Are you interested in setup Google AMP on your WordPress site? AMP stands for accelerated mobile pages, and it’s a technique for making your website load faster on mobile devices. Websites that load quickly provide a better user experience and can increase traffic. We’ll show you how to set up Google AMP in WordPress in this article.
What is Google Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)?
Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) is a term coined by Google. It’s an open-source initiative backed by tech giants such as Google and Twitter. The project’s goal is to make mobile users’ web content load faster.
Reading on the web is often slow for many mobile users. Despite all efforts by site owners to speed up their websites, most content-rich pages take several seconds to load.
AMP stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages, and it uses only the most basic HTML and Javascript. This enables Google AMP Cache to host the content. When users click on your link in the search results, Google can serve this cached version to them instantly.
It’s a lot like Facebook Instant Articles. Instant Articles, on the other hand, are limited to Facebook’s platform, specifically their mobile app.
Any app, browser, or web viewer can use Accelerated Mobile Pages because they are platform agnostic. Google, Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit, and other companies are currently using it.
Google AMP’s Advantages and Disadvantages (Accelerated Mobile Pages)
Accelerated Mobile Pages, according to SEO experts, will help you rank higher in Google while also improving the user experience for mobile users with slow internet connections. However, website owners, bloggers, and marketers face a number of challenges.
The HTML, JavaScript, and CSS used by AMP are limited. This means you won’t be able to use certain widgets or features on your AMP mobile website. This limits your ability to add dynamic scripts like smart email optin forms and Facebook like boxes.
While Google AMP is compatible with Google Analytics, it is not compatible with a wide range of other analytics platforms. The same can be said for advertising options, which are limited to a few platforms.
AMP pages are being pushed by Google, despite their limitations, by giving them a boost in mobile search.
If mobile searches account for a significant portion of your traffic, you may benefit from adding AMP support to improve and maintain your SEO.
Bloggers have voiced their dissatisfaction with Google AMP.
The first is by Alex Kras, who claims that enabling Google AMP could result in a loss of mobile traffic. Read the article thoroughly because this is a major issue, and despite what the Google Tech Lead for the AMP project has said, we don’t believe there are any good solutions to the problem.
The second is by Terrence Eden, who emphasizes the difficulties of switching back to Google AMP in the future if you change your mind. We don’t believe this is a major problem because you can use a 301 redirect, as several people have mentioned in the comments section of his blog posts, but it is something you should consider.
We are not switching WPExpertPro to Google AMP for the reasons stated above.
However, because several of our readers have asked how to set up Google AMP in WordPress, we’ve put together a step-by-step guide on how to set up Accelerated Mobile Pages in WordPress.
Using WordPress to set up AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages)
The first step is to install and activate the AMP plugin. See our step-by-step guide to installing a WordPress plugin for more information.
After you’ve activated AMP, go to the Appearance » AMP page to see how your site looks on mobile devices.
On this page, you can change the background and text color of the header. The color you choose for the header background will also be used for links.
If your theme allows it, the plugin will also use your site’s icon or logo.
Remember to save your changes by clicking the save button.
Want to make your AMP pages even more unique? Related posts, footer widgets, and even social media icons can all be added to your AMP pages using a variety of plugins.
However, after installing any addon plugins, make sure to validate your AMP pages.
You can now visit any single post on your website by appending /amp/ to the URL. As an example:
http://example.com/2022/01/my-first-blog-post/amp/
This will show you an AMP version of the same post that has been stripped down.
This line in the HTML can be found in the source code of the original post:
<link rel="amphtml" href="http://example.com/2022/01/my-first-blog-post/amp/" />
This line instructs search engines and other AMP-consuming apps/services to look for the page’s AMP version.
Troubleshooting:
If you get a 404 error when trying to view the amp version, follow these instructions.
In your WordPress admin, go to Settings » Permalinks and click the ‘Save Changes’ button. Remember, nothing needs to be changed here; simply press the save button. The permalink structure of your website will be refreshed as a result of this.
In Google Search Console, look for Accelerated Mobile Pages.
Do you want to know how your AMPs are performing in Google Search? The Google Search Console makes it simple to check this.
Log in to your Google Search Console account and select Search Appearance » Accelerated Mobile Pages from the drop-down menu.
If you don’t see your AMP results right away, don’t worry. It may take some time for Google to index and display data from your Accelerated Mobile Pages in Search Console.
Getting Accurate AMP Page Analytics
One of the most significant drawbacks of AMP is that it can skew your Google Analytics data. Visitors to your AMP pages aren’t accurately tracked and may be counted twice.
We recommend MonsterInsights for the most accurate analytics. It’s the best Google Analytics WordPress plugin.b
The MonsterInsights AMP addon will automatically correct your tracking so you can get accurate visitor statistics.
We hope you found this article helpful in learning how to set up AMP on WordPress.