Google announced this week that mobile users will now have an easier time sharing URLs that lead to the original publishers’ sites. Presently, AMP content keeps users connected to Google instead of directing them towards publishers URLs. Regular content, however, links users to the original publication URL. As a result, mobile users try to share AMP content using a Google URL instead of the actual original source. Google now promises, however, that sharing publishers’ direct URLs is now easier with updated AMP display coming in early 2017. But what will the changes bring?
Sharing Publishers’ Direct URLs Is Now Easier With Updated AMP Display
Problems with Current AMP Display
1. Sharing
Mobile users (and web users in general) love to share content via Facebook, LinkedIn, and a plethora of other social outlets. Mobile search results, however, do not automatically display the original source URL. As a result, mobile browsers are left not knowing how to share web content via their mobile device.
2. Publishers’ Concerns
The web is a huge resource for businesses. Simply keeping your Google listing updated is an excellent marketing tool. That’s without mentioning how effective users linking to your web content is. AMP displays that remain connected to Google, however, interfere with the potential for publishers’ sites to be noticed and shared.
The Solution
Google announced that their plan is to change the header appearing above AMP content. As of now, the header only shows the domain of a publishers site. It does not provide any further information or redirect you to the publishers original site. Google’s update will alter the header so that users can more easily find and share the contents original URL.
Google prerenders AMP pages in order to make them load faster for mobile users. In other words, they preload the pages before the user even clicks on them. The point is to obviously provide a faster user experience. In other words, Google uploads pages from its own cache and displays them under its own domain. This helps protect user privacy, and also accurately track the number of visitors to specific site URLs. Although many publishers would rather Google upload their pages via their own URLs, this small change should help improve site traffic and social sharing.
