Google AMP is an open framework that makes your posts more readable on smartphone devices. Think of it as a lighter and simplified version of your post.
It strips the content of its major styling elements and displays it in a simplified manner.
AMP in the Google AMP stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages Project. It was launched in October 2015. So, if you don’t have it activated on your site yet, better do it ASAP.
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Why do you need Google AMP-activated on your WordPress site?
AMP improves your page’s speed. And we already that a page’s loading speed is a factor that determines the search rankings of your content.
Google Search is using mobile speed as a ranking factor, but sites can be fast by using a variety of techniques, including AMP.
Google Search applies the same standard to all pages.
Increased CTR. When you have an AMP-enabled post indexed, it is more likely to earn a featured snippet. It was found in a case study that pages with Google AMP earn 600% more clicks.
With AMP, your images get optimized automatically. It converts JPEG to WebP for supported browsers.
Also, if the reader has a slow network connection, a byte-reduction in the images is done by AMP so that it can load faster.
Here’s an example of how an AMP-indexed page looks
When a page is shown as an AMP in search results, the AMP symbol is shown next to it. At the top of the page, you can see that the URL has google.com/amp in front of the post’s link.
Also Read: How To Add Facebook Comments To WordPress Blog posts
How to Setup Google AMP in WordPress
There are 2 WordPress plugins that can help you do this, AMP and AMP for WP.
The second one is a more advanced plugin, it provides you with more customization options.
Keep in mind that your site must follow Google’s guidelines first. Though a plugin creates an AMP version of your posts, its Google who decides whether to show them or not.
When AMP is activated, your post gets a new URL assigned to it. This is handled by the plugin itself. For example,
Original blog post: https://yoursite.com/article
AMP blog post: https://yoursite.com/article/amp
[psac_post_carousel limit=”5″ design=”design-2″ show_author=”false” show_category=”true” show_date=”true” show_content=”false” slide_show=”3″ mediaheight=”70″ category=”8365″]
Install any of the two plugins from your WordPress dashboard. Go to plugins> add new> search for AMP.
AMP WordPress Plugin
I have the AMP WordPress plugin installed. After the installation, you’ll see the AMP plugin show up in your dashboard like in the image below.
Under the general settings, you can select the type of theme you want on your AMP version.
You can choose the content types on which the AMP should be enabled: posts, pages, media or portfolios.
