What is AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages)?

AMP is an open-source framework for building fast mobile pages. It was once required for some Google features, but that is no longer the case; well-optimised regular pages work just as well.

AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) — SEO Library

A short history#

Google launched AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) in 2015 to make mobile pages load instantly. For several years, AMP was required to appear in the Top Stories carousel and pages showed a lightning-bolt icon. In 2021, Google removed the AMP requirement for Top Stories and made page experience (including Core Web Vitals) the standard for all pages instead.

Should you still use AMP?#

Situation	Recommendation
New blog or business site	No — build a fast responsive site instead
Existing AMP site that works well	Optional; maintaining two versions has a cost
Large publisher with a slow main site	Fix the main site’s performance first

Removing AMP safely#

Make sure the regular pages are fast and mobile-friendly.
301-redirect AMP URLs (e.g. /post/amp/) to their canonical pages.
Remove rel="amphtml" links from canonical pages.
Deactivate the AMP plugin and monitor Search Console.

This theme redirects old /amp/ URLs of removed posts automatically. Related: page speed, mobile-first indexing.

A short history#

Situation

Recommendation

New blog or business site

No — build a fast responsive site instead

Existing AMP site that works well

Optional; maintaining two versions has a cost

Large publisher with a slow main site

Fix the main site’s performance first

Removing AMP safely#

Make sure the regular pages are fast and mobile-friendly.

301-redirect AMP URLs (e.g. /post/amp/) to their canonical pages.

Remove rel="amphtml" links from canonical pages.

Deactivate the AMP plugin and monitor Search Console.

This theme redirects old /amp/ URLs of removed posts automatically. Related: page speed, mobile-first indexing.