Is your website mobile responsive?

If you’re not sure, take a moment to pull it up on your phone or tablet. A “mobile responsive design” will shuffle your content around to improve the viewing experience based on the type of device accessing it.

Google is now taking that a bit further with AMP, Accelerated Mobile Pages. This is another level of responsive design that strips your site to the bones in order to make it load faster and improve the small screen viewing experience. Also, Google AMP pages will be placed at the top of search results – ahead of non-AMP pages.

You may be thinking, “So what?”

AMP can be a powerful way to make your content pop on mobile devices, or it could kill the effectiveness of your in-page marketing. Headers are visually truncated, sidebars shuffled to the bottom or removed, and images within a post may not display the way you want them presented to the reader.

Think about the content you have on your site and mobile display may alter the presentation and reading experience. Do you use sidebars to place ads or Social Media news feeds? Are your books promoted with point-of-purchase links in this space? How would moving these touch points affect your book sales? Consider strategies can you employ to keep your titles top of mind in an accelerated mobile world and experiment until you find the content layout that works for readers and AMP.

Here’s a more in-depth overview of Google AMP from Social Media Examiner, along with info on how to make it work with your site and WordPress blogs. You can also learn more about Google AMP Project here.

A few months ago, I began adding a thumbnail, link, and a synopsis to the end of my posts as a gentle reminder that I also write mystery novels. Little did I know what a good practice this would become. My sidebar links on the mobile AMP view were pushed to the bottom of the article list. Having the link inside the post gives it visibility no matter which screen readers prefer.

Don’t shy away from the technology. If you can write a novel and publish a blog, you already have the skills needed to optimize your book marketing and web content experience.

Questions? Advice? Leave a comment. If you found this information helpful, please consider sharing.

Thanks for reading!

JPG