The Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) project is a publishing format created by Google to enhance site performance for mobile website users. AMP pages are especially designed for Google search users to quickly load website pages without using any extraneous data.
In this post, we’ll walk you through the benefits of using AMP for WordPress, then discuss how to use it effectively. Finally, we’ll look over some themes and plugins that can help you get onboard with the project.
SEO Benefits of AMP for WordPress
While the official Google stance is that AMP pages do not factor into rankings, its side effects seem to suggest an AMP page can indirectly have an overall positive impact. When implemented correctly, AMP significantly speeds up a web page without losing (much of) its functionality. This in turn produces a lower bounce rate and higher site ‘stickiness’.
So, to summarise, AMP does not directly count as an SEO factor, but influences factors that do make a difference in search engine rankings, such as:
- Page speed
- Bounce rates
- The time spent on site
As a WordPress user, there are a few plugins to help you easily get started with AMP on your website. Let’s take a look at how AMP interacts with WordPress themes and plugins.
Using AMP in WordPress
The best way to implement AMP is by creating a completely custom template that mimics your current site’s look and feel. If you have an overly complex WordPress website or a website app, you may find implementing AMP is a bit more difficult. For instance, you may see errors in Google Search Console, and AMP pages will therefore not be served in search results.
However, if you run a typical WordPress website for a business or personal blog, AMP should be relatively easy to set up. Publishing sites will benefit the most from AMP, while sales pages for products and services should probably be left alone due to their requirements for eCommerce capability. AMP and eCommerce do not yet mix well.
AMP & WordPress Themes
You may be wondering how your AMP pages will affect your WordPress themes. AMP pages replace your WordPress theme entirely for mobile devices, because they are written using a different set of standards than most WordPress themes.
AMP works because it reimagines best practices for HTML. You can choose to follow many of its principles even within your normal WordPress theme, though it will likely involve having your developer rebuild it from the ground up.
The Google AMP project offers a step-by-step tutorial on creating your own AMP pages. Reading through this tutorial will give you a better understanding of what is (and isn’t) on an AMP-generated page. A few key components are:
- Stripped HTML and AMP components
- Stripped JavaScript (JS) and AMP JS library
- An AMP cache
Since AMP runs side by side to a theme, using the term ‘AMP-friendly’ is a slight misnomer. However, you can find themes or templates that come with supplemental AMP resources.
WordPress AMP Plugins
AMP is only barely entering the public domain as a user-friendly content delivery to implement, and for the most part still requires a developer to properly incorporate it. As so much goes on behind the scenes to redirect Google search users to AMP, plugins are typically used to add AMP functionality to WordPress websites.
In a nutshell, you can make your site generally responsive using themes and mobile-ready plugins for those viewing your website on a mobile device, but AMP will completely replace your theme for visitors coming from Google on mobile.
Let’s take a look at some the available options.
AMP Plugin
Automattic’s official AMP plugin creates dedicated templates for your WordPress posts (but not pages!). This plugin offers a few options for tweaking the template using built-in options, and is ideal for simple content publishing.
For those of you with a development team, the AMP plugin enables you to completely customize your AMP templates.
Glue for Yoast SEO & AMP Plugin
Glue for Yoast SEO & AMP is a plugin provided by Yoast to connect Automattic’s AMP plugin with Yoast’s SEO tools. Be aware that this does not generate any AMP code or work on its own – both of these plugins are required for it to work. Additionally, the Glue for Yoast SEO & AMP plugin offers a few additional theming tools, which helps match the sparse layout to your brand.
Overall, this plugin is ideal for anyone using the official AMP plugin and Yoast.
AMP for WP – Accelerated Mobile Pages
AMP for WP offers more extensive theming tools than other solutions for implementing AMP. This can be helpful if you’d like to customize your AMP theme to look more like your normal site. However, where it really shines is in its integrations of other features such as commenting, custom post types, embeds, and even email opt-ins.
What’s more, this is an add-on plugin that works alongside the official AMP plugin by Automattic. If you’re unable to build a custom AMP theme and need to integrate many features, try AMP for WP.
Facebook Instant Articles & Google AMP Pages by PageFrog
Facebook Instant Articles & Google AMP Pages by PageFrog is a two-in-one hitter for, you guessed it, Facebook Instant Articles as well as Google AMP. If you’re looking to integrate both of these platforms on your site with minimal effort, this plugin may be for you!
It’s also important to mention that this plugin hasn’t been updated in nearly a year, so it may not play nicely with current versions of WordPress. However, we found no issues during our tests.
Regardless of how you implement AMP (or Facebook Instant Articles!) on your website, it’s vital that your site loads quickly for all visitors. One of the easiest ways to increase the speed of your website is to get a rock-solid hosting provider (such as WP Engine) that can guarantee top-notch performance no matter how large your site gets.