How To Add Custom CSS In AMP Template On WordPress

So, let’s say you already have an AMP template on your WordPress website and now you’re looking to add some custom features and capabilities to your existing WordPress themes. What you want is customized CSS and though it’s going to take a bit of effort and time to understand, develop, and input, it’s definitely possible for you and for your WordPress website. In fact, there are a few different ways to go about the process and we’re going to walk you through each of them step by step for WP, so pay close attention.

What Is An AMP Template?

AMP, or accelerated mobile pages, are designed to create a better quality website for use on a mobile device and can add more to the existing themes. These pages are intended to load more quickly and more efficiently because traditional websites on a mobile device can cause latency and can make it difficult for a user or reader to get the information they want, which increases their bounce rate. AMP plugins help to create static content that is much easier to download and much more useful as well, though at this point it’s an open-source proof-of-concept program that’s still just getting it to start, it is proving itself well.

With AMP Plugins, You Have To Follow Some Extremely Important Guidelines, In Order To Get The Right Effects:

1. You need to use set dimensions for all external resources so that your AMP project can tell exactly what the size of each download is before it starts the downloading process.
2. If you use non-asynchronous scripts, you can block the DOM construction, which is required for page rendering. You’re not going to have the ability to use a third-party JavaScript much at all, and you’re going to have a limited range of scripts to choose from and to enhance.
3. Make sure all of your CSS is completely in line and make sure that the sizes are defined correctly. CSS blocks rendering and slow page load, so there are limits on just what you can do with it, a total limit of 50 kilobytes.
4. Do not let anything in your program and your system design block the rendering that you’ll need for appropriately advancing the development. You want to keep everything in iframes so that those external elements are going to preserve the rendering that you’re looking for when it comes to designing your mobile site.
5. You need the loading process to be as quick and efficient as possible, which means that you need your font to follow these rules. Fonts can actually take up a lot of space and, surprisingly enough, they can be the reason that a lot of your slow-down actually occurs. Make sure that your fonts are going to load the right way, from the start.
6. Any animations that you do have should be GPU rather than on the browser itself. You want to use transform and opacity to make sure that you don’t need a lot of updates and to make sure that the animation stays on GPU, keeping it a lot faster than if it’s used any other way.
7. PreConnect API makes sure that pages are loaded very quickly for each user. The system makes sure that the content a user is likely to want is loaded even faster and is ready for them when they get there. It’s downloaded, rendered, and complete set to go when the user gets to it, speeding up downloads.
8. Optimization of downloading resources to make sure the most important things are downloaded before everything else is critical. Images aren’t always downloaded at all unless they are really likely to be found, and everything else is prioritized.

Your Three Best Choices On Adding CSS

Of the many different ways that you can get your AMP template customized to you, with CSS, there are three that are going to be the easiest and at the same time most effective. These methods are going to help you create an individually designed website that fits exactly the outcome that you want and exactly the look that you’ve been hoping for. You’re the only one that can know your perfect design, after all, so make sure that you are the one who is creating it all the way from the start.

Use An External File

The first method is created using a file that will be held external to the actual version of the template. This is extremely important and it’s going to help you create something unique. You can create a number of different designs for your program and you’ll find some of the specific coding right here. You input your template information here and you’re going to be all set.

With this process, you’re going to have more freedom to get things done and it’s going to make it a whole lot easier at the same time. You’ll be able to update your CSS in the external sheet when you want to and then you can transfer it to the head section of the template when you’re done. You only have to make the changes the first time and then move it where needed and it will apply to everything you need, which is going to make things a whole lot easier for you overall.

There are two different ways to do this, with Jade or with PHP. Either one will help you create something unique and will use external processes to help you get there, but it’s going to be a little less complicated with PHP. You can use straight HTML for this program, but you don’t’ have to. You will have to make sure that the project you’re accomplishing and the host that you’re using is capable of using PHP, however, as not every host is going to give you this option. You’ll just have to do a bit of work to find out for sure.

With the PHP file, you can create one from an AMP template, changing just your extension and creating the right type of file. Then you create a stylesheet that you name style.css in the root folder and you can start working on the details. You’ll want to look at what you can do and what you know about coding and a whole lot more. You can always work on learning even more about coding and you can easily continue to improve and develop your CSS external sheet while you do, to help make your website even better.

Use The AMP For WordPress Plugin

Next, you can use the AMP for WP Plugin, which only requires you to install and then activate the AMP plugin itself into your WordPress website. Once you’ve done this you can go to the options page on your administrative dashboard on the sidebar. You’ll find a notation for Custom CSS editor on the page and then you’ll be able to add the customized content that you want. Save all of your changes and you’re done.

Do It Directly

Finally, you can add the function code amp_post_template_css and start to input your CSS manually. You don’t need to use style tags at all in this (and actually you shouldn’t) you just put in the CSS style codes that you want and you’ll get the same results as if you did it through the plugin, it’s just going to take you a little more work to do it yourself.

Directly writing your content is going to give you some limitations because you’re going to have to go through a lot of changes directly each time you want to make updates. If you want to create this content you have a whole lot more control over everything because it’s going to let you do everything you want. If you need to make a change, however, you’re going to have to go through many pages of the site to change out the CSS that you want.

Rules You Need To Follow

When you’re adding CSS to an AMP custom page template there are definitely some rules you need to know about, in order to create a quality WordPress website site and also to make sure that you’re keeping your site easy to use for anyone on it (and easy for you to create).

1. Don’t Force A Style Using The !important Code

This code is one that you generally want to avoid in all types of CSS, however, if you’re using your CSS on an AMP custom page template it’s especially important to avoid it. When you do use it on this type of template you can expect to incur some performance issues, so make sure you’re putting your code in and styling it the right way.

2.Keep Out Pseudo Elements In General

Okay, so you can use them a little bit if you’re directly referring to a tag, but don’t use them otherwise. You’re just going to clog up the coding and you’re going to cause some problems when you’re trying to arrange everything the way that you want.

3. Don’t Use Inline Style Attributes

The attributes that you use must be in the <head> section of the page and they have to use a <style amp-custom> tag as well. Anything inline is not going to work as needed and it could just clog up your webpage as it’s trying to download the important things.

4. <link rel=”stylesheet”>

Unless you’re using custom fonts you’re not going to have any use for this particular tag either.

5. –amp- and i-amp

These are not allowed to be class names because they’re used by the internal system. You have to make sure to avoid the use of these so as not to interfere with anything happening in the actual system process.

6. Filter

This tag tends to cause a lot of performance problems and, as such, has been entirely blacklisted and is not able to be used. You want your programs to work well, after all, so make sure you’re not using this tag.

7. Transition Property

This particular tag needs to be used only in GPU-accelerated properties and not any other methods because this can cause difficulties or cause performance issues while you’re trying to program your site.

8. @keyframes {}

This code also is only allowed for GPU-accelerated properties and not for anything else that could cause a slowdown or any other type of performance issue for the overall website or coding. Following these coding rules will make sure that your codes are more effective and that they’re going to have fewer problems with loading when it comes to your users. These few rules are going to help you and restricting or reducing your use of certain tags is going to help you keep your readers, users, and customers coming back to you for more information, products, or whatever else your website is for.

Conclusion

Perfecting your AMP template is essential for anyone who has a website and understanding how to get exactly what you’re looking for with the template as well as with the CSS customization. If you know what you’re doing when it comes to coding you’ll be able to do a whole lot more with your website than you would be able to with just the template alone or even with just taking coding from another source and applying it to your website. Taking some time to learn CSS and work on improving your template is going to make a huge difference for your website.

No matter what method you decide to use, you’re going to have options that make it easier and that will help you understand what your website needs and what your users need in order to be successful. A website that is able to download on a mobile device is crucial to the level of importance that everyone is placing on mobile phones and the many people who use mobile phones as their primary method of searching the Internet. By optimizing your website you’re increasing your potential viewership by a huge margin—and that’s something you definitely want to think about.