#220 – Does it make sense to redirect posts to amp pages of posts?

 Hi,

I have installed a new blog plugin which creates an AMP compatible Blog page with excerpts of my blog posts. Everything looks great, but I would like the "read more" button at the end of each excerpt to link to the AMP version of the full post. Since I have no control of the link the button uses, I can set up redirects from my post pages to the amp versions of those page. I assume that will work, but the redirect itself will slow the process of loading each AMP page. Is it worth doing the redirect, or would you advise leaving things as they are?

Hi

If you have control on the CSS classes attached to the link, you can try adding the wbamp-link css class to the link. This should cause weeblrAMP to AMPlify this link although not entirely garanteed depending on how that plugin stores its content.

As for redirecting, I'm not sure I fully understand why you would do that? I actually don't fully understand why you would link the read more button to the AMP version instead of the regular version which surely looks better?

I have installed a new blog plugin which creates an AMP compatible Blog page with excerpts of my blog posts.

Or do you mean that this plugin operates on the AMP pages? ie it modifies the post when it detects it's being rendered on an AMP pages?

Best regards

First, your amp plugin is very versitile and I have been able to create AMP pages for my posts which are virtually identical to the standard pages.

Second, Google seems to grade my pages using PageSpeed Insights. I get warnings in my Ads account about that and the tool grades the optimization of my AMP pages at 98% for mobile pages and 100% for computer pages. On the other hand optimization of my standard pages scores at 68% for mobile pages and 97% for computer pages. The difference for mobile pages is significant since I run campaigns on Google Ads. With the lower optimization of mobile pages, Google penalizes me by reducing my performance grade. That translates in to higher cost per click and poorer ad placement. That is why I want to link from my excerpts on my blog page to the AMP version of my full posts. But I am aware that redirection adds loading time. Therefore, I wonder whether I would be improving the user experience or degrading it by redirecting. If the user experience is degraded Google will probably detect that and continue to penalize my account.

As for you definition of a plugin that works on AMP pages, my blog page does not perform that way. It is an AMP page, so it grades nearly perfectly using PageSpeed Insights. But basically, it is a standard page which Weeblr has successfully AMPified. However, the "read more" buttons are linked to standard pages. That is why I am considering redirecting.

Thanks.

Hi

Second, Google seems to grade my pages using PageSpeed Insights. I get warnings in my Ads account about that and the tool grades the optimization of my AMP pages at 98% for mobile pages and 100% for computer pages. On the other hand optimization of my standard pages scores at 68% for mobile pages and 97% for computer pages. The difference for mobile pages is significant since I run campaigns on Google Ads. With the lower optimization of mobile pages, Google penalizes me by reducing my performance grade. That translates in to higher cost per click and poorer ad placement. That is why I want to link from my excerpts on my blog page to the AMP version of my full posts. But I am aware that redirection adds loading time. Therefore, I wonder whether I would be improving the user experience or degrading it by redirecting. If the user experience is degraded Google will probably detect that and continue to penalize my account

Each time Google representative talks about that, they are very clear this is a very, very small factor. So as long as your pages loads in under a few seconds, maybe 2.5-3, no significant ranking differences should be expected. The Sitespeed rankings are more generic information that gives you hint to where you should look, they should never be taken as actual grades really.

More importantly, using AMP pages instead of regular pages will NOT improve your ranking. That's because the AMP pages has a canonical link to your regular HTML page. So eventually, it's always the "grade" of that regular HTML page that's taken into account. Google has always been very clear on that and it's the main purpose of a canonical link anyway. For Google, the AMP version is an "alternate" view of the page that's shown to mobile users of search results. Not what they use for analysing content and ranking pages, unless your site is AMP-only which is not the case here.

If you have control on the CSS classes attached to the link, you can try adding the wbamp-link css class to the link. This should cause weeblrAMP to AMPlify this link although not entirely garanteed depending on how that plugin stores its content.

Have you tried that?

Best regards

I have no control of the CSS classes attached to the link and I think we are talking about two different things. I am not talking about improving my DA or PA. Instead I am talking about receiving messages in my Google Ads account specifying the PageSpeed Insights says my site is slow and recommending that I implement AMP. Tools like Pingdom, GTmetrix and WebPage Test actually show that my site is extremely fast.

Thank you. I don't want to waste any more of your time.

Andrew A. Kruglanski, MBA, ABD, CPA, LREB, SFR, PSA, ePRO, ABR
Broker, Ocala Home Guide Realty, LLC
(352)234-3048
https://www.ocalahomes.online


---- On Wed, 27 May 2020 12:52:20 -0400 WeeblrPress <[email protected]> wrote ----

Hi

Instead I am talking about receiving messages in my Google Ads account specifying the PageSpeed Insights says my site is slow and recommending that I implement AMP.

Usually when you see this in your Ads account, it means a different thing. They are not talking about implementing AMP on your site. They are talking about implemeting AMP ads.

See the AMP ads home page here.

Pingdom, GTmetrix and WebPage Test

Webpagetest is pretty good but be careful about the settings on all these tools. I mean the advices and wher to look for problems are good, but the speed values not so. Google usually has different metrics (see Core web vitals that was just added to webconsole) but most importantly they take into account a very large array of actual users conditions, with low power devices, low speed internet access. Only them have those data.

Feel free to close the ticket at any time!

Best regards

Thanks for the input. However, what I am seeing in my account is very simple. I provide the URL of the landing page on my website in the ad. Then Google shows me an analysis of that landing page created with PageSpeed Insights. The analysis shows a loading speed of 3.4 seconds and 68% optimization for mobile devices and a loading speed of less than a second and 97% optimization for computers. It then tells me that my loading speed for mobile devices is too slow. However, my GTmetrix scores are 96 for PageSpeed and 95 for Yslow. Also, Pingdom shows 97% optimization. I then AMPify the landing page with WeeblrAmp and my PageSpeed Insights metrics change to 98% optimization for mobile devices and 100% optimization for computers, with loading time of 1.7 seconds for mobile and 0.6 seconds for Computers. Now the "slow speed" warning disappears.

I understand that PageSpeed Insights simulates loading times for various scenarios whereas the other tools measure actual loading time specific to the criteria at work at the moment I run a test (computer,router,web hosting, route taken by data as I test). However, my prime concerns are to make Google happy and give my clients the best possible experience, in that order.

Thanks for all your time. Much appreciated. I will close the ticket now.