What are Google Accelerated Mobile Pages?

Google Accelerated Mobile Pages is an open source initiative that gives content publishers the ability to create fast-loading content for mobile users. In search results, content that is optimized for Google AMP appears near the top of news results.

When a mobile search user clicks on one of these articles, it loads instantly. Not only that, but the user can quickly swipe from one Google AMP optimized article to the next without having to go back to search results.

What are Facebook Instant Articles?

Facebook Instant Articles are to the Facebook mobile app what Google AMP is to Google search. It’s source code that allows content publishers the ability to create fast-loading content for mobile users. The article in the newsfeed looks like any other article on the Facebook app.

But when you click on it, instead of watching the Facebook app load the article on an external website, the article loads instantly in the app.

While Facebook Instant Articles doesn’t let you flip from one site to the next like Google AMP does, it does allow publishers to place their own related links sections at the end of articles so mobile users stay on their content longer, which makes it even more beneficial for the publisher than Google AMP. Especially those publishers that monetize their Facebook Instant Articles..

How Google AMP and Facebook Instant Articles will impact you.

It’s obvious what Google AMP and Facebook Instant Articles means to content publishers. If you want to rank higher in Google search results, you have to get your content optimized for Google AMP. And if you want more people to click through to your articles in the Facebook app, you will have to get your content optimized for Facebook Instant Articles.

But what about those of you that do not publish content. Does Google AMP and Facebook Instant Articles impact you? It absolutely does. And here’s why.

Mobile users will become accustomed to faster loading and better performing mobile web pages thanks to Google AMP and Facebook Instant Articles.

It’s similar to the Amazon Prime effect on online shoppers. Anyone who subscribes to Amazon Prime has become accustom to one to two day shipping on the items they order. They balk at any site that either makes them wait longer or pay more for expedited shipping.

So even if your website doesn’t publish content, mobile users are still going to become accustomed to faster load times and better performance on mobile websites thanks to Google AMP and Facebook Instant Articles. Therefore, when they go to your website, they are going to expect just that – faster load times and better performance.

In other words, they are going to expect a near-perfect mobile experience.

What you need to do now.

So here is what you need to do now if you want to prepare for mobile audiences spoiled by the Google AMP and Facebook Instant Articles experience before both go mainstream.

1. If you are a content publisher, your content needs to be optimized for Google AMP and Facebook Instant Articles.

For starters, if you are a content publisher (i.e., you have a blog that you rely on to drive traffic to your website), then you need to start optimizing for Google AMP and Facebook Instant Articles. You can learn more about the coding and other requirements on their respective pages.

Note that while Facebook Instant Articles doesn’t become available to everyone until April 12th, there is plenty you can do in the meantime to prepare for it. For example, if you don’t have 50 posts on your website or a compliant RSS feed, you won’t be approved into the program. Also, note that you can sign up on the page linked above for more details, including access to the developer’s area.

2. If you are not a content publisher, you still need to get every page on your website mobile friendly.

Why? Because if any piece of content that is optimized for Google AMP or Facebook Instant Articles links to your website, then you do not want that user to go from a superior mobile experience to a web page that provides just the opposite. If that user has to pinch and zoom, they’ll likely bounce off your website pretty quickly.

3. It’s not just about being mobile friendly. It’s about better performance.

Content that is optimized for Google AMP and Facebook Instant Articles is not just easy to read and pretty to look at on mobile devices. What separates it from run-of-the-mill mobile-friendly, responsive design is performance, or particularly, speed. Content optimized for Google AMP and Facebook Instant Articles loads almost instantly.

People who click on content optimized for Google AMP and Facebook Instant Articles don’t have to wait for anything to load. And eventually, they will lose patience for anything that makes them wait on their mobile device.

Hence, your website can’t just look good on mobile. It needs to load as quickly as possible as well. So if you haven’t thought about the actual performance of your website before, now is the time. Google Developers offers a free PageSpeed Insights tool that will check your website’s speed on both mobile and desktop browsers.

In addition to showing how your website will look on a mobile browser, it will also provide suggestions on how you can improve your website’s performance on mobile browsers.

You can also try running your website through WebPageTest to see your website’s performance on a variety of specific browsers (including different types of mobile browsers) from specific locations. Each will give you a very detailed report of ways that you can optimize your website for better performance.

You might find that simply optimizing some image file sizes or removing some unnecessary widgets and plugins can make a huge difference in your website’s performance on both mobile and desktop browsers, providing a better user experience for everyone. Also, if your content is served from a database, look at ways to clean up your database, such as that spam folder of comments that hasn’t been emptied and is now 10,000+ deep.

4. Get rich with your media.

It seems to go against the idea of performance, but one of the things that is becoming increasingly popular in content optimized for Google AMP and Facebook Instant Articles is rich media. While images, GIFs, and video can add to a page’s load time, it can also add a positive note to your user’s experience.

Hence, you need to find ways to get rich media into your web pages without hurting their performance time. Many websites do by optimizing the media itself as much as possible and using content delivery network services.

If you aren’t used to adding images, GIFs, and video to your web pages, don’t worry. It’s not going to be as difficult as you think. Depending on your business, all you need is a smartphone to take high definition photos of your physical products, screenshot tools like Jing to take screenshots of your digital products, PlaceIt to make mockups of your digital products on a digital device, Screenflow to make screencasts of your digital products, BigStock to get stock photos and videos, Canva to create custom images, and imgflip to create GIFs from video.

In Conclusion

If you haven’t been serious about mobile optimization for your website before, the time has come. As more publishers adopt Google AMP and Facebook Instant Articles optimization, more mobile users will expect a better mobile user experience from every website they visit on their mobile device.

This includes yours, regardless of whether you serve content or static web pages. So take the time today to determine whether you have content that needs to be optimized for Google AMP and Facebook Instant Articles, and whether the rest of your web pages are ready for the high-performance mobile revolution!