Because more and more people are using mobile devices to access the Internet, it’s important for all business owners to ensure that their websites are mobile-friendly. Now, they have more reasons to go mobile-friendly as Google has been cooking up the Accelerated Mobile Page, or AMP, over the past year. AMP is basically an open-source project designed to improve user experience on mobile pages. When implemented, Google says it will enable AMP pages to load four times faster than regular mobile pages.

Here are some important things you need to know about Google’s AMP update.

1. Update date

Google has yet to announce exactly when it will roll out the AMP update. However, some online experts are guessing that the update will happen anytime soon. The tech giant has been working on AMP for over a year and it has been on beta for months. As such, it is only a matter of time before the update is released and made available for all site owners.

 2. WordPress sites have first dibs on AMP

WordPress is currently working on the project with Google and anyone with a WordPress site can use AMP. In fact, AMP is automatically enabled on all WordPress sites. In case you have a self-hosted WordPress site, all you need to do is install the AMP plugin and you will be able to benefit from its features.

 3. You’ll need to create two versions of each post you make

What AMP does is strip away the “fluff,” or anything a web page doesn’t technically need like JavaScript and other embeds, to speed up the page’s loading time. Because of this, you’ll need to have two versions of each page: an original version and the AMP version. Otherwise, your web pages would be without images, videos, and other functionalities like comments and lead forms when viewed from a regular web browser.

4. Ensure that your images and videos are updated

According to Google, images, videos, and other forms of multimedia, will be significantly affected by the AMP update. This is why you need to update all the images and videos on your site. You’ll need to use custom amp-ing elements and follow specific height and width requirements.

If there are GIFs on your site, you should use the amp-anim feature. For videos, you’ll need the custom tag amp-video to be able to embed them through HTML5. YouTube videos are an exemption; you’ll need the amp-youtube tag for them.

Love to hear your thoughts on this and if you have implemented the tips!