AMP is short for Accelerated Mobile Pages and that is exactly what you get with Google’s latest update to mobile web browsing. While browsing on a mobile device, at the very top of the page, have you ever noticed headlines that can be scrolled through from left to right, sometimes titled “Top Stories”? Well if you have, then you may already be using Google AMP. These stories are created specifically for mobile devices and Google wants you to click them. In 2015, Google announced they were designing a way for pages to be even more mobile friendly than they already were. Google AMP is a way to render pages more quickly and is exclusive for mobile browsing. Think of AMP as a bare-bones, striped down version of a web page. The page load speed is extremely fast, the design is simple yet appealing and you do not have to worry about being interrupted by a million ads while scrolling down the page. You can still include links and embed videos when creating a page with AMP, but there are some limitations.

While AMP loads at impressive speeds and is possibly the future of mobile web browsing, it is not a replacement for a mobile version of a web page. AMP pages have a unique URL, separate from the mobile page. So why is AMP important to us?

Smart phones and tablets are getting faster, it is already easier to just pull your phone out of your pocket and browse the web instead of waiting for your computer to boot up. Because of this, more and more people are doing the majority (if not all) of their web browsing on mobile devices. This change in web browsing means the topic of SEO needs to be closely looked at and be aware of how these changes are affecting the world of ranking a page on Google. However, AMP is still relatively new and exactly how “AMP” will be ranked is constantly in debate by people in the community, as well as Google. We will be watching carefully to see how AMP effects the ranks.