Less than a quarter of SEOs have started to implement Google’s open source Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) initiative to improve the performance of mobile web, a new study shows. This is despite the majority understanding that it is likely to have a notable impact on their rankings in SERPs.
SEO PowerSuite’s AMP Survey looked at the strategies of around 400 in-house and agency SEOs in Europe and North America in order to identify their awareness of the protocol and its potential long-term impact. The survey found that just 23 per cent had started using AMP for their mobile sites, though around a third are planning to implement it during the next six months. A further 42 per cent revealed that they are aiming to research it further before implementing it.
Most SEOs are now aware of AMP and its benefits, and just under half are expecting it to have a “significant impact” on search rankings due to the ongoing shift from desktop to mobile. Google recently began prioritising AMP content in SERPs and launched an extension last week that adds a carousel with mobile-friendly articles and pages at the top of the search results.
Competitive advantage
SEO PowerSuite CEO Aleh Barysevich urged marketers to embrace the framework, as he believes that Google will continue to unveil further algorithm updates that will reward websites delivering the best user experience on mobile. Only five per cent of those surveyed said that they had no plans to support AMP in the near future.
The report concluded: “At a time when, according to Google, mobile searches have overtaken those on desktops, more than half of SEOs understand that implementing AMP in the next six months is important. Despite that understanding however, only 25% of SEO professionals in our survey have taken concrete actions to implement the AMP protocol now. That gap creates a window of opportunity for agile marketers to use AMP adoption to build significant advantages over competitors.”
Google launched AMP in October last year as a means to helping publishers and brands to create and distribute content more easily on mobile while supporting a comprehensive range of ad networks, ad formats and tech.
