If you’re reading this post, you are probably more or less familiar with brand new AMP for Emails technology developed by Google.
It turned out that new horizons are opened wide for the commercial email channel. Therefore email marketers don’t have to retrain into plumbers or waiters.
However, new skills and knowledge are obviously required to obtain. But that’s a matter for a separate talk.
Today we’re going to pay attention to new specific issues of internet security that accompany AMP innovations.
In particular, to whitelisting – what is this about, why so secure and how to pass this “scary” challenge. Let’s get down to it.
AMP in a digital nutshell
Not going too deep into technical details, AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) is a new advanced technology of high-speed data transfer based on AMP HTML.
In fact, these protocols are the next stage of classic HTML code evolution.
But the complex of HTML upgrades gave birth to a new framework that allows applying and using various next-gen features that bring the whole Internet to a new level.
AMP implementation requires a deep redesign of the whole global network, that’s why this process is long-run. AMP for Emails is a new milestone in this way.
It means that AMP-powered techniques are in the email communication channel now, and they brought us new opportunities to use advanced interactivity and dynamic real-time content.
The very beginning of AMP 4 Emails was so successful that it became the hottest trend 2019 in email marketing. AMP support is implemented by top email clients like Outlook and Yahoo as well as ESPs and template editors like eSputnik and Stripo.email.
From now on, email is not an outdated digital letter anymore but a mini website right in the inbox folder.
We send an email campaign – and our subscribers can preview all available product versions including zoom and snippets from different angles, check how many items are available right now, add goods to the cart, calculate the total amount and make an order.
Moreover, users can vote, leave comments and rate goods/services, talk in chats, order tickets and hotel rooms, track exchange rates and sports game score, confirm the meeting, etc. I repeat, all that is done right in inbox email in real-time mode.
No need to navigate somewhere – yeah, clients are a bit lazy today… an effect of progress.
In addition, accordion menus and image carousels are much more convenient and stylish ways to show pics or arrange menus. All that looks amazing, no arguments. But…
There are two sides to each coin
…probably even to bitcoin 🙂 Besides jokes, it’s a principle of this world – nothing is 100% great and awesome. With AMP, new cyber threats arise.
How does dynamic data transfer work? Let’s figure out the essential technical details. Shortly, dynamic content itself is not embedded in the email body. Only AMP-powered blocks are built in the message.
They have permission to connect to constantly changing data stored on servers. Having access to the end-points, AMP blocks transfer input and output data displaying updated content in the client’s email.
Then, AMP blocks transmit all their actions to company resources in turn. In other words, it’s a long sequence of mutual interaction: user’s device – email page – external resources, instead of “device/email”.
In these details, the Devil lurks.
Why so secure
I’ve met a post where the author said that AMP is such an evil that it’s better to deny it at all and disable all those options on our devices. This approach seems too pessimistic… following such logic, let’s shut down the Internet at all. No internet – no hackers, yeah ))) Absurd? Surely.
If there’s a backdoor in our house, should we brick it because our city is full of crimes?
I guess no. But our task is to protect all doors and windows with proper security systems.
The same goes for web security as a global network is Sin City too, not even mention the twilight zone called Darknet.
In fact, AMP-powered methods of data input/output are a real backdoor for bad guys of all sorts. You received an inbox message that includes elements with data exchange permission activated by default.
This access needs no user’s actions to enable, otherwise, it would be inappropriately inconvenient. It sounds pretty frightening. Especially taking into account that AMP is about confidential data transfer.
Most of you are probably familiar with phishing emails. All those fake messages “from banks/social media admins/payment systems/Apple company etc” (in fact not from them). Imitation of corporate design, scary notifications “your account/card is blocked/suspended…” – and request to click the link and confirm personal data (by inserting it, of course).
Such emails are typically removed immediately, accompanied offline with “warmest” wishes to the sender. Btw, we recommend to send reports to respective email services – it helps to stop those “wags”.
But… among thousand of experienced people, there is always one naive person who shares secret data – and in this case, phisher wins.
Otherways they’d stop attempts long ago if they were futile.
Notice that the phishing method I explained above is quite primitive.
Now imagine what hackers can do using AMP blocks.
It may become a huge security breach opening ways for cybercrime, and not only rough phishing.
Data transfer blocks may turn into infiltrator units to hack PCs and local networks, steal confidential and private data, disable software and hardware… On all scales, up to corporate espionage, state crimes, and cyber-terrorism.
How to prevent all that? Anti-malware techniques are different. But one of the key security tactics is exactly what is mentioned in the current post name.
Whitelisting by Google
You wondered why we need to get whitelisted by Google?
I hope the answer is clear now: to avoid cyber attacks and data stealing. Google needs to ensure that you’re a trustworthy company or person, not a malicious intruder with intents to cheat and hack.
Don’t be scared – as a rule, this sender verification is easy enough to pass successfully.
How to get whitelisted?
First of all, craft your first AMP-powered campaign and choose proper ESP that supports bulk mailings with AMP elements in emails. Then, whitelisting is done this way:
- authenticate your sender name, settings of SPF and DKIM parameters, and check your XHRs destination;
- verify the white history of your mass mailings, domain reputation, and spam complaints rate – it must be low;
- send your first AMP message to Google;
- and fill out all fields in the Sender Registration form.
When all that is done, just wait. It takes time as whitelisting is not an automatic operation. Artificial intellect is still not smart enough to do this, so decisions are made not by machines. Human touch is required.
But when you’re finally whitelisted, there are no limits to send AMP-powered campaigns. Congratulations!
Summing up
Notice that once you submit the Google registration form, you will see this notification:
And then a period of silence – no more notifications from Google team until the very day you get whitelisted. Don’t panic, everything is OK – your request is processed. As for our case, we waited for two weeks for the response.
We sincerely wish you to get whitelisted successfully – AMP emails are the new age of email marketing. And one more recommendation: time is money, so better spend the period of waiting for self-education on how to create the best AMP emails. As we said above, new skills are essential here.
What is AMP?
Accelerated Mobile Pages is an open-source coding standard for publishers. The aim for AMP is for publishers to be able to load their sites quickly on mobile since mobile responsive could be clunky and slow because desktop resources are heavy and plenty.
If we’re going to be honest with ourselves, most of the elements of a desktop website is unnecessary for a mobile site.
Until recently, AMP was just for User Experience. Now, Google has backed it up – and is encouraging websites to follow suit. Much like how they heralded Schema.org and laid-low Dublin Core for Metadata.
Why is AMP Important?
Ever tried to load your site on mobile? Are you happy with the load speed? I know I’m not.
Heck loading my site in desktop is taking long and I have a respectable amount of speed for my internet connection – but mobile?
All I have is usually a clunky data plan with the mobile providers here in the Philippines.
Simply put, browsing on mobile while you’re on-the-go will mean that your internet speed is not always fast. So it’s best to optimize the experience of mobile browsing for all users (at least that’s what Google wants to happen) by standardizing a mobile version of your site with AMP. I’ll show you how to do it below.
Who will Benefit the Most from AMP?
I don’t believe that you’ll want to make your services or product landing pages into AMP. It would be stripped down of its first-impressions. That would defeat the purpose of your original design. So I don’t believe that everyone will be adopting AMP.
Thinking about our SEO Services site and how it would look like with AMP is just unimaginable. I think I’ll leave it as it is, thank you.
The sites that will benefit the most from AMP are publishing sites. Sites that produce content. So how you’ll apply this to your client is not by making their entire site into AMP. That might affect conversions negatively. Rather, you can transition your client’s blog section or news and updates section into AMP.
Actual Sites that Prefer Loading AMP
Try opening an article from Twitter from the native mobile app. you’ll notice that Twitter has its own browser now – and it’s not really loading sites fast enough. But if a site is using AMP then it loads fast even with Twitter’s native browser.
What’s the Difference Between AMP and Non-AMP Mobile Browsing?
One of the starkest differences is that AMP pages does not have a lot of stuff for a more complex user experience. Everything is stripped-down.
- AMP forces you to use a streamlined version of CSS.
- Javascript is not allowed at all – in fact, I’m still trying to figure out how to make share buttons appear on my AMP pages.
- You are forced to use an off-the-shelf Javascript library that AMP provides you with – which forces your images to lazy load.
That’s it. Basically when you integrate AMP to standardize your mobile responsive pages, you are putting speed and readability as top priority over anything else – even over shareablility.
How can I Make AMP Work for my WordPress Site?
Here’s where things get interesting because you can actually integrate AMP in about 5 minutes for your WordPress site. Simply follow these steps:
1) Install the AMP WordPress plugin by Automattic
2) Activate the plugin – what it will do is append /amp on all your pages but what it won’t do is redirect mobile visitors to your /amp pages
3) So the next step is to edit your .htaccess file – you could use an FTP program to do this. I personally use Filezilla.
4) (Optional) Just in case you want to check if your AMP pages are working across the board: In your .htaccess file, paste this code:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/amp$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} (android|blackberry|googlebot\-mobile|iemobile|iphone|ipod|\#opera\ mobile|palmos|webos) [NC]
RewriteRule ^([a-zA-Z0-9-]+)([\/]*)$ https://example.com/$1/amp [L,R=302]
Note that you have to change example.com to your site’s domain name. I explicitly made the redirect into a 302 because we don’t want all the to link equity to be passed on to your /amp pages since it’s merely an accelerated mobile page version.
5) Lastly, you will want to edit the CSS to make your Accelerated Mobile Pages look and feel more like your site. You can edit the CSS using FTP by going to your wp-content -> plugins -> amp -> template.php
You could see that debuglies.com Mobile Pages still look and feel like our desktop page design – without all the fluff.
That’s it! You should be rocking AMP in no time.
Oh and before anything else, make sure you’re using rel=”canonical” tags to your original pages. Just to be sure to keep anything Panda related off your back.
How can I Make AMP Work for my Site if it’s not WordPress?
It’s not as easy as installing a plugin but it’s definitely more rewarding. You will have to go to the AMP Project’s site and learn how to integrate it via hard-code, hands-on.
