Accelerated Mobile Pages on Blogger — Is it Possible?

We have received hundreds of requests daily by Bloggers (& web store owners) who is using Blogspot platform as a medium to publish their personal/business contents on the world wide web to implement Accelerated Mobile Pages AMP features for their Blogspot powered blogs/websites. So what is AMP?

What is AMP?

Explained here at https://www.ampproject.org/learn/about-amp/ the official AMP resource center,
AMP is a way to build web pages for static content that render fast. AMP in action consists of three different parts:

• AMP HTML - HTML with some restrictions for reliable performance and some extensions for building rich content beyond basic HTML. 
• AMP JS -  the library ensures the fast rendering of AMP HTML pages. 
• AMP Cache - The Google's served cached AMP HTML pages.

You can read & refer more details on AMP Project at below links:-

• AMP Project: How it Works - https://www.ampproject.org/learn/how-amp-works/
• AMP Project: Design Principles - https://www.ampproject.org/learn/design-principles/
• AMP Project: Supported Browsers - https://www.ampproject.org/learn/browsers/
• AMP Project: Supported Platforms - https://www.ampproject.org/learn/who/
• AMP Project: Case Studies - https://www.ampproject.org/case-studies/

How Will I Benefit Integrating AMP on my Blogger Blog/Website?

Your blog/website is instant to view on any/every platform! 

For many, reading on the mobile web is a slow, clunky & frustrating experience - but it doesn’t have to be that way. The Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) Project is an open source initiative that embodies the vision that publishers can create mobile optimized content once & have it load instantly everywhere.

Blogger Key Take Away

Other blog & content management system (CMS) platform, for example Wordpress, can easily integrate & convert their existing website/blog into an AMP Project page. Which means their website/blog loads insanely faster than others & get instant advantage in Google's search results.

Unlike Blogger, there is no plug-in or helpers to auto convert a Blog page/post to use AMP webpage HTML formats. But, since that Blogger users has direct access to their blog templates, it is possible to integrate AMP Project HTML pages for their blogs with some clever & unique coding strategies, without totally harming existing Blogger template functionaility.

This particular blog is a validated Accelerated Mobile Page (AMP) blog - where all the possible blog pages can be applied/worked with AMP HTML elements.

What Will You Expect When Converting Your Blog Template & Use AMP HTML?

Due to Blogger templating restrictions & to validate with AMP Project HTML guidelines, there will be some restrictions when setting up your Blogger templates. Below are some of the conditions that you might run to:-

• No external or internal javascript files can be included in template
• No external or additional cascading stylesheets files can be included.
• Strict element tags & rules must be applied.
• 80% of Blogger existing widgets will be un-useable.
• Strict image size to upload & display.
• Disabled built in Blogger Adsense features & manually replace with AMP HTML ads format.
• Limited usage on Blogger Template Designer functions.
• No default Blogger styling available for blog, pages & widgets.
• A unique post editing environment will be required but minimal.
• Disabled Blogger iframe inserts, comments system and post footer functionalities.
• RSS & feed links disabled.

Is it Worth It to Convert My Blog Pages & Use AMP HTML Pages?

For veteran & new Blogger users - Absolutely yes! But this will only apply if you are just about to create & publish a new blog. Who does not want that extra (& free) leverage on Google or any search engines results right?

If you have an existing blog, it will be troublesome to manually edit each & every published posts in order to apply AMP HTML required elements. Looking forward, we might find a solution for this, with some clever, intuitive Blogger XML coding strategies :).

We will update in later posts on how this Blogger + AMP Project integrations outcome. Using this blog as the "experiment" in implementing partial/full AMP Project HTML elements on Blogger blog pages.

For now, what we can conclude, it is workable to use AMP HTML on Blogger template but needs some care & attention, which might not be suitable for beginners or users who are just about to learn basic HTML. There will be a slight learning curve in order to maintain a Blogger & AMP powered pages, & for sure, you can always find support & help articles/posts shared by Blogger alike on the internet.

Follow us on Twitter & Instagram to get more information on how to integrate Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) working (& validate) for your Blogger blog templates.