People are becoming more and more Mobile-centric, which is influencing website developers to build mobile responsive pages. But, developing mobile responsive pages is not enough if it takes too much loading time. According to Amazon, “even a one-second lag in page load speed accounted for a $1.6B decrease in annual revenue.” AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) is the most prominent solution to this problem.

So, here in this blog, we will guide you to learn the easiest way of setting up Google AMP on the WordPress site.

What is Google AMP?

It is just matter of the time when AMPs will become the standard for “how a fast-loading page should be built.” So, what is Google AMP?

The acronym “AMP” stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages. This initiative of Google is supported by Twitter also. The aim of this initiative is to decrease loading speed of web contents for mobile users.

Most of the content-rich pages take huge time to load in mobile, which affect the UX. When people are mostly using mobile to access web pages, it is unfortunate that they are experiencing this trouble.

AMP uses minimal Javascript and HTML. It helps in hosting the web contents on Google AMP Cache. Goole, in turn, can give an instant feed to the users whenever they click on the link. This technology is similar to the Facebook Instant Articles, which is confined to Facebook’s platform. Unlike the Facebook Instant Articles, the Accelerated Mobile Pages can be used by any browser or app. Hence, the WordPress website developers and support providers for WordPress sites are also leaning towards AMP.

Advantage of Using Google AMP

Google is promoting AMP like anything. Considering this fact in one hand, it can be easily assumed that using AMP will not only help you to improve website loading sped on mobiles but also increase the possibilities of securing a higher position in Google SERP.

Apart from better loading speed and higher ranking in Google SERP, AMP can also help you improve server performances. If any site is generating high traffic volume from mobile traffic, AMP can help in reducing the server load and improve servers’ performance.

Despite its positive contributions, there have been few complaints surfacing here and there. One of the major flaw noted is that AMP doesn’t support any other analytics platforms except Google Analytics. In addition, it also limits the advertising platforms.

Step by Step guide for setting up AMP on WordPress

1. Install the AMP plugin

The first step of setting up AMP on WordPress is downloading and installation of the AMP plugins. The first Plugin you need to install is the AMP plugin by Automattic. This is the base plugin you are bound to install to make AMP work.

Installing the AMP plugin will generate new URLs for the posts, which will be the AMP compatible version. However, only your posts will be AMP compatible and not the pages. If you want to make your pages AMP compatible, you need to use other plugins.

These additional plugins help in achieving greater functionality. You can choose several free plugins, but here are the best options:

• Glue for Yoast SEO & AMP

This plugin is extremely helpful to make posts, pages and media AMP compatible. This plugin seamlessly ensures proper activity of the base AMP plugin. You can custom style the AMP pages. Even you can control the look of the website logos on the AMP page. However, if you want to use this plugin, first – you have to install the Yoast SEO plugin).

• AMP for WP – Accelerated Mobile Pages

The key feature of the AMP for WP plugin is – Google AdSense integration. Apart from that it also offers AMP drag-and-drop page builder and “rel=canonical” tag support. With this plugin, you will be able to create content different from other standard mobile page contents.

2. Set up Google Analytics

The second step is – set up the AMP compatible pages for Google Analytics. First, you need to find the “tracking ID.”

Log in to the Google Analytics account and click the “gear” icon above the Admin panel. Select Account and Property from the respective menus and then click on the “Tracking Info.” There you will find an option – “Tracking ID” – click it. Copy the tracking ID.

Log in to WordPress account and select AMP from the navigation pane. From AMP select “Analytics” and paste the tracking Id into the Google Analytics box. Save changes.

3. Plugin settings configuration

If you have chosen other plugins like AMP for WP – Accelerated Mobile Pages or Glue for Yoast SEO & AMP, you may need to configure the plugin settings. Here is the example of configuring Glue for Yoast SEO & AMP:

Start with – Yoast SEO>AMP>Post Types. From Post Types you will be able to select the “kind of posts” you want to be AMP compatible. From the “design” tab you can customize the look of AMP enable pages like anything.

The configuration setting of most of the plugins is very similar. Hence, consider this configuration set up as a general guide.

4. Test the AMP Setup

Creating an AMP URL is not enough if you can’t test it. Fortunately, there is a handful of options to test newly generated AMP URLs. Here are some of the most reliable options:

• AMP test

Open the Following link:

https://search.google.com/test/amp

Enter URL in the box and hit go. The result will show – Valid or Invalid.

• AMP Validator

Open the Following link:

https://validator.ampproject.org/

Paste the AMP URL and click Validate. The result will highlight the errors so that you can improve it!

• Developer Console

You can use this option only on Google Chrome Browser. So, open the AMP page on the Google Browser and the following at the URL end:

#development=1 to the URL

The URL structure will be framed like:

http://domain.com/subdomain/amp/#development=1

Now, open Chrome menu, click on More Tools and then select Development Tools. Here you will find the console tab – check validation here. The result will show “successful” if everything is right.

5. Index the AMP URLs

Once you have validated the URL you can submit it directly to Google if you were using AMP Test through Google Search Console.

On the other hand, if you have used other options, in that case – you can log in to your Google account and search for “submit URL to google” option. And submit the new URL.

However, this is not a mandatory step as Google will eventually index your new URL if it is listed in the XML sitemap.

6. Test Page Speed

This is also another optional step. However, we strongly recommend following this step to check the AMP efficacy. The simplest way to do so is running the AMP page and standard mobile page through a speed tool like WebPage Test and then compare their loading speed.

Let’s give it a try!

As Google is determined to implement the new “mobile-first index” concept, the page speed is surely going to play a major role as a mobile ranking factor. If you want to stay in the advantageous position it is time to go with AMP before the entire population runs for it! From this blog, by now it should be cleared to you that setting up AMP is easy as pie. So, use AMP as an additional trick along with white hat SEO to ensure a higher position in Google SERP.

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