What is AMP in SEO terms today? AMP, Accelerated Mobile Pages, is a framework for building lightweight pages that load quickly on phones. For several years it mattered to news publishers for one reason: AMP was needed to appear in Google’s Top Stories carousel. That reason disappeared with the page experience update in 2021, and the case for AMP shrank to whatever speed benefit it gives a particular site.
This post sets out what changed, what replaced AMP’s role, and how to decide whether to keep it or remove it.
What changed in June 2021
Search Engine Journal’s report on the page experience update rolling out, by Matt G. Southern, records the key change in Google’s words: “AMP is no longer a requirement for pages to be included in the Top Stories carousel.” Google also expanded non-AMP content to Google News and removed the AMP badge from search results.
The update began rolling out in mid-June 2021 and was due to complete by 31 August 2021. Since then, a non-AMP page that performs well has been eligible for the same placements an AMP page could reach.
For publishers this removed the main reason to run two versions of every article. For everyone else, it confirmed that the format itself had never been the point: what Google wanted was pages that load quickly and behave well on a phone.
| Before the update | After the update (from mid-June 2021) | |
|---|---|---|
| Top Stories carousel | AMP required | “AMP is no longer a requirement” |
| Google News | Non-AMP content more limited | Non-AMP content expanded |
| AMP badge in results | Shown | Removed |
| What earns eligibility | The AMP format | Page experience: Core Web Vitals, mobile usability, security issues, HTTPS, ad experience |
What is AMP in SEO now: a speed technique
With the requirement gone, AMP is one route to a fast page among several. Its restrictions on scripts and layout make it hard to build a slow page, which is the appeal. The same restrictions make it hard to build some features, and they mean maintaining a second version of every page alongside the main one.
The received wisdom, still repeated in older guides, is that AMP gives a ranking boost. The facts do not support that framing. Google made AMP unnecessary for the one feature that required it and removed the badge that made AMP results visually different. What the page experience update measures is how a page performs for users, whatever technology produced it.
The page experience signals that replaced it
The signals Search Engine Journal listed for page experience are Core Web Vitals, mobile usability, security issues, HTTPS and ad experience. None of them is tied to AMP. A well-built standard page can meet all of them, and an AMP page with intrusive ads or security problems does not get a pass for its format.
In practice, Core Web Vitals is where most of the work lands. If your field data shows failures, the fix is in the template: image sizes, layout shifts, heavy scripts. Our guide to a failed Core Web Vitals assessment works through the usual causes. Mobile usability matters for the same reason mobile-first indexing does: Google evaluates the mobile version of your pages.
One more point. Measure the page your visitors actually load, using field data where you have it. Lab scores for a single URL are useful for debugging, but the decision to keep or drop a format should rest on what real users experience across the templates that carry your traffic.
Should you remove AMP?
If your AMP pages work, your main pages are just as fast, and maintaining both is a burden, removal is usually reasonable. If your main pages are slow and AMP is the only fast version you have, removing AMP first would make things worse. Fix the main template, confirm it performs, then retire AMP.
Before deciding, look at how much traffic the AMP versions actually receive. Segment landing pages in your analytics by AMP and non-AMP URLs, and compare the two over a few months. If AMP pages carry little traffic, the format is costing maintenance time for little return. If they carry most of your mobile visits, treat the switch as a migration, with a plan, a test on one section first, and a rollback route.
Also check what AMP is quietly doing for you. Some sites rely on AMP templates for stripped-down ad layouts or simpler pages that happen to read better on a phone. If the main template is heavier, removing AMP can change the user experience as well as the speed. Compare the two versions side by side on a real device before you commit.
The mechanics matter more than the decision. AMP pages normally point to the main version with a canonical tag, and the main version points to the AMP version with an amphtml link. When you remove AMP:
- Remove the amphtml links from your main pages, so Google stops looking for AMP versions.
- Redirect the old AMP URLs to their main equivalents, so links and bookmarks still resolve.
- Check canonicals point to the URLs you want indexed. Our guide to the canonical tag covers common errors.
- Watch Search Console for a few weeks for crawl errors on the old AMP paths.
Plugins make this easy to get wrong. Deactivating an AMP plugin can leave AMP URLs returning errors rather than redirecting, which wastes whatever links pointed at them. Test a sample of old AMP URLs after the change, on mobile as well as desktop.
Who might still keep AMP
A publisher with a large AMP archive, a stable setup and no spare engineering time may reasonably leave it alone. Nothing in Google’s change penalises AMP; it simply stopped rewarding the format for its own sake. The cost of keeping AMP is maintenance, not rankings.
New sites, by contrast, have little reason to start with AMP. Building one fast, well-structured template is less work than building two, and it keeps every signal, link and analytics event on one URL. That simplicity is worth more than any marginal speed gain the AMP format offers over a well-optimised standard page.
Here is the limitation. The facts here come from Google’s 2021 announcement as reported at the time. They tell you AMP is no longer required and its badge is gone; they do not tell you how any given site’s traffic changed after it removed AMP, which depends on how fast its main pages were. Measure before and after on your own pages. More on how Google’s systems change sits in our algorithm archive.
Frequently asked questions
What is AMP in SEO?
AMP is a framework for fast, lightweight mobile pages. It was once required for Google’s Top Stories carousel; since June 2021 it is not, so it is now a speed technique rather than an SEO requirement.
Does AMP help rankings?
Not as a format. Google removed the AMP badge and the Top Stories requirement. Page experience signals apply to any page, AMP or not.
Can non-AMP pages appear in Top Stories?
Yes. Google said AMP is no longer a requirement for the Top Stories carousel, and it expanded non-AMP content in Google News.
How do I remove AMP safely?
Make sure the main pages are fast, remove amphtml links, redirect old AMP URLs to their main versions, check canonicals and monitor Search Console for errors.
The takeaway AMP is no longer a ticket to Top Stories or a badge in results. Make your main pages fast, then keep or retire AMP based on maintenance cost, with redirects handled.
