What is AMP and How Does it Make Your Site Faster on Mobile?

Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) is an open-source framework designed to enhance the performance of web content on mobile devices. Developed by Google and Twitter, AMP aims to improve the speed and user experience of mobile web browsing by simplifying and optimizing web pages for faster loading times. This article explores what AMP is, its key features, and how it can make your site faster on mobile.

What is AMP?

AMP stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages. It is a project initiated by Google to create a more efficient and streamlined version of web pages specifically optimized for mobile devices. Project was announced by Google on 7th October 2015, following discussions with its partners in the European Digital News Initiative (DNI), and other news publishers and technology companies around the world, about improving the performance of the mobile web. And on 24th Feb 2016, Google officially integrated AMP listings into its mobile search results.

Pages making use of AMP coding appear within special places in the search results and/or with a special "AMP" designation. It's an open-source library that provides a straightforward way to create web pages that are compelling, smooth, and load near instantaneously for users. AMP pages are just web pages that you can link to and are controlled by you. AMP builds on your existing skill sets and frameworks to create web pages. It is supported by many different platforms, and it's compatible across browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari, Opera and UC Browser. Also supports desktop, phone, tablet and the web view version of these respective browsers. AMP focuses on three main components:

1. AMP HTML

A subset of HTML with custom tags and properties that ensure a web page is lightweight and fast. It's basically HTML extended with custom AMP properties. Though most tags in an AMP HTML page are regular HTML tags, some HTML tags are replaced with AMP-specific tags. The custom elements, called AMP HTML components, make common patterns easy to implement in a performant way. AMP pages are discovered by search engines and other platforms through the HTML tag. You can choose to have a non-AMP version and an AMP version of your page, or just an AMP version.

2. AMP JavaScript

A library that manages resource handling and asynchronous loading to ensure that the page loads quickly without blocking the rendering process. The AMP JS library implements all of AMP's best performance practices manages resource loading and gives you the custom tags, all to ensure a fast rendering of your page. Among the biggest optimizations is the fact that it makes everything that comes from external resources asynchronous, so nothing in the page can block anything from rendering. Other performance techniques include the sandboxing of all iframes, the pre-calculation of the layout of every element on the page before resources are loaded and the disabling of slow CSS selectors.

3. AMP Cache

A content delivery network (CDN) that caches and serves AMP pages to users, further speeding up the loading process. The Google AMP Cache is a proxy-based content delivery network for delivering all valid AMP documents. It fetches AMP HTML pages, caches them, and improves page performance automatically. When using this Cache, the document, all JS files, and all images load from the same origin that is using HTTP 2.0 for maximum efficiency. The cache also comes with a built-in validation system which confirms that the page is guaranteed to work and that it doesn't depend on external resources. The validation system runs a series of assertions confirming the page’s markup meets the AMP HTML specification. Another version of the validator comes bundled with every AMP page. This version can log validation errors directly to the browser's console when the page is rendered, allowing you to see how complex changes in your code might impact performance and user experience.

By adhering to AMP standards, web developers can create web pages that load quickly and perform efficiently on mobile devices, providing a better user experience.

Key Features of AMP

1. Optimized HTML

AMP uses a restricted version of HTML with custom tags, known as AMP HTML, to ensure that web pages are optimized for performance. This includes removing slow-loading elements and enforcing best practices for fast loading.

2. Asynchronous JavaScript

AMP restricts the use of JavaScript to ensure that scripts do not block the rendering of web pages. Only asynchronous JavaScript is allowed, which prevents scripts from delaying page rendering.

3. Efficient Resource Handling

AMP optimizes the loading of external resources, such as images, videos, and advertisements, by managing their loading priorities. This ensures that critical content is loaded first, improving the perceived loading speed.

4. Pre-rendering

AMP pages can be pre-rendered in Google search results, allowing users to see a preview of the page before clicking on it. This makes the page appear to load instantly when the user clicks on it.

5. AMP Cache

AMP pages are cached by Google’s AMP Cache, a content delivery network that serves the pages quickly to users. This reduces the load time significantly as the content is served from a location close to the user.

How AMP Makes Your Site Faster on Mobile

1. Reduced Page Size: AMP eliminates unnecessary elements and enforces a streamlined HTML structure, resulting in smaller page sizes. This reduces the amount of data that needs to be downloaded, speeding up the page load time.
2. Prioritized Content Loading: AMP ensures that the most important content, such as text and images, is loaded first. This improves the perceived performance as users can start interacting with the content while other elements are still loading.
3. Asynchronous Resource Loading: By enforcing asynchronous loading of JavaScript and other resources, AMP prevents scripts from blocking the rendering process. This means that the page can be displayed to users more quickly.
4. Pre-rendering in Search Results: When AMP pages appear in Google search results, they can be pre-rendered, giving users the impression of an almost instant load when they click on the result.
5. Leveraging AMP Cache: The AMP Cache serves AMP pages from a global network of servers, reducing latency and speeding up the delivery of content to users. This ensures that AMP pages load quickly regardless of the user’s location.

Is AMP Right for Your Website?

AMP offers lot of benefits, but it's not a one-size-fits-all solution. Here are some factors to consider:

• Website Type: AMP is best for content-driven websites like news articles, blogs, or product pages. Websites with complex functionalities or heavy reliance on custom JavaScript might not be ideal candidates.
• Development and Maintenance: Creating and maintaining AMP versions of your webpages requires additional development and maintenance effort.
• Potential Loss of Functionality: AMP's restrictions might limit some functionalities or features available on your original web pages.

Conclusion

AMP is a powerful tool for improving the performance of web pages on mobile devices. By enforcing a streamlined and optimized version of HTML, prioritizing content loading, and leveraging asynchronous JavaScript, AMP ensures that web pages load quickly and efficiently. The use of AMP Cache further enhances performance by serving content from a global network of servers. For web developers looking to improve the mobile experience of their sites, adopting AMP can lead to faster load times, better user engagement, and improved search engine rankings. As mobile internet usage continues to grow, optimizing for speed and performance with AMP is more important than ever.