Mobile web browsing isnowbigger than desktop web browsing!
Using that as an indicator in their search results last year Google are already insisting on mobile friendly/responsive websites.
Therefore Google launched the open source AMP project to allow for stripped down pages to be displayed more quickly, across multiple platforms. It aims to dramatically improve performance of the mobile web. They want webpages with rich content like video, animations and graphics to work alongside smart ads, and load instantly.
Interestingly, Google will actually cache the content on their servers, so whilst you host your own site Google will keep a copy of your articles and display them quickly around the world, using Google’s high performance global cache.
Of course a key concern for content publishers would be ‘How will I generate any ad revenue if Google is displaying my content’, howeverthey’ve thought of that too. Any sites using AMP HTML will retain their choice of ad networks, as well as any formats that don’t detract from the user experience.
In just4months, AMP has gained hundreds of publishers. Starting last week AMP articles have started to show in relevant mobile search results. Now when you search for a story or topic on Google from a mobile device, webpages created using AMP will appear when relevant in the Top Stories section of the search results page. Any story you choose to read will load fast—and it’s simple to scroll through the article without it taking forever to load or jumping all around as you read. It’s also easy to quickly flip through the search results just by swiping from one full-page AMP story to the next.
Realnet will of course keep you up to date on how this fledgling technology develops and we’re already experimenting with implementation with our content generating clients.