Starting an AMP Test!!!

1. STAFF

   Paul Edmondsonposted 5 years ago

   Today, we started testing AMP.
   
   https://delishably.com/meat-dishes/Memp … Smoker/amp
   
   This is a really small scale test, and we still have a lot of work to do—it's only on employee accounts and articles with specific layouts.  Over time, we hope to measure traffic changes and yields to help us define a path forward.
   
   If things look good, we will work on enabling articles more broadly.
   
   AMP stands for Accelerated Mobile Project.  AMP pages are best known for showing in Google's results with a little lightning bolt symbol. 
   
   The net of it is, they're very fast loading pages:)
   
   Big thanks to Ed and Tim for working hard to get this test out!

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      sallybeaposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      Instant loading on both Mobile and Laptop.  Pretty fantastic!

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      HoneyBBposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      I'm so happy to hear this as I've read a lot about it's importance on google. I hope all articles will eventually be set up with AMP. Thanks for continuing to improve readers experiences. Just having AMP will often help boost an article in ranking.

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      Venkatachari Mposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      Just viewed the above-cited article.  It loads very quickly and very much appealing also. But, I miss one thing. The sharing buttons.  Is it due to showing it only for an example purpose? Or, did you opt out of sharing buttons at the left side of the page?

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         Glenn Stokposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         The sharing buttons cause a huge load on the server, slowing down page load. That’s why they dropped some of them in the past, such as the Flipboard share button. So it’s no surprise that these needed to be eliminated in order to qualify for AMP.

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            Venkatachari Mposted 5 years agoin reply to this

            Thanks, Glen, for clarifying it. It's fine then. We can share anyhow by copying the links of the URLs.

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      Gloriousconfusionposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      It loaded amazingly quickly - I'm having a lot of trouble with my computer at present, with particularly slow loading (using Firefox), but your test page loaded in an instant.

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      bravewarriorposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      Instant load. Amazing!

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      lobobrandonposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for the update Paul and amazing job Ed and Tim. This probably took you guys weeks if not more to complete.
      
      I did notice that when I do a google search for Memphis style beef ribs from my Android phone, I am not redirected to the AMP page (with the trailing amp in the URL). The page loads quickly, but I am not sure if it is the AMP version?
      
      Also, the schema markup (other than the breadcrumbs) is missing from the AMP version of the page. I have never built AMP pages myself, so I am not sure if adding the JSON markup has any negative impact, does it?

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      1. STAFF

         Paul Edmondsonposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         We will add markup.  This is a super barebones test.  It supports text capsules, images, and comments and is only on a handful of pages.

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            lobobrandonposted 5 years agoin reply to this

            Perfect. Sounds good.

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         Glenn Stokposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         Brandon, you can tell if you’re looking at an AMP page by examining the source code. It will have an  “amp html” record near the top, among other things.

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            lobobrandonposted 5 years agoin reply to this

            Yes, this I know, but how do I do this from my phone? I never viewed source code from my phone before. I'm sure I can just Google it to find out, but if it's simple and you can say it in a few words, would be grateful

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               Glenn Stokposted 5 years agoin reply to this

               I can only view source code on my desktop. I never found a tool to see it on my phone either. Actually, I never looked for one. Maybe there’s an app for that.

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                  lobobrandonposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                  This is the only simple solution I found: view-source:http://domain.com but this won't help me, because I clearly do not see the amp extension on the URL, so the source won't be different. Anyway, I guess it's somehow an AMP page.

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                     sallybeaposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                     Not sure if I am talking out of turn but if I right click on my laptop I can view the source code and the URL does, in fact, have an AMP behind it.

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                        lobobrandonposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                        I refer to the Mobile view. If you click the link Paul put up here it goes to the AMP page because he has explicitly linked to it. But I would expect the original page to redirect to this page when viewed from the phone. So I googled the recipe and went to his hub from search, but then the URL has no AMP extension (it was not redirected). I could be wrong and there is no need of it being redirected and the AMP code kicks in automatically based on the window size. But since Paul explicitly linked to an AMP page here, I reckon that it is a necessity that the page redirects to the AMP page.

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                           Glenn Stokposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                           I believe there are two versions of the page on the server. One with the AMP code and the other as normal. One does not redirect to the other. No need to. They simply have a canonical record in the source code to relate that they are the same content. Google will show the AMP versions in SERPs on mobile since that’s where speed is most important.
                           
                           EDIT: After a little research I have to correct what I said above. There are technically not two versions on the server. All that's required is adding "/amp" to the end of the URL and the system automatically serves the AMP version of the code to the browser (if available). I noticed some of mine have AMP versions.

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                              lobobrandonposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                              Yes, there is the canonical. But I was more interested in the fact that Google needs to know that there is an AMP page. Did a little digging and realised that there is a simple rel attribute that tells search engines that there is an AMP version. Once the page is re-indexed the mobile search results page should show the AMP version (no redirect necessary as you go there directly). 
                              
                              <link rel="amphtml" href="AMP LINK HERE">

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                           robhamptonposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                           All I know is that AMP might help me out. I get this from analytics constantly
                           

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                              lobobrandonposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                              In my opinion, AMP is definitely going to help us out. They are doing tests right now, but in the early days of AMP some websites saw a 5 fold increase in traffic after switching to AMP. May not be that good, but I'm sure this will improve things.

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                                 robhamptonposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                                 That would be awesome. All new to me. Never even heard of it lol

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                                    lobobrandonposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                                    Yup, now quite a few of the big websites run AMP pages. So, even no real increase in traffic would mean we are staying ahead of the game. This is one of those experiments I would say is very important, glad that the team is working on it

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                                       Glenn Stokposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                                       I agree 100%.  It’s  good that HubPages stays ahead of the game. They did it with the mobile friendly requirement too when they told us to remove right floating images and text capsules over three years ago. That gave us a lot of time to update our hubs — at least for those who were paying attention.

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                                          lobobrandonposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                                          Three years Feels like early last year.

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                                             Glenn Stokposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                                             I wrote my hub on making hubs mobile friendly in 2015 based on the warning HP gave in their weekly newsletter and Google's warning. It was three years ago.

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      bravewarriorposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      Which "specific layouts" qualify for this leg of the test, Paul?

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      Margaret Schindelposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      This is terrific news, Paul! AMP is central to Google’s strategy. And I agree with Glenn that it’s great that you’re testing AMP and working out any potential kinks before rolling it out. Thanks so much!

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      Mike Hardyposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      We’re profile pages impacted. The layout for my profile page on iPad suddenly looks awful. All the featured images have been replaced by a green   bar . Titles cut off. Looks li’e a .css issue.

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   theraggededgeposted 5 years ago

   It loaded instantly... is that what it's about?

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      TIMETRAVELER2posted 5 years agoin reply to this

      What loaded?  Are we talking about our hubs or any HP pages?

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   Titiaposted 5 years ago

   It loaded fast on my desktop.

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   Glenn Stokposted 5 years ago

   This is an interesting experiment to see how Google ranks based on the use of AMP and the faster loading of pages and ads.
   
   There were a few of issues with the AMP project since it was introduced by collaborators as an open source, such as vulnerability to phishing attempts and hacking into websites using AMP (which have been resolved), so I'm glad HubPages is taking this experiment slow to be sure there are no nasty side affects.
   
   Wiki info on AMP: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerated_Mobile_Pages

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   alexadryposted 5 years ago

   Page loaded very quickly and WOW, those ribs look tasty

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   DzyMsLizzyposted 5 years ago

   Instant load on my Kindle, though, as a vegetarian, I didn't read the article.  (Sorry, Paul.)

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   Cynthia Hooverposted 5 years ago

   Impressive! Loaded instantly on all my devices.

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   Peggy Wposted 5 years ago

   This is exciting news!  The article certainly did load fast which is undoubtedly the main object.

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   Natalie Frankposted 5 years ago

   Loaded quickly.  This is great.  I know a lot of times when something takes too long to load I lose patience sometimes and give up.  I think this is an important development.  Thanks to all involved in making it happen.

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    Chriswillman90posted 5 years ago

    AMP pages is something I was really hoping that Hubpages would eventually explore. This is great news.

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    misterhollywoodposted 5 years ago

    If we move towards amp, polls may not work. Just an FYI as you experiment. Smart choice to move towards amp

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12. STAFF

    Paul Edmondsonposted 5 years ago

    Mike, I looked at profile pages, but don’t see a css issue. If you still see the problem, feel free to post a new thread on how to reproduce it.

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       Glenn Stokposted 5 years agoin reply to this

       Paul,
       
       There does seem to be a CSS issue on the iPad. I ran into it when I try to edit a hub. The edit tool is all messed up as if the CSS styles are not being recognized.
       
       Profiles look okay on my iPad though. Just editing is an issue as far as I can tell. Works fine on desktop.

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       Mike Hardyposted 5 years agoin reply to this

       The issue seems to have cleared. The profile page looks fine on iPad. Thanks for your response.

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          Glenn Stokposted 5 years agoin reply to this

          The problem is cleared up also with the edit tool on the iPad, as of today. So it looks Iike it was indeed a CSS problem loading on iPads.

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    EricFarmer8xposted 5 years ago

    AMP pages are meant to load very quick on mobile devices so this change sounds like it will be nice. I have heard plenty of positive things about them.

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    lobobrandonposted 4 years ago

    Hey Paul, any updates on this test? Is it still running?

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