What is Google AMP
AMP stands for accelerated mobile pages, it’s an open-source library that will render the codes of your website when browsing on mobile devices. AMP can increase the site speed dramatically.
Not everyone needs an AMP version of their websites. AMP can increase the user experience and is good for SEO but it doesn’t have the good looking as the non-AMP version. It really depends on what is your niche, if your readers need to get information really fast, you will need an AMP version. If the web design is your main value, AMP version is not necessary.
Here’s how to set up Google AMP on WordPress…
AMP Installation
1. Go to “Dashboard” >> “Plugins” >> “Add New” and search AMP for WP, install and activate it.
2. You will be direct to this page, choose “I’m a New User” and follow the installation instruction.
3. All setups can be changed later, so you can skip it if you don’t want to set it now. All my setting are default settings except I also enable “Category & Tags”. If you don’t know how to set up Google Analytics, check here.
Once you have done, you can do more custom settings. I will only show main settings, you can play around with other settings. Always remember to click “Save Changes” everytime you make changes in each small section.
Inside “AMPforWP Options” there has four main sections “SETTING”, “DESIGN”, “EXTENSIONS” and “FREE VS PRO”, we only need to look at “SETTING” and “DESIGN”.
AMP Setting up
Setting
4. Under “General”, “Branding” is where you can upload your logo and resize it. “AMP Support” lets you choose where AMP be enabled.
5. You can access “Page Builder” inside “Pages”, it lets you build your own custom page.
6. You can run Google AdSense with AMP and choose the placement under “Advertisement”.
7. Under “SEO”, enable the “META Description” and select your SEO plugin.
8. Under “Performance” enable “Minify”, it will improve the site speed.
9. Under “Analytics” most people will only use Google Analytics, you can use other analytics if you have.
10. “Structured Data” is where you can set up all your structured data. Keep “Schema & Structured data” as “BlogPosting” will work just well for most case. You can also set your logo.
11. “Notice Bar & GDPR” is useful for some countries that have restricted privacy rules.
12. “Push Notification” is for those who are using OneSignal.
13. Under “Comments” you can set which and how many comments you want to show.
14. Under “Advanced Settings” the only changes I made is enabling “Mobile Redirection” which enable AMP on mobile devices and “Auto Add AMP in Menu URL”.
Design
15. Under “Theme” you can change your theme or choose a layout which is a premium only feature.
16. “Header”, “Homepage”, “Single” and “Footer” are where you can fully customize your AMP design.
17. Under “Social” you can enable different social sharing platform, I’m using other social sharing plugins so I disabled all. You can also add social profiles in “Social Media Profile Links”.
18. Go to “Dashboard” >> “Appearance” >> “Menus” >> “Menu Settings” and enable the AMP Menu you are using. After that, click “Save Menu”.
19. Go to “Dashboard” >> “Appearance” >> “Widgets” you will sidebars for AMP.
20. You can also custom the AMP setting of each page inside “Edit Post” and “Edit Page”.
Result
21. Now instead of “Visit Site” click “Visit AMP”, it will show the AMP version on desktop.
22. Or you can check your site on your phone.
AMP Validation
To see whether your AMP version will be showed in SERP or not, you need to make sure the AMP code is validated.
23. Run your website through Google AMP Validator, if the status is “PASS” you are good to go.
24. You can also go to Google Search Console >> Search Appearance >> Accelerated Mobile Pages, your page won’t show immediately. (Click here If you haven’t set up Google Search Console yet.)
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