After helping over 20,000 Shopify businesses get set up with AMP, we've found incredible results in regards to SEO boosts using AMP.  

While Google doesn't officially document that AMP is a direct ranking factor, the primary reason that we see shops setting up their AMP templates is due to the SEO boost.  Why is that?

Why AMP Boosts SEO

Speed

Speed is a direct ranking factor for SEO.  Especially in today's era of mobile-first indexing, Google will directly penalize slow-loading pages.  AMP pages for Shopify created by Shop Sheriff come blazing-fast right out of the box. But did you know that Google actually caches and pre-loads AMP search results? This caching is why Google has reported an average load time of one second or less for all AMP pages across the web.  AMP pages shown in search results are cached and served directly from Google's own CDN.  This makes it likely impossible to ever achieve a faster page-speed for an equivalent non-AMP page.  That's some serious speed.

Not only that, but AMP pages generated by Shop Sheriff come bundled out of the box with minification and optimization built in.  This is something you can't achieve with a standard Shopify site.  (Or if you can, please send us a message, we'd love to hear it!)

Mobile-friendliness

The AMP themes created by Shop Sheriff are 100% optimized for mobile-friendliness, adhering to the proper specifications set by Google for mobile-first indexing.  By using AMP, you can be sure your pages are going to be treated by Google as mobile-friendly and you're prepared for the mobile-first crawler that Google is now making a standard in 2020.

Bounce rate

Put simply, a slow-loading page suffers a higher bounce rate.  According to Google, 53% of users bounce from a page that takes longer than 3 seconds to load.  And half of all visitors expect a page to load in less than 2 seconds.

Eager shoppers might never even see your product if it takes too long to load.  Buyers also tend to trust a site that loads faster, and one that is marked with the AMP icon. 

Moreover, AMP pages remove unnecessary bloat and page "jank"; an AMP page is required to specify the height of all of it's elements before being rendered, so it doesn't jump during page load or during a user's journey up and down the page.  Improving the overall browsing experience throughout a visitors mobile journey is one of the key tenets of AMP.  

Search engine click-through rate 

Yes, AMP pages are actually clicked more often in search results due to increased trust and desirability. Savvy internet users know the AMP lightning bolt symbol, and are more likely to click on an AMP page because they know the page is optimized for speed and guaranteed to load fast.  

9to5Google.com conducted a poll where they asked users: “Are you more inclined to click on an AMP link than a regular one?” Over 51% of people said yes to that question. Here are the detailed results:

Featured AMP snippets, and AMP articles

Google reserves it's coveted "Top stories carousel" for AMP enabled pages.  Google is also far more likely to show AMP pages within the Google app.  If you open your Google feed on your mobile phone, chances are you'll see pages of feed results with the AMP lightning bolt symbol next to them.  Being AMP enabled through Shop Sheriff allows you the possibility of showing up in featured AMP snippets and AMP articles, which of course directly impacts your placement in the search world.

Real-world data

There has been real data performed on AMP pages throughout the web.  An officially published Forrester Consulting Total Economic Impact study (commissioned by Google) found that AMP leads to a 10% increase in website traffic with a 2x increase in time spent on page. For e-commerce websites using AMP, the study also found a 20% increase in sales conversions compared to non-AMP pages and a 60% increase in page views per visit.

Does AMP help Desktop SEO?

AMP pages of course only show up in mobile search results, but a common question is whether or not this helps Desktop SEO as well.  While the direct correlation is not easy to make, it's clear that if your site attracts more visitors overall, then your SEO as a whole should benefit.  As Google sees more and more visitors coming to your site on a mobile device, Google perceives this site as an authority in the space, and it's more likely that a websites SEO will benefit overall.  

Tracking your AMP performance in Google Analytics and Google Search console

Interested in tracking your AMP performance? We've got you covered.  Check this post about tracking your AMP page performance using Google Analytics and Google Search Console.