Bharati Ahuja

Google Rolls Out Mobile-First Indexing – Some Important FAQs Answered.

There is no doubt that mobile search is huge and the number of searches from mobile devices are increasing exponentially day by day.

Gary Illyes, Google webmaster trends analyst, during a SMX Advanced conference in Seattle in Seattle in June 2017 had mentioned that the Mobile-First index is going to be huge.

Illyes had said:

"We don’t have a timeline for the launch yet but, we have some ideas for when this will launch, but it’s probably many quarters away. Our engineers’ timeline was initially end of 2017. Right now, we think more 2018.

On March 26th 2018, Google announced that after a year and a half of careful experimentation and testing, we’ve started migrating sites that follow the best practices for mobile-first indexing.

Some FAQs regarding mobile-first indexing are as follows:

Google Mobile First Indexing FAQs 2018

What Does Mobile First Indexing Mean?

Historically, the Google index primarily used the desktop version of a page's content when evaluating the relevance of a page to a user's query. Since majority of users now access Google via a mobile device, the index will primarily use the mobile version of a page's content going forward.

Does Google Have a Separate Mobile First Index?

No, Google continues to use only one index.

How does Google evaluate sites for Mobile First Indexing?

Google evaluates each site individually on its readiness for mobile-first indexing based on the best practices and transition the site when the site is ready.

What are the best practices for Mobile First Indexing?

If your site has separate desktop and mobile content, which means you have a dynamic serving or separate URLs (or m-dot) site, make sure you follow the best practices below to prepare for mobile-first indexing:

Your mobile site should contain the same content as your desktop site.

Structured data should be present on both versions of your site.
Metadata should be present on both versions of the site.
Verify both versions of your site in Search Console
Ensure your servers have enough capacity to a handle potential increase in crawl rate on the mobile version of your site.
Verify that your robots.txt directives work as you intended for both versions of your site. In most cases, sites should use the same directives for both mobile and desktop versions of their sites.
Make sure you have the correct rel=canonical and rel=alternate link elements between your mobile and desktop versions.
If Your site has both AMP and non-AMP versions of a page. Users see two different URLs then, Google prefers the mobile version of
the non-AMP URL for indexing.

Does Mobile First Indexing affect rankings?

Mobile-first indexing is about how we gather content, not about how content is ranked. mobile-first indexing has no ranking advantage over mobile content that’s not yet gathered this way or desktop content.

Though mobile-friendly content performs better for those who are searching on mobile. But, as always, ranking uses many factors. Google may show content to users that’s not mobile-friendly or that is slow loading if many other signals determine it as the most relevant content to show.

How does the page load time affect mobile-first indexing?

Recently Google announced that beginning in July 2018 page speed will be a ranking factor for mobile searches. Content that loads faster may perform better for both desktop and mobile searchers.

However, the “Speed Update,” as Google is calling it, will only affect pages that deliver the slowest experience to users and will only affect a small percentage of queries. It applies the same standard to all pages, regardless of the technology used to build the page. The intent of the search query is still a very strong signal, so a slow page may still rank highly if it has great, relevant content.

How will Google notify webmasters/site owners that their websites have been migrated to mobile-first index?

Google will notify webmasters/site owners that their sites are migrated to the mobile-first indexing process via messages in the Google Search Console. Here is a screen shot of a notification:

Mobile-First Indexing Google Search Console

Google / SEO - 04/16/2018

7 Ways Big Data Is Changing The Way Marketers Reach Their Audience

At the focal point of modern marketing is information. Without quality information, you cannot know how to get convertible leads. However, today, marketing coincides with an interesting phase of innovation where big data plays a big role in how marketers go about their business. I will look at ways big data is shaping the way marketers reach their audience.

1. Makes Targeted Marketing Possible

Reaching to the market is an art that requires foolproof targeting. With analytics, you can scan the population for your market. Apart from feasibility tests of retails stores, which require analysis of target audience, even companies targeting global customers use the same level of targeting.

If you make products for Microsoft Windows users, you can reach directly to them using targeted ads and offers. You don't have to sell to everyone else who may not be interested blindly.

7 Ways Big Data Is Changing

2. Market Information Synergy To Understand The Customer

When it is about people as customers, the information about them is usually scattered across various media, authorities, and inherent in them. With analytics, you can bring together this information together and make sense of it. Companies today can target the customer with precision.

3. It Informs On The Marketing Message

With competent information about existing solutions, one can make the message right for the customer. To do this, you need to understand the frustrations, needs, and proposals that customers put across. For example, product updates are based on feedback, without it, the improvement would not matter.

4. Customer Engagement And Consequent Growth

Information is not just about the company to its customers. Internal information and reverse communication from customers to companies is very healthy. Companies leveraging on feedback achieve tremendous growth. According to research, companies that engage customers are growing faster than their counterparts that do not. Social media is a great way to communicate. After this exchange, making use of this information separates serious companies from pretenders.

5. Tailored Customer Products

Customers are increasingly interested in custom products. If it is an enterprise software, companies want it customized for their use. Knowing how many people who would be interested in your service, you can evaluate the economies of delivering the service. In the process, you can control a niche customer base unique only to you.

6. Budgeting Decisions About Market Channels

Being frugal in your marketing budget requires perfect information lest you affect the effectiveness of your campaign. With analytics, you can confidently identify media channels effective to your cause. Without this information, you are likely to gamble with your strategy, which is not good.

7. Being Where And When You Need The Product

It might come by surprise that you will receive emails about antivirus updates mostly on the third quarter of the year. Some types of promotional emails you only get them at the beginning of the year. Why is so? Companies use big data analytics to understand general trends, and they use them to know when to come to you.

News / SEO - 11/15/2017

The Digital Entrepreneur and Social Networks

The new consumer of social networks, an opinion-former who shares in the network the brands of his or her choice, and even produces content with suggestions for your company to choose a name for a new product, a book name, movies, shows, events and other services. We are living in the age of co-creation, now it is the consumer who says which is the best product or service (no longer the store owner or manufacturer).

Business is no longer as it was before; the Internet has come to create a new world of business, a new way of selling, and innovating. The photographer innovates with cell phones, which turns digital photography in real time. The newspaper will not end because it reinvents itself. Radio has not ended the invention of TV. On the contrary, radio occupies a new space on web, and it becomes an important segmented media. Business reinvents itself all the time. Is innovation a risk?

The worst risk is not to innovate. The world calls for innovation, the signed worker walks out and takes the place of the entrepreneur: the human being capable of creating new jobs and fulfilling dreams. Surfing in new wave, the digital entrepreneur is characterized as a specialist in innovation who understands creative economics and digital identities. He/she can be a producer of website, creator of connections and interactions with brands and companies in social networks.

The Digital Entrepreneur and Social Networks

The Digital Entrepreneur is the one whose business’ processes, relationships with partners, clients and employees is carried out mainly by digital means. On average, digital entrepreneurs have been on the market for almost 2 years. Of the total, 62% are in the service sector. The most sought after sector is commerce, with 33% of answers. Industry and agriculture correspond to 5% of the total.

The proportion of digital entrepreneurs with previous experience in the offline world is inversely proportional since only 18% have stated that they have had a non-digital business. Most of the businesses (59%) are informal and do not register the employees in the portfolio (69%). The gross annual turnover of 60% of the projects was between $36 thousand and $240 thousand in 2008. What are the advantages of having a digital business? Familiarity with the environment reduced initial investment cost and less dependence on infrastructure.

Why has social networking strategies failed in many companies?

The American researcher and professor Mikotaj Jan Piskotiski, who studied more than 50 companies in various economic sectors, found a very common mistake: the companies implemented their digital strategies on social platforms to disseminate commercial messages or seek customer feedback.

The main interest of the public of social networks is not to receive commercial messages, but to know and make relationships with other people, not with companies. Therefore, the approach in social networks has to be different.

Social strategy is different from digital strategy. Social strategy is about exploring the way people really want to connect with other people, for example: Helping to improve existing relationships, establish new relationships, create new ways to address unmet social needs, and only then link proposed solutions and business goals.

Facebook is a mass network, where it is more common to add people we already know. But for the sake of privacy and security, people are now choosing to build connections on segmented social networks by developing offline relationships. Creating niche networks is a social strategy for professionals, doctors, dentists, lawyers, teachers, consultants. For the fashion lovers, the social network Fashion.me, reaches more than 1 million registered users.

There is a sea of opportunities linked to the needs and motives that lead the individual to always live in groups, going back to the times of the "tribes" today; we have the creation of segmented networks, which are a representation of the relationships between their groups with specific interests. The main purpose of niche social networks is to connect people, in chats, forums, communities, video channels, online symposia and others.

The correct strategy is to focus on the community and not the tool. Try to find out what is more useful and accessible to your niche. And above all, stimulate the engagement of the members through the exchange of information and experiences.

Social Media - 10/27/2017

43% of marketers say 75% of their content isn’t being consumed. Despite This Survey Result, Why You Should Publish Content Regularly?

A recent post on http://searchengineland.com/survey-43-percent-marketers-say-75-percent-content-not-consumed-277626 mentions:

A new survey from BrightEdge on the future of content and search marketing exposes some interesting contradictions between what enterprise marketers think and what they do. Conducted earlier this year, the survey received 252 responses from “digital marketers at Fortune 500 brands that represent a split of B2B and B2C.”

From a content marketing perspective, the top categories these marketers were focused on were:

Blogging — 69 percent
Social media — 62 percent
Video — 45 percent
Infographics — 30 percent

The metrics being used to determine the success of content marketing efforts were:

Conversion
Engagement
Traffic

Another interesting finding is that roughly 70 percent of respondents said that 50 percent or less of their content was being used or consumed by the intended audience. And 43 percent said that 75 percent of their content was NOT being consumed.

The overall picture that emerges from the survey is one of inefficiency and misalignment between where enterprise marketers think the audiences are going and what they’re doing to reach them. Furthermore, they’re pouring resources into content that they believe is not being seen or read by its intended audience.

website-planning-mistakes

My Views On This Survey Results:

I think, more than reflecting the inefficiency the results, reflect the need to pour more resources into content or at least continue with the resources already allocated for content.

Whatever the platform social or search you cannot achieve anything without content. The need to publish content or invest in content marketing as it called is the only way to get correlated to the topics, products, services, etc. for which you want to establish a web presence.

Whether it is the owned, earned or the paid platform we need content. Again, the content can be all formats images, text, videos, podcasts, etc.

As and when you publish content and share it on various platforms the outreach increases in direct proportion to the quality of content. This needs to be done on a continuous basis. If you stop publishing content, then the outreach may remain stable or may decline. This signifies no growth.

If we go by the fact that 75% of content is NOT being consumed:

If we publish 100 posts then only 25 of them are being read. If we get dejected by these results and decrease the no. of posts or stop publishing content, then there is an adverse effect on growth. If instead of 100 posts, we reduce the posts to 50 then we can assume that only 12 to 13 posts are being read.

By reducing the content marketing budget, we are even reducing our engagement, outreach and search presence and thereby traffic.

If we want to increase the content consumption, then we need to invest further in content marketing. Instead if we increase the posts from 100 to 200 and, also improve the quality of content, then we can expect 50 posts to be read. (Keeping the same percentage for consumption – 25% though this can improve marginally if the quality standard is higher)

Though the percentage is the same but this increases the engagement, outreach and the presence. The search engines also give importance to quality content and the correlation to the topics you have published increases thereby improving the search presence. 50 posts read will also increase the shares and likes on social media which further has a positive effect of social signals on search presence.

Hence, please do not get dejected by this survey, this means that to increase and improve the engagement, outreach and search presence raise the quality of the content, also increase the quantity.

When you enter a store, out of 1000s of items in the store you may buy only one and walk out of the store that does not mean the store needs to reduce on the no. of items on display. You have to go on adding content to all the web presence identities your business has online. Some people may just read, some may share, some may comment, some may just move on without any engagement but it is surely to correlate that presence to that context. This in the long run has a positive impact on the search presence and in future you never know how this whole plethora of content will be organized, correlated, archived and used by the social and search companies. Hence, regarding content its always, “More The Merrier” – but of course it is all about quality and quantity.

Once, you establish an online authority presence in your industry then gradually that percentage of consumption will also gradually increase in the long run. The only thing needed is patience and the will to go on improving.

Google - 06/24/2017

Google’s New Search Feature Connecting Job Seekers With employers

Google has announced “Google for Jobs” this year at Google I/O which is a brand new company-wide endeavor aimed at aiding both job seekers as well as employers through joint-effort with the job matching industry. One of the important aspects of this initiative is to provide job aspirants better exposure through Google Search Engine.

This new experience is open now for all developers and site owners. A job listings preview would be shown for queries with clear cut intent such as ‘head of catering jobs in nyc’ or ‘entry level jobs in DC’. Each job can be expanded for showing all-inclusive details regarding the listing.

This feature brings a host of benefits and adds a new dimension for employers and site owners with job content.

Prominent place in Search Results: The job postings can be displayed in the new job search feature on Google encompassing logo, reviews, ratings, and details of the job.

More, motivated applicants: Job filtering feature is present by different criteria which means it becomes easier to sort out applicants and candidates looking for the specific or exact job.

Increased chances of discovery and conversion: There would be a new vista open for job seekers to interact with employer's postings and click through to their site.

The job listings are available on Google whose implementation has got two steps:

The job listings are to be marked up with Job Posting structured data.
A sitemap (or an RSS or Atom feed) is to be submitted with a <lastmod> date for each listing.

If there are more than 100,000 job postings or more than 10,000 changes each day, one can make use of the High Change Rate feature.

If job openings are published already on other sites like LinkedIn, DirectEmployers, Monster, Glassdoor CareerBuilder and Facebook, they can still appear in the feature.

Making job search an embellished search experience Google has created a dedicated guide to help comprehend how Google ranking functions for enhanced search and practices for boosting the online presence.

Keeping track of doing and fixing issues

There are a handful of tools to facilitate the implementation:

Mark up can be validated with the Structure Data Testing Tool
Listing can be previewed in the Structured Data Testing Tool
In Search Console sitemap's status can be tracked.
In Search Console aggregate stats and markup error examples can be viewed.

Google would be adding new job listing filters in the weeks to follow in the Search Analytics report in Search Console so that one can track clicks and impressions for his/her listings.

Google / News - 06/22/2017

reCAPTCHA Now In Android Devices For Enhancing Internet Safety

It was a decade ago that the reCaptcha was launched and introduced by Google with the aim of enabling users to visit the sites they like and love without having to think or bother about spam and abuse. Evolving from distorted text to street numbers and names to No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA in 2014 and very recently the Invisible reCAPTCHA in March earlier this year reCaptcha has come a long way since then over all these years.

Millions of users have benefitted from reCaptcha till now as Google looks forward to further enhance and refine its protections. reCAPTCHA protects users across all online platforms.

recaptcha1

With mobile devices growing at a fast pace, it is of utmost significance to keep the data and mobile applications safe. Keeping this factor in mind, on the event of the 10^th birthday of reCAPTCHA, Google has announced the first ever reCAPTCHA Android API as part of Google Play Services. According to Google, this API reCAPTCHA can provide a better streamlined user experience on mobile. Google’s latest Invisible reCAPTCHA technology would be used which would run risk analysis in the background allowing millions of users to pass through with zero click every day. This would enable mobile users to enjoy uninterrupted and hassle-free apps experience and at the same time stay protected from spam and abuse.

recaptcha2

It is with Google Safety Net that the reCAPTCHA Android API is incorporated and it provides services such as device attestation and safe browsing for protecting mobile apps. The security risks of the apps can be mitigated more efficiently if both the device and user attestations are done by the mobile developers in the same API.

This gives a diversity of security protections on Android devices like the Google Play Protect which would aid in monitoring potentially harmful applications, device encryption and regular security updates.

The journey of reCAPTCHA goes on as Google vows to make the Internet safer and convenient to use for one and all other than bots of course.

Google / News - 06/20/2017

Google Jamboard - The Integration of the Whiteboard and The Cloud

Google Jamboard is finally unveiled for sale after it was announced last October (2016) that it would reach the market pretty soon. Although, there has been a bit delay in its scheduled entry into the market nonetheless the much-awaited Jamboard from the search engine giant Google has finally and eventually hit the market big time in May’ 2017. It is being viewed as a direct response to the Microsoft Surface Hub. The Google Jamboard is a part of the G Suite family. It is an interactive cloud-based digital whiteboard from the house of Google. It comes at a price of $4,999 with a yearly support fee of $600.

With a 55’’ 4K touchscreen display, 120 Hz touch scan rate and 60Hz refresh rate, Google Jamboard is endowed with online collaboration and having cross-platform support enabled. There is the option of both mounting the display onto a wall and configuring it into a stand as well by default.

Google-Jamboard

Google Jamboard has the prudence of identifying and thereby detecting up to 16 touch points anywhere within. It has also got Wi-Fi connectivity, an HD front-facing camera, built-in speakers and microphone.

A dedicated stylus is present to control the touchscreen and for controlling the device as a whole. There is also an eraser to give the entity a complete shape in terms of use and functionality.

The Jamboard has an OS (Android 6.0 Marshmallow) coinciding with the G Suite ecosystem. Any G Suite compatible service can be performed on any connected device. The main functionality of the Google Jamboard is to facilitate users to join and work together on projects inside the available space. The access to Google Jamboard gives business meetings, corporate discussions and presentations a whole new dimension as not only multiple jamboards can be used in the same room but people can connect remotely also through Jamboard app on a phone or a tablet.

The best part of using Google Jamboard is that it feels exactly akin to writing on a traditional whiteboard with a highly responsive, pressure-sensitive and accurate display. Jamboard indeed is the centre of interest and activity in a creative workplace. Moreover, it is rather easy to move it around from one place to another with its portable stand and single-cable setup. Furthermore, to add to it, there is nothing to be wary of regarding running out of batteries or ink for there is a passive stylus which does not require any pairing but is a “plug-and play” design. Its working methodology is exactly like that of a whiteboard and hence in spite of drawing with a stylus, it can be easily removed with finger.

The Google Jamboard comes with a shape and handwriting recognition feature. The users of Google G Suite can log into a Jam Session (as Google terms it) via the Jamboard itself or on companion iOS and Android apps. However, no Microsoft companion app for Jamboard is there. Anyone having a G Suite account can go on and begin a Jam Session by clicking on the screen. The ones who are initiating the session can invite anyone to join the session. With Google Hangout, users with Jamboard companion apps can make edits or participate in the Jam by using their smartphones or tablets. Remote users with access to the app can add stuff to the Jamboard and it really takes a very short time to do so. Users who do not possess the Jamboard application too can be a part of the entire set-up but their participation in this context would only be limited to view-only mode i.e. passive as they won’t be having the permission to access the jamboard like other active users of the Jam who have got the jamboard application at their disposal.

The Google Jamboard is primarily and solely designed to expedite business collaboration. The two fields of operation where the Google Jamboard would find enormous application and the two fields which would benefit unprecedentedly from Google Jamboard are obviously business enterprises and the education sector.

With Google adding G Suite support to Jamboard, users can access and edit Docs, Sheets, Slides, Photos, etc. directly and with ease. With the Google Jamboard there is the provision of working with teammates and peers from across the world with Google Hangout and Google Cast in order to set up broadcasts and collaborations or work remotely by making use of the companion app to good effect.

In a word, with the Google Jamboard the orthodox whiteboard moves into the zone of cloud erasing boundaries and sharing ideas in a real-time scenario. For better and enhanced connections, the Jamboard has got its own phone and tablet app. The Jamboard is quite reflective. And the entire structure is pretty thick. The styluses that comes with it provides an aesthetic and serene feel. The Google Jamboard undoubtedly presents with a polished and well-thought-out software experience. The entire thing is controlled and managed by a panel which is stationed either on the left or right. The jamboard also at once can act as a video conferencing machine. The structure of the Google Jamboard is quite big indeed and is rectangular square in shape with a rounded plastic back. A small horizontal line is centred at the bottom as power indicator. Collaborative brainstorming done via whiteboard scribbling is essentially the fundamental function of Google Jamboard. The Google Jamboard is available in three different colours- blue, red and gray. The Google Jamboard offers some great flexibility. Everything gets saved to Google Drive as Jamboard doesn’t have any internal memory of its own. It has also got the unique ability to straighten the shapes, symbols, lines, etc. so as to make sure that everything looks neat, clean and tidy. Everything is under complete command with the Google Jamboard in hand. The Jamboard besides converting handwriting into type also can give drawings digital shapes on its own. For PC and MAC users to get into the thick of things, they need to sign in through Chrome.

The Google Jamboard is a mind-boggling innovation from Google and there is no denying the fact that it would have a far-reaching effect and a long-lasting impact especially and precisely on the educational sector and businesses.

Google / News - 06/20/2017

SEO Audit Checklist 2017

Download PDF or Jpg

Embed the above image, using the following code:

Google / SEO - 05/29/2017

Understanding The Google AMP Cache

AMP is a way to build web pages for static content that render fast. Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) is an open content ecosystem which aims at giving the user a great reading and surfing experience.

Speed has always been the main quality criteria for Google as page load speed is the first impression that the user gets about the website.
The AMP ecosystem works entirely on the concept of caching. Hence, understanding the importance of the AMP cache is imperative for every SEO and online marketer who, advocate the implementation of AMP to their clients.

amp-project

AMP in action consists of three different parts:
• AMP HTML
• AMP JS
• Google AMP cache

AMP HTML

AMP HTML is a subset of HTML for authoring content pages such as news articles which helps improve UX by reducing the page load time.

AMP JS

To avoid the delay in page rendering AMP manages resource handling and asynchronous loading but third-party JavaScript is kept out of the critical path.

Google AMP Cache

The Google AMP Cache is a proxy-based content delivery network for delivering all valid AMP documents. It fetches AMP HTML pages, caches them, and improves page performance automatically.

What is a Cache server?

A cache server is a dedicated network server or service acting as a server that saves Web pages or other Internet content locally. By placing previously requested information in temporary storage, or cache, a cache server both speeds up access to data and reduces demand on an enterprise's bandwidth.

What is Google AMP Cache?

The Google AMP Cache is a cache of validated AMP documents published to the web. It is available for anyone to use. Google products, including Google Search, serve valid AMP documents and their resources from the cache to provide a fast user experience across the mobile web.

The concerns regarding AMP Cache are:

• The major concern for many is that their pages are served from a cached server which is out of their control.
• Many are also worried about the fact that the cached version served to the user may vary from the original version.
• Analytics attribution is another concern regarding AMP.

But, in fact there is no reason to worry about the AMP Cache delivery network.

• Every time the AMP content is served from the AMP Cache, the content is auto updated, and the updated version is served to the next user.
• The AMP cache uses the "stale-while-revalidate" model. It uses the original server caching headers, such as Max-Age, to judge the freshness of the content.
• The AMP cache model attributes the traffic to the publisher through the <amp-analytics> tag. The AMP supports a large number of analytics providers.
• When the AMP page is requested from the AMP cache, it is validated first. The page will not be served to the user if any problems are detected. Hence, it ensures quality pages are displayed on the user’s device.
• The main reason for a fast and user friendly experience is the pre-rendering feature. Due to pre-rendering the pages are served instantly.
• This is pre-rendering undoubtedly can be done from origin servers instead of the AMP cache but that uses up the bandwidth, CPU resources and battery of that server. This may affect the speed and contradict the main purpose of hosting AMP pages.
• The AMP cache also ensures security against XSS as in does not allow Cross-site scripting in the main document.
• Moreover, AMP is a win-win for users, publishers and advertisers. When you search on a search platform, the AMP pages as they come from the cache they do not associate the search term to it.
Optimizations, Modifications And HTML sanitization

The Google AMP Cache performs optimizations and modifications, such as the following:
• Validates if the content meets all the AMP norms.
• The AMP Cache along with the document caches images and fonts too.
• Optimizes image dimensions to prevent memory issues and poor responsiveness.
• The amp-img tag removes the EXIF data and some metadata which can create issues or may be invisible.
• Converts GIF, PNG, and JPEG format images to WebP in browsers that support WebP.
• Serves over a secure channel (HTTPS) and uses the latest web protocols (SPDY, HTTP/2).
• In making the above transformations, the Google AMP Cache disregards the “Cache-Control: no-transform” header.
• All HTML comments are removed.
• Tag and attribute names are rewritten in lowercase.
• Attribute values are consistently quoted and escaped.
• All tags are closed, except for HTML5 void elements.
• Whitespace inside tags is removed.
• Text is escaped.
• Encoded text characters are simplified, using UTF-8 equivalent characters.
• Elements that can only be in the body get moved into the body.
• Outbound links are made absolute so that they continue to work when the document is served from the Google AMP Cache origin instead of the publisher origin.

The Google AMP cache not only ensures optimization of web pages but also validates them. Regarding Ads. Last year the Google AMP team laid out four core principles i.e speed, beauty, security and how to use all these 3 together.

If the AMP pages are being served from the cache then how will the ads be displayed?

The AMP Project announced the open source AMP for Ads initiative in July to work on the UX regarding ads on AMP pages. The initiative’s goal is to fix the foundation of digital advertising on the web, applying the principles of AMP to advertising and making ads faster, more beautiful and secure.

Since the announcement, AMP Ads have come a long way. Publishers across the world like The Washington Post, The Guardian, and USAToday have been testing AMP Ads experience for Publishers and users.

If the AMP pages are being served from the cache, then, what about the ads on the AMP pages?

There is still a long way to go and Google is yet exploring the use of AMP for ads.
According to Google, In the future:
• ads will be statically analyzable to be safe and behave well,
• they will be able to use a common set of functionality to significantly reduce bandwidth consumption,
• CPU usage will be limited to on-screen ads, maximizing battery life,
• and ads will be coordinated with the page making sure that primary content and functionality can always be buttery smooth at 60 frames per second.

Google says, we are trying to build a user-experience-first ecosystem for advertising on the web and, looking at the success of AMP in publishing, it might just work.

AMP - Accelerated Mobile Pages / Google / SEO - 03/07/2017

The Benefits of Combining Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) & Progressive Web Apps (PWA)

Google's core principle is: "Focus on the user and all else will follow." Page load time is a website's first impression for the user. That impression is directly correlated to the bounce rate of traffic to that website. User experience starts when the page loads and continues to be enriched with every tap or click. When each subsequent page loads like you are flipping a magazine, the user forms a positive impression of the whole experience of browsing that website. Undoubtedly, a seamless browsing experience leads to engaged users and results in more clicks, repeat visits, and more sales.

As traffic increasingly comes from mobile devices now, site speed is a crucial aspect of any website.

Google has been working on speeding up Google websites and has also been encouraging website owners to improve site speed with their latest developments: AMP and PWA. Both are different but can deliver amazing user experience when implemented together.

Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) are lightweight pages designed to load quickly on mobile devices. AMPs are served from the Google AMP Cache, which is a proxy-based content delivery network for delivering all valid AMP documents. It fetches AMP HTML pages, caches them, and improves page performance automatically.

AMP can ensure instant page load but cannot retain the same performance in case of complex functions like online payments and other dynamic functionality. That is where Progressive Web Apps (PWA) come to the rescue.

PWA adds the advantages of a native app to the website. PWA uses features like Service Workers, Push Notifications, and Web App Manifests.

What Is a Service Worker?

A Service Worker is a scriptable intermediate layer between the web page and the network. It is a script that the browser runs in the background, separate from a web page. It includes features like push notifications and background sync.

A Service Worker gives access to an API that provides a programmable network proxy within the client-side context. It makes it easier to create web applications that can handle network requests offline while browsing in varying network speeds. At times, an HTTP request is made but a response is not received on the mobile devices, which can happen when the user goes through a tunnel, or the network varies from 2G to 3G, or the user automatically joins a saturated WiFi network. The Service Worker allows developers to cache assets when connected and offers a seamless experience when offline so user experience is maintained.

Things to Note About a Service Worker

A Service Worker is not HTML or XML. It is a JavaScript Worker. Hence, the Service Worker does not access the DOM directly. The script communicates with the relevant pages by responding to messages sent by using the postMessage interface, and those pages can then access the DOM if required.
A Service Worker is basically a proxy server which serves between apps, browsers, and the network when available. It allows you to control and handle network requests from the pages.
The Service Worker script does not run when not in use, and restarts when it’s next needed. Hence, you cannot rely on global state handlers. If there is information that you need to reuse on restart, service workers do have access to the IndexedDB API, which stores data inside the user’s browser.
Service Workers use Javascript Promises on a large scale. Technically, a Promise is a proxy for a value not necessarily known when the promise is created.
The browser needs to support Service Workers. Service Workers are supported by Firefox and Opera. Microsoft Edge is now showing public support.

Web App Manifests

The web app manifest is a JSON file. It is a simple text file which has the metadata for the app. This JSON allows you:

to control the look and feel of the app
to control how the app is launched
to display icons for the user home screen and splash screen which is displayed while the app is loading

When the app is launched, you can specify which page gets loaded as well as the screen orientation (portrait/landscape view).

Why Do We Need to Take PWA Seriously?

MobileApps ios-android

In 2013, according to Flurry Analytics, 80% of the mobile user’s time was spent inside apps and 20% on the mobile web.

With mobile devices becoming smarter, the time inside apps is surely going to increase.
The app needs to be installed on the mobile device which takes up a lot of storage space. PWA runs from the server leaving a lot of free space for the user on the mobile device.
According to a test, some native apps took up 460 MB of space whereas the PWA just needed 1 MB.
In the case of an app, the user needs to be notified to update it. The PWA lives on the server so there is no update distribution lag.
PWA can work offline.
PWA, being a website fortified with the benefits of an app, is linkable, searchable, and indexable.
flipkart.com had decided to discontinue their website and go app only, but that did not go well with the users. After their PWA named FlipKart Lite the statistics showed 40% returning visitors, +63 conversions from home screen visits, more time spent on FlipKart Lite. https://developers.google.com/web/showcase/2016/flipkart

The Mobile User Experience Journey From AMP to PWA

The Mobile user taps on the AMP search results and lands on the AMP page of your website.
The page loads instantly and the user starts reading the content.
The user taps on one the links on the AMP. This user gets navigated away from the AMP cache and is now served a page from the server.
The Service Worker script starts getting executed and an app-like experience is delivered to the user.
The user keeps reading the content as the script runs in the background and does not interfere with the user experience.
In fact, it enhances it by ensuring that the user is served the pages despite the network speed fluctuating. The user experience does not get affected in case the device switches to WiFi from Mobile Network or loses the internet connectivity for any reason. The PWA will further offer the option to the user to add the icon to the home screen just like a native app.
If the user adds the icon to the home screen, the user has access to app-like features and the website without installing the App.

Publications like the Washington Post have reported great success with PWA and AMP. The two technologies complement each other: “AMP is a way to start fast, and PWA is a way to stay fast and stay engaged."

AMP helps in getting content to users faster by improving page load performance. PWA uses modern web capabilities to deliver an app-like user experience. AMP is like putting the website on a diet to give a lean display, whereas PWA is the necessary protein given to the website for a continuous robust performance. AMP helps in creating the first positive impression but PWA helps in retaining it.

Image Credits

Featured Image: https://events.google.com

In post Images: http://flurrymobile.tumblr.com/

AMP - Accelerated Mobile Pages / SEO - 03/01/2017

Editorial Policy: Human Expertise, Enhanced by AI

At WebPro Technologies, our content reflects over two decades of experience in SEO and digital strategy. We believe that valuable content is built on accuracy, clarity, and insight—and that requires human judgment at every step.

From 2024 onwards, we have been using AI tools selectively to brainstorm ideas, explore perspectives, and refine language, but AI is never the final author. Every article is researched, fact-checked, and edited by our team, ensuring relevance, accuracy, and originality. AI supports our workflow, but the responsibility for quality and credibility remains entirely human.

This hybrid approach allows us to combine the efficiency of technology with the depth of human expertise, so our readers get content that is both informative and trustworthy.

At WebPro, we see AI not as a replacement for human creativity, but as a tool that helps us raise the standard of excellence in the content we share.

What we offer

Contact Info

802, Astron Tech Park, Satellite Road, Opp. Gulmohar Park Mall, Ahmedabad 380015, India

+91 9825025904
info@webpro.in

Daily: 9:00 am - 6:00 pm
Sunday: Closed