If you read a lot about the digital space, you may be hearing a lot about Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) Project. This open source initiative from Google, aims to improve user experience across all devices. Google created the project to improve user experience and to ensure all content is consistently fast, displays beautifully and that web pages are high-performing across all devices and distribution platforms.
Since the advent of the internet, speed has increasingly become an important factor and consumers have become accustomed to high performance websites that load fast. Think back to a time when a website you were browsing through took what seemed like forever to load. What was your next move? It’s highly likely that you became frustrated with the site and went looking for whatever you were seeking elsewhere.
A recent article on Google’s Inside Adwords blog, included the following stats that really drive home the importance of website speed times.
- 53% of all visits are abandoned if a mobile page takes longer than 3 seconds to load
- Just a 1 second delay on a mobile page has the ability to decrease conversions by up to 20%
Although Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) Project is relatively new, early adopters are already seeing positive results (household names such as eBay, Reddit, Bing and Wordpress). Consider this: The Washing Post saw an 88% improvement in page load times for its AMP content when compared to its more dated content. In turn, this has helped them in increase 7-day return visits from mobile users by 23%.
The more we look, the more examples we find about how AMP is becoming a game changer in the online space. Initially, Google’s load time for an AMP page from Google Search was under a second - Google has recently announced that these pages are now twice as fast and the results are staggering for the likes of adopters such as Johnson & Johnson who said:
“Johnson & Johnson has seen great results in testing AMP with our product information pages. For specific pages, we've seen page speeds improve by 10x and engagement rates improve by 20%. J&J is looking forward to expanding our application of AMP,” says Paul Ortmayer, Head of Digital Analytics - EMEA, Johnson & Johnson
In the Digital Marketing space, fast page load times are especially important for advertising and marketing content (EDMs, promotional emails and so on). AMP usage has been linked with increased Click Through Rates (CTR) and it goes without saying that increased CTR equates to more customers in the long-term. With more people reading your marketing material, you can expect to see an increase in conversion rates.
We talk a lot about how to use digital to help differentiate your brand from your competitors. AMP is definitely a useful tool in terms of amplifying your point of difference as an enhanced mobile user experience quickly distinguishes your website from others that are slower and sluggish. It’s safe to say that websites that aren’t optimised for mobile use are a big turn off for the average consumers these days.
Pronto’s Avenue CMS supports and develops AMP pages. If you’re interested in learning more about how AMP pages can improve your website and page load times, let’s have a discussion about your specific business needs.
Contact Woven today for help with anything related to AMP.
