With the digital world shifting more toward mobile, it’s no surprise that mobile-friendly websites often take precedence over non-mobile ones when it comes to search engine rankings and overall user experience. In April 2015, for instance, Google began penalizing rankings for websites that weren’t adaptable on all devices AKA responsive.But now, Google is taking another step in providing a positive mobile experience for users on your website by backing a project called Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP). While the project was introduced in October 2015 on Google’s blog, as of this February, these AMP pages are now being displayed in mobile search results. Here’s what you need to know about it.

What is AMP exactly?

AMP is a framework set in place to create faster-loading mobile pages. The open source project is meant for publishers to have enhanced distribution of their news content (mainly what it’s being used for currently) through increased page speed and platform compatibility.These AMP-enabled pages load in any modern browser or app web-view, but with limited technical functionality in order to prioritize speed. They are essentially a more bare bones display of existing web content, providing the information users came to the site for front and center.

Why should my website support AMP-enabled pages?

While responsive websites do have a cleaner interface on mobile, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they load quickly. And because load time can mean the difference between a customer staying, and potentially converting, on your website or not, it’s important that sites take speed into consideration.In addition, these AMP-enabled pages are given top billing on search results, being placed in a carousel section similar to Twitter results. And knowing that this is a Google project, there’s a good chance the top rankings won’t stop there.

How do I implement AMP?

Fortunately, if your website is built on WordPress, it can automatically support AMP. Self-hosted WordPress sites can enable AMP by installing the plugin here.Otherwise, it shouldn’t be difficult for someone familiar with existing web technologies to create AMP pages on your website. The ampproject.org page provides a step-by-step tutorial on how to do so here.To learn more about making your website mobile-friendly, contact one of our web experts .