In 2015, Google officially stated that mobile-based internet searches have surpassed the number of desktop-based searches.
Meaning, people are accessing the internet via their phones, tablets, and other mobile gadgets more than traditional computer set-ups (like laptop and desktop).
Everyone with a website panicked. How then will they make sure people visit their sites?
Google gave guidelines on how to make websites mobile-friendly.
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While these tips did help, newer data two years later showed that mobile apps are more utilized than mobile browsers – Facebook being the most used of all popular apps.
Facebook knows this. The FB team has been working on the social network tirelessly so people won’t have to leave the app anymore. Facebook adds more features regularly to meet the demands and have launched programs like Canvas ads and Facebook Instant Articles focused mainly for publishers.
What are Facebook Instant Articles?
Fast-loading websites are a must because visitors won’t spend more than 7 seconds for a site to load.
It’s the same as mobile app users. Facebook Instant Articles was developed so that the target audience would be able to access your content quickly.
Originally, when a person or company shares a link to a website, each person who clicks into it would spend somewhere from 7 to 15 seconds to access the site on a mobile browser.
And because the attention span of people online is exactly 8 secondsbefore moving on to new things, Facebook developed Instant Articles to avoid this from happening.
FB Instant Articles Product Manager John Roberts explains:
We built Instant Articles to solve a specific problem—slow loading times on the mobile web created a problematic experience for people reading news on their phones. This is a problem that impacts publishers of all sizes, especially those with audiences where low connectivity is an issue…Facebook’s goal is to connect people to the stories, posts, videos or photos that matter most to them. Opening up Instant Articles will allow any publisher to tell great stories that load quickly, to people all over the world.”
Pros and Cons of Facebook Instant Articles
With Instant Articles, content will be hosted on Facebook’s servers, making the load times of content uniform and faster than the Facebook-to-mobile-site route. This Facebook-native publishing platform also has other advantages and disadvantages.
Pros
“Articles” have interactive features (tap-to-zoom image galleries, auto-play videos, tilt-and-turn mobile device to see other angles of an image, etc.)
Instant Articles are clicked 20% more from the newsfeed (when compared to third-party links)
Encourages viewers to read more of your content with a spot for “related content” at the bottom of your articles
Ability to capture leads thanks to an email lead capture you can embed at the bottom of your articles
Content can be “branded” with your custom themes
Nice ...