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How To ‘AMP’ Up Your Mobile Pages On WordPress

AMP stands for ‘Accelerated Mobile Pages’, and aims to improve your websites mobile speed by restricting what you can do on HTML pages, stripping out the fancy design and focusing on function over form.

In 2016, Google announced that over 50% of search queries were now conducted over mobile, which means that the use of mobile continues to rise. Following this they recently announced that they were to begin prioritising well-functioning mobile websites over desktop in their search results. And with that, it’s clear; your website needs to be fit for mobile users, or be at risk of being overtaken by competitors.

A big issue many mobile websites seems to have is its speed, and this is where AMP comes in. Google is prioritising AMP websites, so it’s pivotal to your success that you have this implemented. With that, we’ll explain how you can implement it onto your WordPress website.

Selecting a plugin

Setting up AMP on your WordPress website isn’t difficult to do, and it really comes down to simply downloading a plugin.

The AMP plugin is the plugin you’re after, as it will enable AMP pages on your website. This works by adding /amp/ to the end of all your web pages. So for example, if the URL for one of your pages is mywebsite.com.au/about, then the AMP URL will be mywebsite.com.au/about/amp.

It’s worth noting that this is the basic AMP plugin and only works for posts, not pages. It requires zero configuration but has limited customisation options.

Once you have AMP installed on your website, Google will automatically redirect users to these pages, as will other sites that support AMP content, such as Pinterest. Users who navigate to your site directly on a mobile device will not be redirected to the AMP content.

As soon as you’ve installed the plugin, you’re essentially done! It’s quick and easy to do, but there are more advanced options out there if you choose.

Customising AMP pages

The AMP plugin noted above has limited customisation options, so if you’re looking for more customisation options, you’ll also want to download the ‘Accelerated Mobile Pages’ plugin. It is worth noting that your theme might not support this particular plugin. In which case, you can simply ask your theme provider to make the theme compatible for AMP. This plugin works in conjunction with the AMP plugin, so you’ll need to download both.

With this plugin, you’ll be able to configure how your AMP content looks, add in AdSense ads, add social buttons and enable AMP on pages, as well as posts. In order to utilise these customisation options, you’ll need to navigate to the ‘AMP’ tab in your WordPress dashboard

If you’re currently using the Yoast SEO plugin, you’ll also want to look to download the Glue for Yoast SEO & AMP plugin.  This allows further customisation and will help to ensure that these two plugins work together seamlessly. Without this plugin there can be issues with your meta data. Navigate to SEO > AMP to configure these settings. Here, you’ll also have options to upload logo and a default header image.

With AMP installed you’ll soon see Google looking to prioritise your content above those who do not. As Google places more emphasis on mobile websites, this is a great way to improve your website functionality, whilst climbing those all important search results.

At Host Geek, we’re here to help. If you need any type of support, then get in touch with us at support@hostgeek.com.au and we’ll see what we can do.

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