AMP is a framework for building websites that are optimized for speed and user experience. When you create websites with the AMP framework, you will be given search engine benefits in Google, like this:

 

 

This lightning bolt signifies an extremely fast page, and Google actually caches the page and preloads it so that when a user clicks on the search result, it is nearly instantaneous.

As you can imagine, that's pretty beneficial for Shopify merchants.

Aside from the SEO benefits (discussed here), tests show that users who see the AMP lightning bolt are more likely to click on that link than other pages.

AMP pages with this appear in Google only when searching through a mobile phone. Meaning that you will never find an AMP page on Google when performing a desktop search. That being said, you can always access a page by using the direct AMP link. The direct AMP link by default will be the same as the original link, but with "a/s/" after the ".com" portion of the URL.
Example: https://yoursite.com/a/s/collections/all

AMP is inherently a bit complicated, so it's extremely common for users to not fully grasp it right away. That's why we have created this help channel, and we're available 18 hrs a day, 7 days a week, on our live chat. Feel free to drop us a message or continue reading our blog for even more information on the topic.

How does AMP for Shopify Work?

Using AMP by Shop Sheriff, we automatically create AMP pages for your shop, and allow you to customize them. No coding required!

These AMP pages are essentially "parallel" pages for your shop that are capable of being cached by Google in mobile search, and then they receive the aforementioned AMP lightning bolt next to their search snippet, and they almost always result in better SEO and a higher search-engine click-through-rate.

We give you ready-made AMP themes and allow you to use our visual editor to customize the look and feel of your AMP site. We generate your pages using our proprietary AMP HTML converter algorithm, and the end result is an AMP site set to look as you have configured it.

The rest of the work happens by us, behind the scenes! We are also able to keep your AMP pages up to date by utilizing Shopify Webhooks. With webhooks, we are notified when you make a change to things like your products, collections, or blogs, and we re-generate the necessary valid AMP HTML.

What do I do after customizing my AMP pages?

When you are finished customizing your pages, you can publish them by clicking the "Publish" button on the page visibility section of the app. Google can then see that you have AMP activated the next time that they crawl your site. We add a tiny <meta> tag at the top of your "normal" pages, and once Google crawls your site and sees that meta tag, they'll begin to index the AMP pages that you've published.

How long does it take Google to index my AMP pages?

This generally happens the next time Google crawls your shop, which can vary depending on how popular your website is.  We published a full article on this here.

What's the benefit of using AMP?

Speed and SEO! Chances are you've seen the AMP lightning bolt next to a search snippet when you use your mobile phone.  These pages are pre-cached by Google and load nearly instantaneously.  Google also prefers them and they show up higher in search results. For more information on the SEO benefit, check out our article on AMP SEO.