It’s no secret that internet users prefer speed. If pages take too long to load, particularly on mobile devices, visitors are likely to bounce somewhere else.

In fact, recent studies have found that if a web page takes longer than 3 seconds to load, about 40 percent of people will just go somewhere else. That’s a problem if you rely on your business website to attract new customers and hang on to existing ones.

Google and AMP

Google, the world’s most popular search engine, is aware of how important speed is to website creators. That’s why the company launched a new initiative to build a better, faster, and more user-friendly mobile web platform that is specifically designed for mobile devices.

Accelerated Mobile Pages is a project that essentially creates a set of rules that form a simpler, faster version of HTML. Pages that follow AMP load very quickly on mobile devices so that page visitors will stay longer and not bounce off to someplace else.

Because AMP pages feature a more streamlined version of HTML and CSS, pages load about 30 times faster than non-AMP compliant pages. The average AMP-ready page loads in just 0.7 seconds on a standard mobile device, compared to 22 seconds for non-AMP pages.

Fast-Loading Pages Keeps Visitors Coming – Cloud-Based Content

Another way AMP loads faster is that content is cached in the cloud and not delivered from webpage’s server. That frees up a lot more processing time.

The downside is that AMP is relatively new. It was only introduced in February of 2016. So there is still a lot of caution about it among some web page owners who may want to see AMP prove itself before adopting this new technology.

If you a ready to give AMP a try, there is a free WordPress plugin you can use to “amp up” your page loading speeds on mobile devices.