In February this year, Google introduced its Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) project with the aim to reduce the loading times for mobile webpages. Now these sped-up versions of mobile pages will soon make their to all of Google's search results instead of being limited to just the Top Stories carousel in search results.
The main idea behind Google's AMP initiative was to deliver news and other articles from publishers to mobile users in as less time as possible. Interestingly, the adoption for AMP has gone past just news industry and now includes e-commerce, entertainment, travel, recipe sites, the official blog for the project says.
On Tuesday, Google shared an early preview (for users, developers, and sites) of this expanded support across entire search results page. Mobile search results outside of the Top Stories carousel that have corresponding AMP pages will now feature a lightning symbol next to the word AMP as a label - similar to how Google shows mobile-friendly webpages.
In the blog, Google has clarified that this new change will not result in ranking change for the websites and is only meant to provide mobile users with faster browsing experience. Google's ranking system does prioritise small load times and page speed, however, Google VP of Engineering David Besbris explained to Search Engine Land that if there are two identical pages - one mobile friendly and the other AMP-powered - it will show the AMP one.
According to the official blog, Google has more than 150 million AMP articles in its index, with over 4 million new ones being added every week.
You can also check out how the sped-up webpages work by heading to AMP's demo page on your mobile device and searching for "something like 'french toast recipe' or music lyrics by your favourite artist to experience how AMP can provide a speedier reading experience on the mobile web," the search giant said in its blog.
In April, Accelerated Mobile Pages came to all of Google's platforms including its news app for Android and Apple devices.
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