Google AMP for WordPress came along several years ago. The concept was to deliver a more unified web experience for those using their mobile devices to frequent the world wide web.
What exactly is AMP? It stands for “Accelerated Mobile Pages,” and was intended to provide for faster loading websites. Problem is that it pretty much made everyone’s websites look exactly the same. Bland at best!
According to Google, absolutely. However, allow me to be the first to discredit that. I’ve had plenty of articles hit at the very top of Google’s searches on websites that are not utilizing AMP plugin.
However, that doesn’t prevent Google from throwing you up their supposed AMP related errors in your Google Search Console and Analytics.
So many people get caught up in the errors they get when using various site speed checking websites such as GTMetrix or Pingdom and start seeing a vast array of speed-related issues. Furthermore, being a web hosting provider, I can assure you that nearly 97% of all speed-related issues are either code bloat or slow hosting.
Other popular sources, or should I say headaches, concerning lack of website speed is in image optimization. I cannot begin to tell you the number of websites that I manage for various clients that are jam-packed with images that exceed 20MB in size. Just why?
There are several ways that you can reduce the file size of your images that you are going to share on the web. One of my personal favorites is an online service called Tiny PNG. You can reduce your image file online for FREE. However, if you need greater flexibility, they do offer a pro account that provides even more features.
However, the free version should work just fine for the basics.
How do you tell what size your image is? Simple! Right click on it to get the properties or details depending on what OS you are using. Just because the image you may have downloaded is 5000px X 4000px means you need to upload it in that exact size.
What you need to focus on is truly determining the area the image is going to be used on and obtain the size, then resize your image to reflect that or as close as possible, then compress it via an online tool.
If you are using Google Chrome, they have an extension that is a ruler that you can utilize to help you determine the dimension of the area you are wanting to place an image into.
There’s no need to have all of your images on your page load up before a person can even begin to see the content they came looking for. WordPress now offers “lazy loading” as one of their default features. So what does it mean?
Basically lazy loading of your images means that they don’t actually load until they come into the viewport, or the section of screen, that you are viewing at that time. This saves on your web hosting server resources as well.
In addition to properly compressing and reducing the file size of your images, you may want to consider using a CDN. A CDN, or Content Deliver Network, is basically a way of pre-serving your website to your viewers without them having to wait an excessive amount of time for it to load.
This is especially useful for your viewers who may be on a slower mobile connection. Trust me, they’ll thank you in the long run and it will ensure that people stay on your site longer since they will be able to access the content they came looking for.
Regardless of what people may tell you, Google isn’t the God of the Internet and oftentimes, if you have done any extensive research, you will find more evidence that is contrary to their suggestions in how to optimize your website.
This has to be one of the greatest areas of opportunity in increasing your website’s overall performance. STOP going with cheap shared website hosting.
If you are using the likes of GoDaddy, Bluehost, HostGator, and a few other mentionable honorees, you are setting up your site for failure from the word “GO!”
WordPress powers nearly 50% of everything that is on the World Wide Web today.
If you are truly going to harness the power of the top-rated CMS, then shouldn’t you have a great WordPress Website Hosting provider who understands your needs?
For those who may be on the DIY path of website design, it is not uncommon to want every new and shiny cool toy that comes along {Squirrel}. Particularly with using any of the more popular page builders, such as Elementor Pro, Divi, or even Beaver Builder.
Sure there are some pretty stinking addon packages available for any of the aforementioned page-builders, however, you only need what is absolutely necessary for the level of functionality that is being served from your website.
Too many times I receive new clients who have upwards of 50 plugins and many of them are not even being used, which opens several doors to security issues, and do nothing more than slow your site down.
Furthermore, if you haven’t already, you will experience plugin conflicts. I can certainly guarantee that you’ll spend hours trying to figure which ones are not working well together and walk away frustrated and ready to throw your hands up in the air.
Unless you’ve been hiding and living under a rock for the past almost 2 years now, Gutenberg is beginning to play a vital role in how we design websites. While it is not quite up-to-speed with most of its competitors in the page-building genre, it certainly has come a long way.
In addition, there are some pretty cool block addons that can be acquired to provide you with the polished design you have been trying to achieve.
I am beginning to encourage all of our new clients that we utilize Gutenberg to do the basic pages, then we will fall upon Elementor Pro for the heavy lifting of more intense design requirements and needs.
This will help to reduce both bloat and speed related issues, which at the end of the day, will provide you with a better page score with Google.
Tell us whether or not you have used AMP and the outcome you have experienced with it. We love to hear your stories.
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