Two seconds is all you required before your readers start bouncing off if the webpage you are looking for is not loading.
Seems unrealistic right?
It would be an understatement to suggest that people consult their mobile devices before making a purchase. Around the world, mobile internet use has exceeded that of desktop mobile. Over four times more people use smartphones than computers in nations like India, Mexico, and Indonesia.
When a consumer consults their phone, they want a rapid response, and this is where accelerated mobile pages(AMP)can play a part. There are 30 billion mobile phone moments in the United States every day. This means that your brand has 30 billion chances every day to provide customers with what they want.
Despite this, mobile ad spending continues to lag behind mobile media consumption.
The need for immediate satisfaction is greater while using a mobile device, which is why customers spend more time looking rather than making a purchase.
How long do you have to wait for a mobile website to load?
40 percent of users leave a website that takes longer than 3 seconds to load, according to Google and SOASTA statistics.
Three seconds! That’s the maximum amount of time you have to hold a user’s attention once they clicked on your ad. It doesn’t matter how good your ad is if the website it links to doesn’t load in the time frame. Sadly, research shows that most retail mobile sites take 6.9 seconds to load, which is more than twice.
How does web page speed impact bounce rate?
The bounce rate on mobile websites is heavily influenced by speed. DOM ready time & full-page load time are two of the most essential metrics for mobile site bounce rates.
DOM Ready Time
When the HTML code of a page is received and processed by a browser, DOM ready time is the most accurate indicator of a user’s likelihood to leave a website. Although the user might not be aware of the HTML code being received and processed, the code must be loaded before any page components such as graphics may be loaded. The webpage loading speed is slowed down if the HTML code is too lengthy. It’s preferable to avoid using JavaScript on your mobile web page in order to speed up the DOM ready time. JavaScript blocks and inhibits a browser from parsing HTML. Third-party adverts and social widgets that must be fetched from external servers before the web page can be loaded are examples of page elements that utilize JavaScript.
Full-page Load Time
Images, typefaces, CSS coding, etc. all require time to load on a website. This is known as the “full-page load.” The faster the full-page load, the lower the bounce rate.
Optimizing graphics and fonts, as well as avoiding third-party files that might slow down loading times, are all ways to make your website’s whole page load quicker.
One of the most common causes of page abandonment is poor page load time, and data shows that 79 percent of visitors never return to a site after experiencing a delayed page load time.
Readout these important revelations regarding the page load speed:
- Over a 3G connection, the average mobile site takes nineteen seconds to load, and around 77% of mobile sites take more than 10 seconds.
- Conversions drop by 20% for every second that a website waits to load, according to Google. Those that loaded in five seconds or less received two times the income from mobile advertising than sites that took 19 seconds or more to load.
- 61% of users are less likely to return to a mobile website that was difficult to access.
What does this mean?
Users will leave and probably never return if a mobile website does not load instantly and quickly enough for them.
It is critical that you Amplify your mobile web pages and post-click landing pages to prevent this from happening.
What is AMP?
Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) is an open-source project started by Google to guarantee that mobile websites run as quickly as possible.
You can design advertising and web pages that are consistently fast, elegant, and high-performing on every device or distribution platform, thanks to the AMP project’s goal to “build the future web together”.
Hundreds of developers and publishers as well as websites and distributors collaborated to create AMP. More than 100 CMS suppliers, ad tech, and prominent analytics support the AMP format, which has been used to build more than 1.5 billion AMP pages.
The following is what you get when using the AMP format to build mobile pages:
Higher User Engagement and Performance
The AMP open-source initiative provides a smoother, and more engaging experience for both mobile and desktop users since the pages are developed in a way that allows them to load quickly.
Flexibility and Results
Businesses or websites have the freedom to choose how their information is presented and which technology providers they want to work with, while still meeting or exceeding their key performance indicators (KPIs).
There is a good chance that you’ve already clicked on an AMP website without even realizing it. When you clicked on the website, you may have noted how quickly it loaded. Lightning bolts appear in search results for AMP-built websites.
In order to identify AMP in search results, here is how you may do it.
When comparing an AMP page to a standard web page, you’ll see something like this:
Because HTML/CSS and JavaScript are restricted in AMP, mobile web pages can be rendered more quickly. AMP pages are cached automatically by Google AMP Cache for quicker load times on Google search results, unlike ordinary mobile sites.
Because mobile users have high expectations for the content they consume, AMP is your best choice for providing them with an engaging, relevant, and speedy experience.
AMPlifying your sites has several advantages as AMPs have increased conversions for various organizations across a wide range of sectors.
How does AMP work?
In Feb 2016, Google released its open-source foundation for its Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) project. Since customers are constantly bombarded with sluggish, cumbersome mobile experiences, a framework was needed to create efficient, closely connected user interfaces.
The AMP project was created by Google in order to develop a framework for building optimized mobile web pages. In addition to being well-documented, deployable, and opinionated, the AMP open-source project places a priority on the user’s experience in web page design.
Above 4 billion AMP pages have been published by more than twenty-five million domains since AMP’s inception over two years ago:
As a result of AMP’s introduction, the median time it takes for AMP pages to load from a Google search has dropped to less than half a second.
In addition to a 10% boost in traffic, AMP results in a two-fold increase in time spent on the page. When compared with non-AMP pages, eCommerce businesses employing AMP experience a 20% boost in conversions and sales:
In order to provide a better mobile web experience for its customers, AMP provides simplified, clean, and relevant websites.
From June 2016 to May 2017, Chartbeat evaluated 360 AMP-enabled websites and found that an average AMP-enabled publisher received a 16 percent increase in mobile traffic on their Amplified content.
Users are 35 percent more likely to interact with AMP sites compared to normal mobile web pages since they load four times quicker.
The Three Core Components of AMP
In order to construct an AMP page, the following three components must be used:
AMP HTML
There are a few constraints on the AMP HTML, but it is still HTML. This is what the most basic AMP HTML file looks like:
Some HTML elements have been substituted with AMP-specific ones, but for the most part, the AMP HTML code is composed entirely of standard HTML tags. It’s called AMP HTML components, and it simplifies the implementation of common tag patterns in a fast manner. The HTML element identifies AMP sites to search engines and other platforms.
AMP JavaScript (JS)
HTML pages that use the AMP JS library are rendered quickly. All the best practices of AMP, like inline CSS and font triggering, are included in this package, which handles resource loading and provides you with unique HTML elements to guarantee a fast page.
Nothing on the page can be blocked by external resources thanks to the AMP JS, which makes everything asynchronous from the external resources. JS also makes use of performance methods like iframe sandboxing, pre-calculating the layout of each page element prior to the loading of resources, and deactivating sluggish CSS selectors.
AMP Cache
AMP HTML pages that have been cached are served by the Google AMP Cache. To ensure that all AMP documents can be delivered, a proxy-based delivery network is deployed. The Cache downloads AMP HTML pages caches the pages and automatically improves page speed.
In order to retain the highest level of effectiveness possible when utilizing AMP Cache, all pictures and documents are loaded from the same origin, which uses HTTP 2.0.
AMP Cache has a built-in validation mechanism that ensures that a website is guaranteed to operate and does not rely on external influences that might delay the page. For each claim, the validation system verifies that the page’s markup conforms to AMP HTML specifications.
AMP vs. Facebook’s Instant Articles
Instant Articles were introduced by Facebook in 2015 to enable publishers to create a quick and engaging reading experience for Facebook users.
- It is ten times quicker than normal mobile web articles.
- On average, Instant Articles are read 20% more often.
- More than 70% of those who read an Instant Article are less likely to quit it.
Publishing on Facebook has never been easier thanks to Instant Articles. The following are some of the benefits you’ll get:
- Fast and Responsive: Instant Articles are lightning-fast and responsive, regardless of the user’s connection speed or device. They’re simple to use since they adapt to mobile storytelling.
- Interactive and Engaging: Instant Articles are 30 percent more shared than mobile web articles because of the immersive experience they provide, making them more engaging. In the News Feed, they assist your content get more exposure.
- Easy and Flexible Monetization: Instant Articles’ monetization is built into the platform. Expand your company with the Articles by creating native branded content, extending your direct-sold advertisements, and using Facebook’s Audience Network to fill ad inventory.
A faster loading time for AMP sites and Instant Articles both reduces page bounce rates and increases user engagement. The Facebook Instant Articles, in fact, load even more quickly:
AMP Versus Responsive Web Design (RWD)
Since Google launched Mobilegeddon in early 2015, creating mobile-friendly sites has been a top concern for marketers. The goal of Responsive Web Design was to aid in the creation of websites that emphasized adaptability. A responsive website provided a better, more engaging mobile online experience since it operated on any device or screen.
Both AMP and Responsive Web Design rely on HTML and JavaScript as their primary building blocks for creating a mobile-friendly website. However, the following are the differences between the two:
- RWD is focused on flexibility whereas AMP focuses on speed.
- RWD replaces a webpage while AMP works with a web page.
- AMP provides a better user experience in comparison to RWD.
- AMP comes with JavaScript Restrictions.
Final Words
We hope by now you have a clear idea of what accelerated mobile pages (AMP) are. The average load time for AMP pages is less than one second which means that it can maximize your revenue because of a faster experience, reduce complexity in your operations, and maximize your ROI.
Since it is a new format, it does come with some cost. However, the payoff outweighs the initial cost by all means. It is a must-try!
