AMP or (Accelerated Mobile Pages), now has a friend in Google that is listing the pages in its organic search results.
AMPs are easily found with an icon next to result featuring a lightning bolt. The reason for the boost in AMPs is because of the massive expansion of mobile devices globally. If one doesn’t have a mobile friendly webpage then one ends up missing out on tons of traffic opportunities which in effect is not SEO.
Today’s web is a mobile one. The days of desktops and laptops are waning and there’s been warnings for years to webmasters and marketers to get their sites mobile friendly. There are tools, mostly free tools to turn one’s site into a mobile friendly one and Google has tons of tools available to do this. Far too many webmasters and marketers are now chewing their hair because they dragged their feet regarding converting their webpages into mobile friendly ones. It’s a simple equation, you have traditional webpages that desk and laptops access, but mobile devices need data presentable in a way that fits the screen and is easy to operate. Now, the next step in mobile web evolution is that AMPs are being added to the organic searches and if you’ve not jumped on this bandwagon you’re probably going to be left in the dust.
The jury is still out on how effective AMPs are going to be but you can bet SEO pros are hovering over everything statistically looking for every molecule of AMP data they can find. They have to or the possibility of a major opportunity, both short and long term could escape them. They can’t afford for the competition to get the jump on them or worse, dominate the results with a major assault by converting standard webpages to AMPs. This is going to be one major SEO industry change that will go on for the next year and either it will be an effective strategy or not.
In the meantime it’s a good idea to learn how to produce your pages the AMP way. Studying on your own means less money and time and misery you’ll expend hiring someone else to do it. Remember, Google indexes webpages not websites, so all important webpages on your site should be AMP compliant. Knowing how to make a webpage mobile friendly is the first step. Look at the pages that reach the top of the new organic AMP results to see how they are constructed. Make sure all your AMPs have your contact and local data for Local SEO. Now comes the waiting part. If you’ve a huge number of websites you’ve got one tough job ahead of you. Since this is a new process it’s best to check your stats daily. As soon as you see a boost to your AMPs you’ll know you’re on the right track. If you later find a drop in stats, do the detective work and find out why and do so quickly. Any number of surprises may occur during the next year so be on guard. Will less photos and graphics and videos make for higher results? We don’t know what’s going to happen but using past and present tactics and techniques, we have a good idea.
So don’t get caught with your SEO down and not take advantage of the new AMPs opportunities. It’s a matter of moving fast but sure enough to take advantage so you can see the results early, analyze those statistics and plan better how to apply them and boost your SEO goals.
Let this be another lesson in that Google is the 800 lb gorilla of the SEO world. Their algorithms and decisions impact everything in the SEO industry and it calls for constant vigilance and quick responses as well as long term vision to take advantage of these.