Setting AMP for Success at #SMXLmilan

#ampsuccess by @aleyda at #smxlmilan
Setting AMP for Success

Ciao #SMXLMILAN

I’m Aleyda Solis

I help companies to connect with them

Some of them brands you likely know

Having a fast mobile Website is one of the
fundamental aspects to achieve this goal

As well as to avoid causing stress to our users

Speed will be even more critical with  
Google’s upcoming mobile ﬁrst index too

Users have minimum expectations

But this is our speed reality

Let’s see… how much time the  
Trova Prezzi home page takes to load?

Ouch
https://testmysite.thinkwithgoogle.com/

And the Virgilio one?

Yup

And La Stampa one?

I think I’ve made my point

The solution is to implement WPO principles  
to make Mobile sites to load fast
https://developers.google.com/speed/docs/insights/rules

But big sites have restrictive legacy platforms &
small ones little resources to improve them

This is why Google launched AMP

It uses a “simpliﬁed” HTML version with optimised
resources & cache to serve faster in Mobile SERPs
https://www.ampproject.org/learn/overview/

AMP is published “parallely” and canonicalized  
to your current (slower) Mobile Web pages
http://www.lastampa.it/2017/11/11/societa/nel-giorno-dei-single-
alibaba-macina-record-un-miliardo-di-dollari-nei-primi-due-
minuti-e-un-secondo-3LBa6otfg99OuPdX7H6XIJ/pagina.html
http://www.lastampa.it/2017/11/11/societa/nel-giorno-dei-
single-alibaba-macina-record-un-miliardo-di-dollari-nei-primi-
due-minuti-e-un-secondo-3LBa6otfg99OuPdX7H6XIJ/
amphtml/pagina.amp.html

It’s also cached and pre-rendered  
by Google when shown in Mobile SERPs
Google AMP Viewer URL 
that is pre-rendered
Canonical URL of the
Page
Content served from AMP
Cache URL

Making it certainly much faster
http://www.lastampa.it/2017/11/11/societa/nel-giorno-dei-single-
alibaba-macina-record-un-miliardo-di-dollari-nei-primi-due-
minuti-e-un-secondo-3LBa6otfg99OuPdX7H6XIJ/pagina.html
http://www.lastampa.it/2017/11/11/societa/nel-giorno-dei-
single-alibaba-macina-record-un-miliardo-di-dollari-nei-primi-
due-minuti-e-un-secondo-3LBa6otfg99OuPdX7H6XIJ/
amphtml/pagina.amp.html

AMP usage is not a ranking factor

But Google made it a requirement to be
included in the News Carrousel

and can be also shown in organic results
AMP article rich results 
Can be free-standing in the results
page, or embedded in a carousel of
similar result types. All AMP article rich
results are also rich results.
AMP non-rich results 
A basic, non-graphical search result
pointing to the AMP page.

Which has given it an impressive SERP visibility
https://www.rankranger.com/amp-on-google-serp

As well as trafﬁc to the sites using it
AMP Rich Results
AMP Non-Rich Results
Non-AMP Results
More Mobile organic
visibility and traffic from
AMP than non-AMP
results

However, AMP is not a replacement  
of your Mobile site

Even Google representatives agree that is not  
a “bullet-proof” solution for all sites
“It wouldn’t be
reasonable for us to
expect that a group of
limited functionalities
replace all what you can
do at the moment in the
mobile environment…
AMP its meant to serve in
certain use cases”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtOjUwGnrVY

AMP is a fast “add-on”
to your already existing  
(but still slow) mobile
Website
Just what happens with
Batman as a super hero… he
doesn’t have any superpowers

Sorry Batman
AMP A fast Mobile site

But due to the way it is presented and  
its expansion efforts it might look like it

Just what happens to Batman  
as a superhero too

That’s why there are reservations about it: “AMP  
has a good intentions… but sacriﬁce the open Web”

You shouldn’t
then use AMP
as a silver
bullet Mobile
speed solution
but a resource
in certain
scenarios…
Thanks Alfred :)

You will be able to minimize situations like this

Use AMP when your Mobile site is too slow and/
or you want to be included in the carrousel
and/or
Too slow and can’t
be improved
Needs to be
included in carrousel

Avoid implementing AMP when you have  
an independent mobile Web Version
Desktop Web Parallel Mobile Web Version with M subdomain
AMP URL
Google AMP Viewer URL
Canonicalize to
Generates

Verify if you can Implement your
current Mobile Web UI &
functionality with AMP

Your AMP URLs should replicate your own  
Mobile Web UI & functionality, instead of this
ORIGINAL MOBILE PAGE AMP VERSION

Validate that your mobile Web functionality  
can be replicated by using AMP components
https://www.ampproject.org/docs/reference/components

Check with your development team if you  
have the capacity and ﬂexibility to use them
https://ampbyexample.com/

You can even test while validating your  
code directly in the AMP Playground editor
https://ampbyexample.com/playground/

Plan ahead using the roadmap with a  
reference of the functionalities to come
https://www.ampproject.org/roadmap/

There are also free Wordpress plugins  
that highly facilitate the implementation

You can also use freemium and paid  
WP plugins like AMP for WP and weeblrAMP

They will allow you to personalise more, but  
you’ll likely need further development support

They’re not an “out of the box” solution  
and will still need design personalisation
ORIGINAL MOBILE PAGE AMP VERSION

The goal should be to keep the UI  
and functionality consistent
ORIGINAL MOBILE PAGE
=
AMP VERSION

Check your AMP visibility potential
to prioritize your implementation
accordingly

Verify the share and type of queries for  
which AMP results are shown in your industry
https://www.sistrix.com/

Identify which of them are shown along SERP
features to prioritise and format your content

Like this

Avoid linking to your AMP URLs
unless you’re using them as your
canonical mobile Web pages

There’s an inconsistent mobile user experience  
when accessing to AMP pages from SERPs

Which ends-up causing that users link and share  
the non-canonical Google AMP Viewer URLs

Start avoiding these by making sure to only  
link internally to your canonical URLs from AMP

You can also refer your users to your original  
Website version to continue browsing your site

Remember to also redirect based on the user agent
to avoid showing non-mobile visitors your AMP URLs
DON’T DO THIS DO THIS

Validate your AMP implementation
before and after launch with SEO
crawlers to minimise issues

+70% of top publishers with AMP across 8 countries
(including the US) have implementation errors

Most common AMP mistakes are related to usage  
of disallowed and non-supported attributes & tags
https://www.semrush.com/blog/amp-mistakes-semrush-study/

For real
THIS IS NOT THE AMP VERSION
OF THE ABOVE ARTICLE

Avoid them by using the AMP validator Chrome
extension to go through your main pages
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/amp-validator/nmoffdblmcmgeicmolmhobpoocbbmknc

Crawl all of your site pages to validate AMP
implementation issues before and after launching
https://sitebulb.com/

SEO crawlers like Sitebulb, Deepcrawl & SEMrush 
already include AMP conﬁguration problems
deepcrawl.com

You’ll be able to obtain and ﬁx quickly those that
would generate critical issues in the Search Console

https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/log-file-analyser/
Validate if possible in your logs if Googlebot’s
crawling behavior of your AMP URLs is consistent
19 OF THE 20 CRAWLED
URLs ARE AMP

Monitor AMP implementation
errors with GSC AMP report, where
you should focus on ﬁxing critical
issues ﬁrst

It’s usual to be overwhelmed by the increase of
AMP issues when launching or updating
SIGH

Prioritise to ﬁx critical issues ﬁrst, which will  
be the ones preventing to be shown in SERPs
THIS

Start with those affecting the highest number  
of pages and check them directly there

Focus on identifying how the non-supported code  
is included to establish a pattern and remove it

YES
Rinse and repeat until you minimise critical errors

Monitor your AMP visibility impact
to prioritize your efforts along the
on-going content development and
optimization process

Opt-in for Google Analytics AMP Client ID API  
to correctly track AMP on Cache
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/7486764

Beyond the AMP vs. Non-AMP trafﬁc trend,  
what’s the impact of AMP on users behavior?

Follow-up w/ your own AMP results  
via the Google Search Console too

Verify the top queries per AMP URL to identify
further AMP content opportunities

Be mindful of Search Console false positives though

Use SEOmonitor to track AMP for your targeted
(ranked or unranked) keywords
https://www.seomonitor.com/

You can also spot AMP opportunities vs. your
competitors with SEMrush rank tracking
https://www.semrush.com

rankranger.com
Do the same with your News Carrousel  
AMP rankings by using RankRanger

If at some point you want to disable
AMP, follow SEO best practices to
avoid losing that trafﬁc

Remove the rel=”amphtml” link tag and  
301-redirect AMP URLs to your canonical ones
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/guides/remove-amp
HANDY
WORDPRESS
PLUGIN

Here’s a list with all of these,  
so you don’t forget
Verify if you can
Implement your current
Mobile Web UI &
functionality with AMP
Check your AMP visibility
potential to prioritise your
implementation accordingly
Monitor AMP
implementation errors with
GSC AMP report, where you
should focus on ﬁxing
critical issues ﬁrst
Avoid linking to your AMP
URLs unless you’re using them
as your canonical mobile Web
pages
Validate your AMP
implementation before
and after launch with SEO
crawlers to minimise issues
Monitor your AMP visibility
impact to prioritize your
efforts along the on-going
content development and
optimization process
If you want to disable AMP,
don’t forget SEO best
practices, removing tag to
AMP and redirecting to your
mobile pages

Now is your turn

Setting AMP for Success at #SMXLmilan

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