setting amp for success at #smxlmilan

#ampsuccess by @aleyda at #smxlmilan

Setting AMP for Success


Ciao #SMXLMILAN



I’m Aleyda Solis


I help companies to connect with them



Some of them brands you likely know



Having a fast mobile Website is one of the fundamental aspects to achieve this goal


As well as to avoid causing stress to our users


Speed will be even more critical with Google’s upcoming mobile first index too


Users have minimum expectations


But this is our speed reality


Let’s see… how much time the Trova Prezzi home page takes to load?


Ouch

https://testmysite.thinkwithgoogle.com/


And the Virgilio one?


Yup



And La Stampa one?


I think I’ve made my point



The solution is to implement WPO principles to make Mobile sites to load fast

https://developers.google.com/speed/docs/insights/rules


But big sites have restrictive legacy platforms & small ones little resources to improve them


This is why Google launched AMP


It uses a “simplified” HTML version with optimised resources & cache to serve faster in Mobile SERPs

https://www.ampproject.org/learn/overview/


AMP is published “parallely” and canonicalized to your current (slower) Mobile Web pages

http://www.lastampa.it/2017/11/11/societa/nel-giorno-dei-single-alibaba-macina-record-un-miliardo-di-dollari-nei-primi-due-

minuti-e-un-secondo-3LBa6otfg99OuPdX7H6XIJ/pagina.html

http://www.lastampa.it/2017/11/11/societa/nel-giorno-dei-single-alibaba-macina-record-un-miliardo-di-dollari-nei-primi-due-minuti-e-un-secondo-3LBa6otfg99OuPdX7H6XIJ/amphtml/pagina.amp.html






It’s also cached and pre-rendered by Google when shown in Mobile SERPs

Google AMP Viewer URLthat is pre-rendered

Canonical URL of the Page

Content served from AMP Cache URL


Making it certainly much faster

http://www.lastampa.it/2017/11/11/societa/nel-giorno-dei-single-alibaba-macina-record-un-miliardo-di-dollari-nei-primi-due-

minuti-e-un-secondo-3LBa6otfg99OuPdX7H6XIJ/pagina.html







AMP usage is not a ranking factor


But Google made it a requirement to be included in the News Carrousel


and can be also shown in organic results

AMP article rich resultsCan be free-standing in the results page, or embedded in a carousel of

similar result types. All AMP article rich results are also rich results.

AMP non-rich resultsA basic, non-graphical search result

pointing to the AMP page.


Which has given it an impressive SERP visibility

https://www.rankranger.com/amp-on-google-serp


As well as traffic to the sites using itAMP Rich Results

AMP Non-Rich Results

Non-AMP Results

More Mobile organic visibility and traffic from

AMP than non-AMP results


However, AMP is not a replacement of your Mobile site


Even Google representatives agree that is not a “bullet-proof” solution for all sites

“It wouldn’t be reasonable for us to expect that a group of limited functionalities replace all what you can do at the moment in the mobile environment…AMP its meant to serve in certain use cases”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtOjUwGnrVY


AMP is a fast “add-on” to your already existing (but still slow) mobile Website

Just what happens with Batman as a super hero… he

doesn’t have any superpowers



Sorry Batman

AMP A fast Mobile site



But due to the way it is presented and its expansion efforts it might look like it


Just what happens to Batman as a superhero too



That’s why there are reservations about it: “AMP has a good intentions… but sacrifice the open Web”


You shouldn’t then use AMP as a silver bullet Mobile speed solution but a resource in certain scenarios…

Thanks Alfred :)



You will be able to minimize situations like this


Use AMP when your Mobile site is too slow and/or you want to be included in the carrousel

and/or

Too slow and can’t be improved

Needs to be included in carrousel


Avoid implementing AMP when you have an independent mobile Web Version

Desktop Web Parallel Mobile Web Version with M subdomain

AMP URL

Google AMP Viewer URL

Canonicalize to

Generates


Verify if you can Implement your current Mobile Web UI & functionality with AMP



Your AMP URLs should replicate your own Mobile Web UI & functionality, instead of this

ORIGINAL MOBILE PAGE AMP VERSION


Validate that your mobile Web functionality can be replicated by using AMP components

https://www.ampproject.org/docs/reference/components


Check with your development team if you have the capacity and flexibility to use them

https://ampbyexample.com/


You can even test while validating your code directly in the AMP Playground editor

https://ampbyexample.com/playground/


Plan ahead using the roadmap with a reference of the functionalities to come

https://www.ampproject.org/roadmap/


There are also free Wordpress plugins that highly facilitate the implementation


You can also use freemium and paid WP plugins like AMP for WP and weeblrAMP


They will allow you to personalise more, but you’ll likely need further development support


They’re not an “out of the box” solution and will still need design personalisation

ORIGINAL MOBILE PAGE AMP VERSION


The goal should be to keep the UI and functionality consistent

ORIGINAL MOBILE PAGE

=

AMP VERSION


Check your AMP visibility potential to prioritize your implementation

accordingly



Verify the share and type of queries for which AMP results are shown in your industry

https://www.sistrix.com/


Identify which of them are shown along SERP features to prioritise and format your content


Like this


Avoid linking to your AMP URLs unless you’re using them as your

canonical mobile Web pages



There’s an inconsistent mobile user experience when accessing to AMP pages from SERPs


Which ends-up causing that users link and share the non-canonical Google AMP Viewer URLs


Start avoiding these by making sure to only link internally to your canonical URLs from AMP


You can also refer your users to your original Website version to continue browsing your site


Remember to also redirect based on the user agent to avoid showing non-mobile visitors your AMP URLs

DON’T DO THIS DO THIS


Validate your AMP implementation before and after launch with SEO

crawlers to minimise issues



+70% of top publishers with AMP across 8 countries (including the US) have implementation errors


Most common AMP mistakes are related to usage of disallowed and non-supported attributes & tags

https://www.semrush.com/blog/amp-mistakes-semrush-study/


For real

THIS IS NOT THE AMP VERSION OF THE ABOVE ARTICLE


Avoid them by using the AMP validator Chrome extension to go through your main pages

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/amp-validator/nmoffdblmcmgeicmolmhobpoocbbmknc


Crawl all of your site pages to validate AMP implementation issues before and after launching

https://sitebulb.com/


SEO crawlers like Sitebulb, Deepcrawl & SEMrushalready include AMP configuration problems

deepcrawl.com


You’ll be able to obtain and fix quickly those that would generate critical issues in the Search Console


https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/log-file-analyser/

Validate if possible in your logs if Googlebot’s crawling behavior of your AMP URLs is consistent

19 OF THE 20 CRAWLED URLs ARE AMP


Monitor AMP implementation errors with GSC AMP report, where you should focus on fixing critical

issues first



It’s usual to be overwhelmed by the increase of AMP issues when launching or updating

SIGH


Prioritise to fix critical issues first, which will be the ones preventing to be shown in SERPs

THIS


Start with those affecting the highest number of pages and check them directly there


Focus on identifying how the non-supported code is included to establish a pattern and remove it


YES

Rinse and repeat until you minimise critical errors


Monitor your AMP visibility impact to prioritize your efforts along the

on-going content development and optimization process



Opt-in for Google Analytics AMP Client ID API to correctly track AMP on Cache

https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/7486764


Beyond the AMP vs. Non-AMP traffic trend, what’s the impact of AMP on users behavior?


Follow-up w/ your own AMP results via the Google Search Console too


Verify the top queries per AMP URL to identify further AMP content opportunities


Be mindful of Search Console false positives though


Use SEOmonitor to track AMP for your targeted (ranked or unranked) keywords

https://www.seomonitor.com/


You can also spot AMP opportunities vs. your competitors with SEMrush rank tracking

https://www.semrush.com


rankranger.com

Do the same with your News Carrousel AMP rankings by using RankRanger


If at some point you want to disable AMP, follow SEO best practices to

avoid losing that traffic



Remove the rel=”amphtml” link tag and 301-redirect AMP URLs to your canonical ones

https://developers.google.com/search/docs/guides/remove-amp

HANDY WORDPRESS

PLUGIN


Here’s a list with all of these, so you don’t forget

Verify if you can Implement your current

Mobile Web UI & functionality with AMP

Check your AMP visibility potential to prioritise your

implementation accordingly

Monitor AMP implementation errors with GSC AMP report, where you

should focus on fixing critical issues first

Avoid linking to your AMP URLs unless you’re using them as your canonical mobile Web

pages

Validate your AMP implementation before

and after launch with SEO crawlers to minimise issues

Monitor your AMP visibility impact to prioritize your

efforts along the on-going content development and

optimization process

If you want to disable AMP, don’t forget SEO best

practices, removing tag to AMP and redirecting to your

mobile pages


Now is your turn
