Google recently announced the full roll-out of Accelerated Mobile Pages is “coming soon.” The initiative which was launched for beta testing in February this year is designed to improve web performance on mobile devices.
AMP is Google’s answer to Facebook’s Instant Articles and strips away unnecessary page elements that slow the load times of webpages on mobile phones.
The potential impact AMP will have for online businesses is it may destroy the web design you paid for. To avoid this, Google is encouraging developers to use revised HTML scripts which are available from ampproject.org.
But Google is not only looking for online business owners to shed weight from the website, the company also hopes that AMP will encourage brands to publish mobile-friendly content – a mission they have named ‘micro-moments.’
How to create micro-moments for AMP
The way we access websites on mobile devices is different from the version we find on desktop computers. Although responsive web designs have improved user-experience, accessing content on a 5-inch screen can still be problematic.
Apps are the most popular gateway and given mobile phones are primarily devices for communication, it is little wonder that social media networks are the most visited apps.
But brands pushing content through social networks still have to consider the type device readers will use to interact with their content. Therefore, create content with mobile in mind.
Image-based content such as video, Meme and infographs are the most commonly viewed, but even the performance levels of visuals can suffer on poor networks. And this is a problem AMP may not be able to fix.
Creating image-based content is also expensive and beyond the weekly budget reach of most publishers. The only option left is to publish short content that is easily digestible on mobile devices.
Mobile users do not want to tuck into a 2000-word feature article. Short news, tips and stories of between 300 and 500 words will work best. And don’t forget Google’s micro-moments motto:
“I want to know, I want to go, I want to do, I want to buy.”
Essentially, search engine users on the go want access to information quickly. They don’t always have time to indulge in online content. The only moments they get is whilst they are commuting or travelling.
Micro-moments are those snippets of information that give end-users a call to action or satisfy their curiosity for knowledge. For content to perform well it will need to be precise and target specific keyword matches.
Google only recently began included AMP in organic search results, and although the full-scale roll-out is not yet live, it’s still worth creating micro-moment content now in preparation. Early adopters have more chance of achieving higher rank in mobile search results.
You should also run your website through Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to make sure your site is optimised for handhelds as site speed will be measured as a ranking factor.
Google’s reasoning behind AMP is to create a better online experience for mobile users – and that means online firms need to publish content that creates a better mobile experience as well.
