency.com.
AMP is basically making webpages static as oppose to dynamic like we currently have and serve from cdn/cache. Description of AMP, in essence, open-source HTML framework that provides a straightforward way to create webpages that are fast, smooth-loading and prioritize the user experience above all else. This is a critical factor for our team and the one we are trying to prioritize daily.
We all know speed of website and pages really matter when it comes to SEO and Google or any search engine rankings.
You would think having AMP pages will help with ranking because Google created this technology but in reality speed of page is main factor. And AMP make webpages load extremely fast because each page is static, not dynamic. According to Google, AMP pages load in less than 1 second and consume 10 times less data which means, it is really really fast if implemented correctly.
Benefits of AMP
- Lower bounce rates.
- Higher engagement time on website.
- Increased conversion rates.
Fast loading time and less data, increase conversion rate, decrease bounce rate and more time spent on website. This combination is perfect formula for succeeding ranking pages on search engines. Right use of keywords and feeding correct information to Google also a factor but let's not go into that subjects just yet.
Why we need AMP?
According to our stats from November, last month little more than 70% of our users/visitors are using mobile device to access Ecency.com, this includes our mobile app users. Future is mobile and AMP is a fundamentally improving mobile experience, this might be the best experience we could give to readers, visitors and users. In current state, our pages load very fast compare to other apps because we have optimized application layer and images. Also our mobile application is as fast in terms of performance, well balanced with data saving mode and UX appeal. Going step further would make website top tier in the world which can deliver content instantly.
How to integrate AMP into existing website?
We think websites with server side rendering has better chance at adopting this technology. Because we can start small like Reddit did AMP, apply in some pages and take iterative approach.
Right now, in server side rendering we are using
ReactDOMServer.renderToString(reactTree) and changing this to ReactDOMServer.renderToStaticMarkup(reactTree) would potentially make things much easier. We don't render everything on server side, so there are some complications there. Potentially with some reorganizing we could achieve good integration. If you are developing website, I would recommend you to take a closer look at how AMP works. Take a look at success stories of AMP and think mobile.
We will continue our research in this area and think about best ways to serve mobile visitors.
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