Month: May 2018

Google launches new Google My Business API, new dashboard to manage multiple locations

In Marketing, SEO by Jay / May 30, 2018 / No comments

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Now a single registered account on GMB will be able to manage an unlimited number of locations.

Google said this morning that local search on mobile devices is growing faster than mobile search overall — 50 percent year over year. Partly in response, Google has been regularly adding new features to the Knowledge Panel and Google My Business (GMB).

Today, Google announced a new GMB API, new agency dashboard and new agency partner program. The API will enable agencies to manage additional categories of content, such as merchant descriptions and Posts for multilocation brands and small businesses at scale.

Google developed the agency dashboard in collaboration with a couple of its agency partners. The new dashboard promises to be fast. And it enables:

A single registered account on GMB to manage an unlimited number of locations.
User Groups to manage internal teams and control access to locations.
Easier product workflows to manage listings.

Registered agencies are also being given early access to new GMB tools and features. They’ll have a dedicated partner manager and other benefits. There will also be a new partner directory.

Google said that multiple criteria were involved in evaluating potential agency partners for the new program. There isn’t a specific “number of locations under management” requirement, but Google wants to initially focus on agencies that are growing. You can sign up for the agency partner program here.

The new dashboard will become available in the next three weeks.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”orange” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-external-link”]This article was originally posted at Search Engine Land by Greg Sterling on May 1, 2018.[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row][/vc_section]

What is GDPR and how will it affect you?

In Personal, Security by Jay / May 30, 2018 / No comments

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation comes into force this week – here’s what it means.

You could be forgiven for thinking that Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a law created to fill your inbox with identikit warnings from every company you have ever interacted with online that “the privacy policy has changed” and pleas to “just click here so we can stay in touch”.

But GDPR is far more than just an inbox-clogger. The regulation, seven years in the making, finally comes into effect on 25 May, and is set to force sweeping changes in everything from technology to advertising, and medicine to banking.

What is GDPR?

The law is a replacement for the 1995 Data Protection Directive, which has until now set the minimum standards for processing data in the EU. GDPR will significantly strengthen a number of rights: individuals will find themselves with more power to demand companies reveal or delete the personal data they hold; regulators will be able to work in concert across the EU for the first time, rather than having to launch separate actions in each jurisdiction; and their enforcement actions will have real teeth, with the maximum fine now reaching the higher of €20m (£17.5m) or 4% of the company’s global turnover.

Who’s covered?

GDPR affects every company, but the hardest hit will be those that hold and process large amounts of consumer data: technology firms, marketers, and the data brokers who connect them.

Even complying with the basic requirements for data access and deletion presents a large burden for some companies, which may not previously have had tools for collating all the data they hold on an individual.

But the largest impact will be on firms whose business models rely on acquiring and exploiting consumer data at scale. If companies rely on consent to process data, that consent now has to be explicit and informed – and renewed if the use changes.

How does it affect the tech titans?

The world’s largest companies have updated their sites to comply with GDPR. Facebook launched a range of tools to “put people in more control over their privacy”, by unifying its privacy options and building an “access your information” tool to let users find, download and delete specific data on the site. The company also forced every user to agree to new terms of service, and took the opportunity to nudge theminto opting-in to facial recognition technology.

Apple revealed a privacy dashboard of its own – although the company proudly noted that, unlike its competitors, it does not collect much personal data in the first place and so did not need to change much to comply. Google took a different tack, quietly updating its products and privacy policies without drawing attention to the changes.

What does it mean for me?

You have the power to hold companies to account as never before. If individuals begin to take advantage of GDPR in large numbers, by withholding consent for certain uses of data, requesting access to their personal information from data brokers, or deleting their information from sites altogether, it could have a seismic affect on the data industry.

But can I ignore all those emails?

Almost certainly. Companies have generally sorted in one of two camps, depending on what legal advice they’ve taken. On the one hand are those who argue they have a “legitimate interest” in processing your data, and just feel the need to notify you of the forthcoming changes to their terms and conditions; on the other are those who believe they need explicit consent from you to keep in touch. Either way, the worst case scenario is usually that ignoring an email will mean you receive fewer in the future. And if you do miss out, you can always resubscribe.

What will the long-term effect be?

Even without user pressure, the new powers given to information commissioners across the EU should result in data processors being more cautious about using old data for radically new purposes.

Counterintuitively, though, it could also serve to entrench the dominant players. A new startup may find it hard to persuade users to consent to wide-ranging data harvesting, but if a company such as Facebook offers a take-it-or-leave-it deal, it could rapidly gain consent from millions of users.

Will it work?

“The rules will always be bent, if not broken, by companies seeking to gain a competitive advantage,” says Ben Robson, a partner at legal firm Oury Clark. “But the newly introduced principle of demonstrable accountability and the unprecedented scale of penalties made available to the regulators should constitute a greater deterrent against breach and a shift from the current, relatively toothless and largely ignored, regime.”

Is this the end of it?

Not by a long shot. The early days will probably be marked by a flurry of court cases, as individuals and firms argue whether or not their interpretation of the requirements is the correct one.

Is this worldwide?

GDPR applies only to the EU, but given the scale of the market, many companies are deciding it’s easier – not to mention a public relations win – to apply its terms globally. Apple’s privacy tools are worldwide, for instance, as are Facebook’s (although the latter won’t promise to apply every aspect of GDPR globally, noting that the rules may clash with privacy regulations in other jurisdictions).

What happens after Brexit?

The regulation will shortly be part of UK law, thanks to the data protection bill that has been working its way through parliament since September 2017, and the government has committed to maintaining it following Brexit. In theory, a future government could change the law again – but even then, any British company wishing to do business with Europeans would have to follow the regulation.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”orange” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-external-link”]This article was originally posted at The Guardian by Alex Hern on May 21, 2018.[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Google to notify those who leave reviews when business owners respond

In General, Marketing by Jay / May 23, 2018 / No comments

[vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Google announced both on Twitter and in its forums that it will notify customers or users who leave reviews on Google Local results after owners respond to their reviews.

Reviewers will receive an email notification when a business responds. Google also plans to add mobile push notifications at a later date.

Marissa Nordahl, community manager at Google My Business, said:

When businesses respond to, or update responses to customer reviews, the customer now receives an email notification. The business’s response is published immediately and 5 minutes later, the notification is sent. This 5 minute delay allows time for the merchant to make any corrections to their response after submitting.

The notification email informs the customer of a reply to their review, and contains a link to a page with the full owner response.

Note: The review response is published immediately on Search and Maps.

Here is a screen shot of the email notification:

If businesses are aware their responses to reviews will be seen by those who leave the review, it may impact the type of responses they leave.

Mike Blumenthal, a local SEO expert who covered this news, says that this is Google “positioning itself vis-a-vis Yelp and Facebook to become THE local platform of choice for both businesses AND users.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”orange” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-external-link”]This article was originally posted at Search Engine Land by Barry Schwartz on May 14, 2018.[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row][/vc_section]

3 Warning Signs You’re Optimizing for the Wrong Keywords

In SEO by Jay / May 17, 2018 / No comments

[vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]When we think about SEO, we think about keywords.

After all, keywords help guide everything from on-page strategy to blog creation and can even play a role in link building.

Keywords really are the foundation of a sound SEO program.

However, keywords can be deceptive.

Keyword research seems like it should be an easy task but taking the time to understand each word or phrase actually requires quite a bit of work and sound knowledge of both search results and audiences.

On top of that, keywords don’t always mean what you think they should mean.

The problem is, we don’t always know this right away.

In fact, for the clients I work with, we are continuously reevaluating and refining our keyword targets. The reason being?

At the onset of a program you don’t know as much about the landscape, so you are choosing your targets based on research, client feedback, competitors, and keyword data.

After you’ve been in a program for a while, however, you get a much better understanding of the space, the search results, the audience, and keywords themselves.

Enter content.

The same thing applies to how we write content and how we ensure we are using the right terms, for the right content and the right audience.

We don’t always get it correct on the first try and to be honest, one of the most frustrating things as a content marketer is creating a well-thought out piece that doesn’t perform nearly as well as it should.

What did I do wrong?

Well, it turns out, the answer may lie in your keywords. Your content may simply be using the wrong keywords.

The good news is there are warning signs to help you determine if this is the case. Let’s take a look.

1. High Bounce Rate / Low Time on Page

I’ll be honest, I’m not a huge fan of bounce rate. Primarily because when looked at in aggregate and/or without context, it can be misleading.

After all, there are many facets to a website and while a page may have a high bounce rate, that doesn’t make it a bad page (i.e., Contact Us).

However, if you are creating a piece of content that is intended to inform and drive an action, you don’t want them landing on a page and leaving.

Let’s take for example Client A:

Client A offers shipping and logistics solutions to businesses, specifically those shipping large quantities of goods. Many of Client A’s existing customers ship auto parts so to capture this audience, Client A created a page targeting keywords like ‘auto part shipping’ and ‘ship auto parts’.

Makes sense, right?

Unfortunately, no.

With a high bounce rate and low time on site, users weren’t staying on the page.

As we dug in more, we realized that while yes, people were, in fact, looking for those terms but they weren’t the right people.

The people looking to ship auto parts were people like you and I, individual consumers with one-off shipments and questions on how to do it.

What we needed to do to capture the business audience was to focus on the quantity element. The people we want are shipping in bulk and filling entire pallets.

By adjusting our content, specifically headlines and CTAs, to reflect our updated keywords, we were able to shift who we were reaching and in turn, lower our bounce rate, up the time on site, and more importantly, increase shipments.

While neither bounce rate nor time on site are perfect metrics, when analyzed in combination with overall performance, they can help you determine problem areas.

2. Little to No Organic Visibility

It’s no secret that I am somewhat obsessed with content. I talk about it, write about it, tweet about it, and have it tattooed on my arm (OK, that last part isn’t true).

Content marketing is one of my favorite things in the marketing world. Why? Because, when done properly, it can drive phenomenal results, particularly from an SEO perspective.

Note that last part – from an SEO perspective.

Your content must have a goal and if your goal is to be found in search results, then how you write that content and choose keywords must be in line with what the search results are showing.

For example, if I am looking for visibility on the term [marketing automation] I will need to have content that details what marketing automation is.

Why?

Because the search results are filled with “what is” content, an answer box, and a people also ask box.

If your plan is to try and show up in these types of results with a product page, you probably won’t have much success

On top of that, if you really think about someone searching [marketing automation], it makes sense they’d be looking for information.

Someone searching [marketing automation software], however, is further along in their journey and in that case, a product page could work.

Your content must match the intent of the search results. If it doesn’t, re-evaluate the keywords you are targeting and perhaps the content itself.

The caveat to all this is you may write the perfect piece of content and not see results right away. Keep your eye on the prize.

Google Search Console can show you improvements in longer tail queries and adding cross-links from other locations can help provide additional visibility.

Still not seeing any movement? Maybe you need to enhance the content a bit more. Remember, there are always ways to make your content better.

3. High Impressions / Low Click-Through Rate

You did it!

You created a piece of content that is ranking for your target keyword, Search Console shows it’s getting impressions, and traffic to the page has stayed…the same.

What?

Unfortunately, this may be a sign you are optimizing for the wrong keywords.

In the world of PPC, half the battle is writing ad copy that gets the right people to click on your ad. Luckily for those running paid ads, they can see that data right away and make adjustments.

Those in the SEO/content space aren’t quite so lucky. By the time your content has enough data to help you make a decision, months may have gone by.

Always. Be. Evaluating.

We are consistently looking through Search Console to find keywords with high positions, high impressions, and low click-through rates. Here’s an example:

Once we have those keywords, we can take a look at the pages ranking and the search results themselves.

Is our content in line with the search results?
Does it match the intent of the other results?

In some cases, perhaps you simply need to update your HTML title to better encourage clicks but in others, you may find that even though your content is performing well in results, it’s not doing anything to help your business. You may need to shift the focus.

Aligning Your Keywords & Content

The key to a successful SEO strategy is ensuring your keywords and content are aligned properly. There is no point spending time creating content or optimizing your site if you aren’t going to reach the right people.

Remember, much of this comes down to understanding keyword intent. If you’ve been working on a site for a while, go back and re-evaluate keywords, check your landing pages, and update your pages as needed.

There’s no better feeling than creating something that drives real business results. While it may take time, aligning your keywords and content is the first step.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”orange” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-external-link”]This article was originally posted at Search Engine Journal by Casie Gillette on April 30, 2018.[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row][/vc_section]

Common mistakes and quick fixes to improve poky page speed

In Marketing, SEO, Website by Jay / May 16, 2018 / No comments

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Contributor Janet Driscoll Miller points out three page load speed issues and provides simple but effective workarounds that will enable web pages to load faster and gain favor with Google.

There are multiple reasons to improve how quickly your web pages load. One of them is page abandonment.

If your pages load slowly and customers leave before seeing your services, how will you grow a business and be successful?

A recent Google study shows that 53 percent of mobile site visitors will abandon a website if it takes more than three seconds to load.

Of added importance to search engine optimization specialists (SEOs) is that page load speed is currently a ranking factor on desktop search and mobile page load speed will also become a ranking factor in July 2018.

I’ve seen a few common mistakes that can drastically impede a page’s load speed. Thankfully, many of these mistakes can be fixed quickly and easily, which is a good thing, since every little bit helps when it comes to improving page load speed!

Let’s look at three common issues that affect page load speed and how to correct them.

Image file size

Image file size may be the most common mistake I find when it comes to slow-loading pages.

Often, webmasters uploading content to our websites may not be well-versed in image optimizationor really understand why it’s important. The result can be very large image files used where a reduced size image could have been used just as easily and with the same visual result.

Here’s an example.

This image is from a blog. The top image represents the size of the image as it was displayed in the blog post.

The bottom image is the actual size of the source image used. Notice how much larger the source image is than the displayed version on top. The larger the image, the more pixels it must load. To save load time, try to size your image to the display size before uploading instead of just resizing the image using hypertext markup language (HTML) parameters.

If you use a content management system (CMS), there are also many plugins you can use to help resize images as you upload them to the page. If you search on “WordPress plugins to resize images,” you’ll find many to choose from, like Compressor, which is free. It will compress your image further without losing any quality.

Look for a resizing tool that will show you a preview of what the compressed image will look like before you take the leap and compress the image. That can be particularly helpful when working with a web designer who may have concerns about sacrificing image quality for compression.

Unused JavaScript

It is common for websites to use a header file and a footer file to set up the heading/navigation area and footer area of the pages respectively. Since these areas usually stay fairly constant on a website, including these files means you can program it once and use it on every page.

It’s really efficient, especially when making updates. For example, if you have a change to your navigation, make the change once in your header file, and it’s automatically updated on every page that includes that header file.

A problem arises with some JavaScript. There are definitely JavaScript elements you need on every page of your website – like Google Analytics tracking JavaScript. But other JavaScript elements may only be needed on certain pages of the website.

For example, we work with a hospital that has an events page on their website for Lamaze classes for expectant moms.

On the Lamaze class page, they have a feature to save the class event to your Outlook calendar, enabled by a JavaScript element contained in the header file. This is a great feature and helpful for the events section of the website, but the rest of the website doesn’t need or use this JavaScript element.

The JavaScript from the Lamaze page loads on every page of the website, whether it is needed or not on the page. Pages not utilizing that JavaScript have to load that script, increasing page load time because of an element that isn’t even needed on the page.

Evaluate the JavaScript you use in your header file. Is it necessary for it to be there? If not, can it be moved to the body area so that the script loads on just that one page and not every page? Hopefully, the answer is yes.

Loading items from third-party websites

If you need to load items such as social sharing buttons, video player embeds, trackers and advertisements from third-party websites, try to minimize when possible.

Why?

You do not control how fast a third-party server and assets on that server will load. If you happen to load assets from a third party that are slow-loading because of server issues, it could potentially affect your page load time. Here’s what Google has to say:

Third-party scripts provide a wide range of useful functionality, making the web more dynamic, interactive, and interconnected. These scripts may be crucial to your website’s functionality or revenue stream. But third-party scripts also come with many risks that should be taken into consideration to minimize their impact while still providing value.

Why do you need to be careful about third-party scripts?

They can be a performance concern
They can be a privacy concern
They might be a security concern
They can be unpredictable and change without you knowing.
They can have unintended consequences

Use third-party assets if you need to, but be sure to do this only when necessary.

To close

If you can tackle these three common issues, you’re likely going to have a faster page load speed and help your SEO efforts. Sometimes a small amount of effort can yield a big difference![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”orange” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-external-link”]This article was originally posted at Search Engine Land by Janet Driscoll Miller on May 10, 2018.[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Instagram Lets Users Upload Multiple Photos and Videos to Stories

In SEO by Jay / May 5, 2018 / No comments

[vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Instagram has rolled out an update that will allow users to upload multiple photos and videos to their stories at the same time.

Once uploaded, viewers will still have to tap through to see each photo and video. The real benefit of this update is that it will save time when it comes to adding multiple pieces of media to a story.

”Whether you want to preview your entire story to make sure it’s just right or you’re waiting for a strong connection to upload all of your photos and videos from the day, it’s now faster and easier than ever to share to your story after the moment has passed.”

When uploading media to a story there will now be a new icon at the top right corner of the screen. Tap the icon to begin selecting multiple photos or videos. Users can select up to 10 pieces of media to upload in one session.

Users can preview each piece of media before uploading, and apply edits to individual pieces as desired. Media will be uploaded in the order it was selected.

This update is currently available on Instagram for Android, and will be available on iOS within the coming weeks.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”orange” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-external-link”]This article was originally posted at Search Engine Journal by Matt Southern on April 30, 2018.[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row][/vc_section]

Is responsive web design enough? (Hint: No)

In Marketing, SEO, Website by Jay / May 2, 2018 / No comments

[vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]As mobile-first indexing nears, the need to optimize for mobile has never felt so pressing. Even in its current iteration, mobile search is incredibly important for advertisers and businesses of all sizes. Consider these statistics:

A majority of Google searches occur on a smartphone or tablet.
50 percent of local mobile searches are for local business contact information, says Hubspot:

According to BrightEdge, 69 percent of mobile searchers stated they were more likely to buy from a brand with a mobile site that addressed their concerns.

Now, with mobile web design, speed takes precedence over almost any other ranking factor. Unfortunately, I’m not sure if half of the web is seriously optimized for mobile search.

According to Think with Google, 70 percent of mobile web pages take 7 seconds to load visual content above and below the fold.

Common mobile site errors include:

Blocked JavaScript and cascading style sheets (CSS) files.
Failed redirects.
Poor graphical interfaces (e.g., tiny text and poor image pixelation).
Clunky search functions.
Obtrusive interstitials.

Fixing many of these issues requires investing in a responsive content management system (CMS) and the right configuration for your mobile site.

Yet many questions remain as to what configuration truly works best for your website. Responsive web design has dominated the industry as the preferred configuration, but as the mobile web becomes more competitive, should the industry move on?

Is responsive web design enough?

via GIPHY

Now, creating a standalone mobile website is good from the end-user perspective, but it severely diminishes your website’s equity from a search engine optimization (SEO) perspective.

Beyond this, mobile domains can be a costly investment and even more costly to maintain.

My digital marketing firm uses responsive web design (RWD), as well as accelerated mobile pages (AMP) to create a truly mobile-friendly website for our clients. But we must remember that responsive web design was not designed for speed, it was designed for designers.

Chances are your CMS has a responsive web design plug-in.

RWD web pages take advantage of fluid grids to render images and on-page elements in proportion to their device. For technical teams, this presents clear advantages to mobile design, including:

Responsive handling of on-page layout for different devices.
Retaining all content on a single uniform resource locator (URL), as opposed to an m. domain.
More cost-effective than creating a standalone mobile site.
Sites can be accessed offline using hypertext markup language 5 (HTML5).

While RWD does have its advantages, it was mostly created as a low-cost way to optimize websites for mobile search devices. It was also a way to complete this with little effort as possible.

Problems with RWD websites still persist:

Slow loading speeds: above 10 seconds without proper onsite optimization
Designers still need to optimize for touch, as opposed to scroll-and-click interfaces
Data visualizations need to be optimized for small screens (i.e., charts and graphs)

So, why is this important? While RWD is an effective solution for small businesses and publishers on a budget, many established businesses are already making the switch to higher-speed configurations, such as accelerated mobile pages and progressive web applications (PWA).

Is AMP the answer or a red herring?

AMP represents Google’s big push to speed up the internet, but is it only on its terms?

As a quick primer, AMP is essentially an HTML framework that works the same as a content delivery network, serving stripped-down versions of web pages to increase page speeds. AMP is ideal for publishers who serve news articles and blog posts. It’s very similar to Facebook’s Instant Articlesformat.

AMP is currently being employed by multiple search engines, and even AdWords ads. Using the “Fast Fetch” tag, AMP continues to become faster and easier to implement.

According to Google, over 900,000 domains have already adopted AMP, and that number continues to grow.

In fact, numerous publishers have reported astounding success after switching to AMP:

Google has also made it no secret that it prioritizes AMP web pages for its mobile news carousels.

Mobile web speed obviously has a huge impact on the user experience and your conversion rate.

Using Google’s cache, web pages with AMP load 2x faster at one-tenth the latency of traditional web pages. But herein lies the issue with AMP.

While we’d consider faster loading speeds as contributing to more valued user experience, it’s the sacrifice that AMP needs to undergo that has severely limited its digital marketing value and adoption.

Since AMP is loaded using Google’s cache and served as a different version of the original document, clicks are hard to track since they technically don’t occur on the publisher’s website. This has a significant effect on engagement. By serving a watered-down version of a web page, AMP is great for serving informative blog posts, but there’s an obvious disconnect between the initial click and further engagement with the site.

This means that publishers and e-commerce stores must theoretically offer two different versions of their offerings. AMP is essentially search-result ad copy.

As a side note, another thing affecting AMP’s adoption is Google’s failure to communicate with its customers.

Ask the average web user what an AMP article is or if they could recognize one, and you’ll probably receive a blank stare. Ironically, Google is doing a disservice to its own user experience by not properly communicating the importance and advantages of AMP to individual users. Instead, it’s relied on publishers to make the switch of their own volition.

Does this mean that AMP is a red herring that should be ignored? Not exactly, and it all depends on your website. Unfortunately, there’s another configuration that threatens RWDs hegemony and AMP’s burgeoning adoption.

What about progressive web apps?

You may be familiar with PWAs, although very few sites actually leverage this genius technology.

PWAs are websites that act like an app in every way but don’t require a download.

PWAs are accessed through the web browser and utilize Javascript or CSS, along with HTML, to create nearly instantaneous load speeds. Leveraging their universal resource identifiers (URI), PWAs are linkable when bookmarked or shared by a web user.

The main advantages of PWAs include:

Ability to work offline.
Universal access on all devices and web browsers.
Comparable load speeds with AMP.
Faster transitions between web pages and navigation than traditional mobile domains.
Native app-like interfaces.
Indexable and linkable.
Ability to send push notifications.

Primarily, PWAs are used by e-commerce stores to create faster checkout times and a better end-user experience. PWAs can increase engagement on your site and increase conversions through their ability to leverage offline resources and push notifications to continually communicate with users.

But there are also drawbacks to PWAs. It’s a rather costly investment and incredibly difficult to implement, meaning you’ll probably have to hire a professional web designer to do so.

A larger concern would be: why not just invest in an app? Users visit hundreds of websites weekly and have numerous apps stored on their phone. Their primary demand, above all else, is fast loading speeds, which AMP provides.

With this in mind, which mobile configuration is best for your website, as we embark on the mobile-first era?

Which mobile configuration is best?

AMP is ideal for publishers who only seek to drive more traffic to their blog or publication. Many website owners have struggled to implement AMP because many CMS’s still don’t have a plug-in available. Even still, with Google’s new mobile “AMP Stories,” WordPress and many notable CMS’s struggled to properly implement AMP.

On the other hand, PWAs work across all browsers, and progressive enhancements have made them secure from viruses and unwanted content.

In terms of speed, PWAs and AMPs both have nearly instantaneous load times. The biggest difference here is the speed of navigation that comes from PWAs, as all web pages will be hosted in this format, unlike AMP.

From a ranking perspective, AMP may be a ranking signal (no one knows yet), but if PWAs host nearly identical loading speeds, I don’t see AMP as possessing a clear advantage over PWAs.

From a web design perspective, AMP is a nightmare, as it strips away many of the graphical and user interface elements of the native design. On other hand, PWAs are able to render and serve all of your design elements in an app-like display, which makes them more user-friendly.

After switching a hypertext transfer protocol secure (HTTPS) PWA, AliExpress improved its conversion rate by 104 percent across all browsers.

Finally, PWAs are responsive to different browsers and can react to user permissions to create a smooth checkout experience.

In the end, the best solution is to combine both for a truly fast, homogenous experience. Major brands, such as The Washington Post, have already done this. With the greater search visibility and speed of AMP articles and the app-like interface of PWAs, combining both could significantly increase your user signals and offer a better experience for users.

Conclusion

The need to go mobile cannot be overstated, although we’re already past beating the dead horse. Responsive web design is a great first step, but I don’t believe it goes far enough for businesses competing in a competitive niche. This is especially true for publishers.

For e-commerce platforms, combining AMP with a PWA design truly offers the best mobile configuration available today. All I can say is, make the switch to a mobile-friendly website before it’s too late.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”orange” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-external-link”]This article was originally posted at Search Engine Land by Kristopher Jones on April 30, 2018.[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row][/vc_section]