Guest blog: We have stepped into a world where mobile is king and those embracing the platform are seeing significant returns. M-Commerce sales are predicted to make up 44.7% of total eCommerce sales this year – a 5% jump in one year. Never has there been a greater need for quicker loading mobile page speeds.
In fact, a one-second delay on a mobile website can affect conversion rates by up to 20% – a figure that can be fatal to your eCommerce business. Put simply, your website’s speed can determine your business’ success.
To help, Google launched Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) back in 2015 and amended its mobile-search algorithms to give search result preference and increased visibility to websites using AMP.
This all sounds pretty important, huh?! You’re right, and that’s exactly why we’ve asked outreach community specialist Juliette Anderson to give you (and us) a quick overview.
What is AMP?
Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) are open-source protocols that boost page loading speed on mobile. In plain terms, they’re stripped down webpages that load really quickly on mobile phones and devices. Eight seconds faster if you want to be exact.
Even better, AMP are easily activated on WordPress, Shopify and Magento webstores.
Why is this so important to your eCommerce business? Because AMP can increase eCommerce conversions. Let’s take a look at how.
1. Optimizing the buyer’s journey
Customers that land on your eCommerce website will no doubt land on one of several different pages. They might come directly to your homepage, be linked to one of your blogs, click on a product ad or somehow end up directly in a product category.
From there, they’ll follow a journey around your website before ending up on the shopping cart page and through the checkout. The customer journey must be seamless and fast-loading. If it’s not, then you’ll likely suffer from cart abandonment and lost leads.
By activating AMP on the pages relevant to this customer journey, you enhance the buyer experience, reduce the chances of abandonment and increase the chances of a return visit.
Top tip: If you don’t want to use AMP across your whole website, log into your Google Analytics account > Reporting > Audience > User flow to see the typical customer journey and identify the crucial AMP pages.
Why wouldn’t you want to use AMP across your whole website? AMP is a form of stripped-down HTML. So, while it loads faster, you can’t use JavaScript or some CSS, which means things like forms aren’t available.
2. Reducing bounce rate
53% of mobile visitors to your website will leave if a page takes more than three seconds to load. Three seconds. One, two, three. That’s not long and it’s also not good.
Known as your website’s bounce rate, the quicker someone heads back to Google after visiting your website, the more that Google thinks your website wasn’t relevant to the search query. This impacts your SEO ranking, placing your further down the search results and away from new customers.
Conversely, the longer someone spends on your website, the more content they access, the more familiar your brand becomes, the more likely that they’ll find something they like and head through the checkout, and the more relevant Google thinks you are to the search query.
AMP reduces bounce rates associated with slow loading times, increasing your opportunity to convert and boost your SEO ranking.
3. Improving click-through rates
Of course, to decrease your bounce rate, you need a click-through first. AMP also helps with this, by highlighting your link in Google’s search results with the AMP symbol.
The AMP tag makes your search result stand out to new mobile shoppers (who want to know why you have a shiny lightning bolt symbol) and experienced mobile shoppers (who know that shiny lightning bolt symbol denotes speed) – increasing your clicks and moving you up the search results.
4. Customising the shopping experience
We all know how important customising the shopping experience is for increasing customer lifetime value and boosting your store’s performance. But how much do you customise beyond dynamic product recommendations and using the customer’s first name?
AMP customise the shopping experience to your customer’s preferred method of shopping. Someone browsing on their laptop wants access to dynamic content, curated images and fancy graphics; someone browsing on their mobile phone wants access to clear content, simple images and fast loading times. Your use of AMP recognises this.
5. Minimising ad-disruption
Ads on your website are a great way to boost your income, they’ll also a great way to slow down your website. AMP reduces this speed impact, allowing you to keep your side-hustle while giving your customers the speed that they deserve.
6. Boosting conversion rate optimization
What does all of the above achieve? Conversion rate optimization (CRO). Your goal is to get people on your website and through the checkout and fast-loading mobile pages gives you the power to achieve this. It reduces one of the reasons for abandonment and improves the customer experience, giving you more chances of converting.
How will you handle the flux of conversions that AMP brings? We’ll let Expandly multi-channel eCommerce software assist you with that.
Final thoughts
If you want to get started with AMP on your eCommerce website, head to Google Search Console, AMP Webmaster Help Forum and Google Search Guidelines for AMP Pages for tips, tricks and advice – and get ahead of mCommerce before you fall behind.
Author Bio
Juliette Anderson is an Outreach Community Specialist for an e-commerce fulfilment company specialising in online sellers with an average parcel weight of 5+ pounds. Her speciality lies in eCommerce, social media marketing and paid promotions.