{"id":4248,"date":"2016-12-27T16:38:08","date_gmt":"2016-12-27T14:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themeisle.com\/blog\/?p=4248"},"modified":"2022-03-23T03:30:00","modified_gmt":"2022-03-23T03:30:00","slug":"google-amp-for-wordpress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themeisle.com\/blog\/google-amp-for-wordpress\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Set Up Google AMP for WordPress (And Why You Should)"},"content":{"rendered":"

You need your WordPress site to load fast. Time after time, studies have shown that users want websites to load increasingly quickly. And that’s even truer on mobile, where data plans can slow things down. To combat slow data connections, one great way to speed up your site on mobile is to set up Google AMP for WordPress (Accelerated Mobile Pages).<\/p>\n

If you’ve already made the basic speed enhancements like lazy loading WordPress content<\/a> and our other easy speed tips<\/a>, keep reading to learn all about how to add Google AMP to WordPress.
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What is Google AMP?<\/h2>\n

Google AMP, short for Accelerated Mobile Pages, is an open source mobile initiative from Google aimed at speeding up the mobile web. It essentially lets you create stripped-down versions of your posts and pages and serve them up to mobile visitors. For those visiting from Google Search, Google will even cache your AMP content to load it even faster.<\/p>\n

AMP is great for content that is not<\/strong> interactive. If your site requires lots of interaction, the stripped-down code standards of AMP will likely get in the way. But if your site is primarily “read” by your users, then AMP is a great way to speed up your pages without losing functionality.<\/p>\n

If you’re familiar with code, we also have a post with a more developer-centric explanation of Google AMP<\/a>.<\/em>
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What are the benefits of Google AMP for WordPress?<\/h2>\n

The main benefit of Google AMP is improved page load times. How big is the improvement? Well, that depends on how optimized your current mobile site is. But it can be pretty substantial.<\/p>\n

It’s not just page load times, though. Content that complies with all AMP standards also gets special consideration in Google’s mobile search results. AMP pages get an “AMP” designation and a chance to appear in the carousel at the top of the search results:<\/p>\n

\"Google<\/p>\n

Google has stated that AMP is not<\/strong> a direct ranking signal. But the AMP designation should increase your organic CTR in mobile results.
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But does Google AMP have drawbacks?<\/h2>\n

Some publishers aren’t happy with Google AMP for WordPress. Most of these criticisms come down to one thing:<\/p>\n

Money.<\/p>\n

Because AMP is stripped-down, it does limit advertising opportunities. Ads are allowed in AMP content, but they can be more difficult to implement. And although Google is expanding the number of ad types supported by AMP, some publishers still report lower revenue<\/a> from AMP pages than traditional mobile pages.<\/p>\n

I can’t say for sure how AMP will affect your revenue. Plenty of other publishers report being able to earn equivalent amounts from AMP pages. You’ll have to see for yourself.
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How to set up Google AMP for WordPress<\/h2>\n

Automattic has made it very easy to implement basic AMP pages for WordPress with a simple plugin. But this plugin doesn’t give you any ways to configure how your AMP content functions, so later on I’ll show you another plugin to help customize your AMP pages as well.<\/p>\n