We haven’t recommended AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) across the board in years. So why publish a separate post about it? It is a good example of how SEO recommendations change over time, and many site owners are now curious about disabling AMP.

AMP was introduced in 2016 and quickly became an industry best practice, but by 2021, we began removing AMP pages from sites. The use of AMP continues to decline, yet popular website platforms, such as Squarespace and Wix, imply its importance by including it in their SEO settings or checklists. Should your website use AMP? Keep reading to learn more.

What is AMP?

AMP is a framework aimed at making web content, especially news articles and mobile web pages, load faster and provide a more user-friendly experience on mobile devices. AMP achieves this by stripping down HTML, implementing a streamlined version of CSS, and limiting JavaScript.

Should you enable or disable AMP?

It depends. These days, we generally don’t recommend AMP to clients. That said, if your site publishes timely news stories and most of your traffic is mobile, then you might still consider AMP. Note, AMP is not a ranking factor, but AMP content loads fast which can improve overall user experience. While Google used to prioritize AMP results in mobile searches, this is no longer the case.

AMP pages will look visually different from your regular pages, so you need to weigh the pros and cons from a mobile user perspective against your business objectives. If your blogs are potentially high converting landing pages, AMP blogs might not be the best fit.

Before you jump in and toggle AMP on (or off), get clear on how the AMP version of your blog posts will appear to users because it is different from the regular styling of your website. AMP formatting strips down a page’s HTML to the essentials. For example, on Squarespace, this means that certain block types such as summary blocks and calendars won’t appear on AMP pages.

General guidelines:

• New websites, don’t enable AMP without further research—ensure you or your developer are reading the latest resources.

• For sites experiencing success with AMP posts, leave as is for now.

• For sites that don’t need AMP, consider disabling. If you disable AMP (learn more below), wait a couple months before drawing conclusions. During this time, monitor traffic to your non-AMP pages to watch for changes in important KPIs.

Squarespace AMP Pages

Note: As of Q1 2024, Squarespace’s SEO checklist still recommends the AMP setting, however, we stopped recommending AMP to most sites in 2021.

For a preview of what Squarespace AMP posts look like, simply add "?format=amp" to the end of a blog URL. This can be done on either a desktop or a mobile device. AMP URLs are accessible for every Squarespace site, regardless of your AMP settings. 

• Blog URL: www.yoursite.com/blog/post-title

• AMP URL: www.yoursite.com/blog/post-title?format=amp

Note, this URL structure does not follow Google’s recommendations.

⚠️ CAUTION: Squarespace’s AMP process does not account for the accordion block—accordion content does not display, nor is there a link directing visitors to the full post. Google’s guidelines state “users must be able to experience the same content … as on the corresponding canonical pages.” That said, Google doesn’t (yet) detect this as an issue, so it only matters if the accordion content is critical for comprehension.

Enable AMP

If AMP is the right choice for your Squarespace site: visit Settings > Blog Preferences > scroll down and click Use AMP > click Save.

Disable AMP

If your blog already implemented AMP and you want to turn it off, you need to know that Squarespace does not remove AMP pages per Google’s instructions. Google recommends 301 redirects, but Squarespace doesn’t take this step and neither can you. It takes Google quite a while to stop serving Squarespace AMP pages.

In 2021, our first tests of disabling AMP on Squarespace seemed to temporarily hamper Google’s ability to crawl a site. That said, turning off AMP did not impact search performance of pages already indexed. Our advice on whether or not to turn off Squarespace AMP depends on a site’s publishing schedule, content goals, and other factors.

Note, if you turn off Squarespace AMP, due to the way the platform handles the process, you’ll continue to see the AMP URLs listed on your Google Search Console Page Indexing report under “alternate page with proper canonical tag” for years to come. But as is the case with many non-indexed URLs, this is not something that needs to be “fixed” and per Google it is fine.

Wix AMP Pages

Update: As of May 2024, Wix no longer supports AMP.

Troubleshooting AMP

Did you receive a message from Google Search Console regarding your AMP pages? Unfortunately, the support around AMP on website building platforms is limited.

Keep in mind, non-critical issues will not prevent AMP URLs from appearing on Google. And if an AMP page has critical issues, the regular URL will be displayed in search instead. Learn more about Google-specific AMP issues. Below are common messages:

• Image size smaller than recommended size: Google’s recommended image size for AMP pages has changed over time—years back they suggested a minimum pixel width of 696px, then 1200px, and now their documentation no longer specifies a specific width, but the 1200px guideline still works.

• Content mismatch: Missing embedded video: If your website is on Squarespace, use a video block versus an embed block. Squarespace’s literature states embed blocks will display on AMP blogs, but this is not the case.

Final Thoughts

AMP remains a topic of debate for many website owners and developers. While it offers benefits in terms of faster loading times and improved mobile experience, its drawbacks, especially in terms of design flexibility, cannot be overlooked.

By understanding the pros and cons of AMP, as well as understanding CMS-specific implementations, site owners can make informed decisions. Whether or not AMP aligns with your specific business objectives, you want to prioritize a seamless, user-friendly mobile experience. Learn how to create a successful small business website.

Further Reading

• Amp.Dev: Official AMP documentation

• The Verge: How Google tried to fix the web by taking it over

• Search Engine Journal: AMP: Is It A Google Ranking Factor?

• Search Engine Round Table: Generally Removing AMP Page Shouldn't Result In Search Ranking Decline

• Wikipedia: A timeline of launch, expansion, and decline.

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