There are many benefits to using AMP. First, AMP addresses the biggest web performance issues, which means that your pages will load more quickly. Since page speed affects user engagement, having a faster page means that you're engaging your visitors more. If you implement AMP, you're likely to see an increase in conversions. There are more success stories than can be listed here; these are just a few:
- The Guardian reported that its AMP traffic has overtaken its non-AMP mobile traffic, and observed 8.6 percent more clicks on related content links
- LinkedIn reported a 10 percent increase in time spent on AMP pages over non-AMP pages
- Gizmodo reported a 3x increase in mobile page speed and a 50 percent increase in impressions
- WompMobile reported a 105 percent increase in conversions on AMP pages and a 31 percent decrease in bounce rate
Next is the AMP Cache. If your pages are valid AMP, then they will be added to the AMP Cache automatically, and you will see further performance gains.
Then there's the AMP lightning badge of trust. Again, if your pages validate, then they will be annotated with the AMP lightning badge in Google's search results pages. With this badge, users can be confident of a speedy page load if they click your link.
Finally there is the AMP Top Stories carousel. As we saw earlier, this is a horizontally scrollable results carousel, displayed prominently, with images, early in the Google search results page. So, while Google has stated that AMP is not a ranking signal for its indexing algorithms, there is a definite SEO benefit to having your pages included in the carousel.
AMP was first announced in August 2015, and launched in February 2016. At first, in Google's search results pages, AMP results were limited to the AMP carousel. But by March 2016 AMP results were being surfaced along with normal, non-AMP results. Since then AMP has seen massive adoption among publishers and search engines. The first AMP conference was held in March 2017, where the scale of its adoption became apparent, and it was reported that AMP was already the largest web components library in the world.
At the time of writing, with behemoth web services such as Pinterest and Tumblr on board, there are billions of AMP pages live on the web already. Bing is also working with Google on the project, and reportedly saw AMP adoption rates rise from 8 percent to 62 percent in one year. Baidu and Sogou, the two largest search engines in China have adopted AMP, and Yahoo Japan is also signed-up. There is an audience of billions for AMP pages.