What is an Accelerated Mobile Page (AMP)?
This is a technology that can load pages so quickly that you will think it happened instantly. This is possible thanks to statically sizing page elements, using asynchronous loading and cutting irrelevant JavaScript. The greatest gain with AMP is that you can improve load times on a page you want, without redoing the website from scratch. In order to set it up, you will just need to create an AMP template for a specific type of content. After that, you should use a rel=”mapHTML” tag on the content version without AMP, and that move will ensure that search engines will recognize the AMP version. In the end, your AMP version will connect and point to the non-AMP version using a canonical tag.
How Will AMP Affect Your SEO?
What is Progressive Web App (PWA)?
This technology allows you to create an app-like experience while using traditional web features. PWAs can be used regardless of a device, which means they are responsive. This feature will be crucial in the future, as experts from GWM Company suggest. Search engines won’t rank your website well if it isn’t running perfectly on all platforms, especially mobile ones. PWAs use browser feature detection, which helps to implement progressive improvements that will make the site compatible across different platforms.
Should PWAs be crawlable?
It is good to mention that PWAs should be crawlable as any other website. The experience showed one good practice when it comes to PWAs: Make sure to use server-side rendering, where dynamic content will be calculated before being sent to the user. You can also use a hybrid rendering model, but keep in mind that one part of rendering will happen after the initial page load as the sum of asynchronous requests. In the end, one type of rendering should be avoided at all costs, and that’s client-side rendering. If you choose to use hybrid or client-side rendering, after all, make sure to ease the navigation with History API.
When can you benefit from AMP, and when from PWA?
If you have content that is not media heavy, and it doesn’t need plenty of custom JavaScript, then you should go with AMP. The most valuable feature AMP can offer its way of handling static content, which can be found in recipes and blog articles. Additionally, you can use AMP if you want to use e-commerce and other interactive sites. Keep in mind that AMP has some limitations, which can hard to avoid, and the solution for those might be pricey. On the other hand, PWAs are best used if you want to make a highly interactive and dynamic website. This technology is user-oriented, and its best features are most noticeable when it comes to user engagement. PWA’s priority doesn’t speed, but the best user experience possible. If your business is all about coming back to your website, then you should consider investing in PWA development.
Final thoughts
As you can see, there are some differences between Accelerated Mobile Page (AMP) and Progressive Web App (PWA), and both technologies have their strengths and weaknesses. Before you decide with which technology you should go, make sure to get well educated or seek professional help. If you make the right decision, your website will attract more people, and your conversion rate will increase.
