Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) is an open-source framework developed by Google that aims to speed up the loading of web pages on mobile devices. It does this by simplifying the HTML code used to build a web page and limiting the use of certain types of elements, such as JavaScript and third-party scripts. This results in pages that load faster, use fewer data, and improve the overall user experience on mobile devices.
One of the key features of AMP is the use of AMP HTML, a subset of HTML with a set of custom elements and properties that are specifically designed to improve performance on mobile devices. For example, AMP HTML replaces traditional image tags with a custom amp-img tag, which enables the browser to load images faster. Similarly, AMP HTML replaces traditional video tags with a custom amp-video tag, which enables the browser to load videos faster.
Another important aspect of AMP is the use of AMP JavaScript, a library of pre-written JavaScript code that is optimized for performance. AMP JavaScript is designed to work with AMP HTML and provides a set of features such as lazy loading, which only loads images and videos when they are in the viewport, and the ability to pre-fetch pages in the background.
AMP pages are also cached by the Google AMP Cache, which is a content delivery network (CDN) that stores a copy of the AMP pages and serves them to users from the nearest server. This further improves the performance of AMP pages by reducing the time it takes for the page to reach the user.
Google also uses AMP to boost the visibility of AMP pages in its search results. AMP pages are typically displayed with a lightning bolt icon, indicating that they are fast-loading and mobile-friendly. This can help to increase the click-through rate and improve the overall visibility of the website.
In conclusion, Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) is an open-source framework that aims to improve the performance of web pages on mobile devices. By simplifying the HTML code used to build a web page and limiting the use of certain types of elements, AMP pages load faster, use less data, and improve the overall user experience. AMP also has the potential to boost the visibility of a website in search results.