AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) is an open-source framework for fast-loading web pages, announced by Google in 2015. It restricts HTML and JavaScript to a defined set. The term is historical, because AMP no longer has a special status in Google Search.
What was AMP and what applies today?
AMP consisted of AMP HTML, a JavaScript library and AMP caches that stored and served validated pages. For years, an AMP version was required to appear in the Top Stories carousel on mobile.
That ended in 2021. Google announced in November 2020 that AMP would stop being a requirement for Top Stories from May 2021. In April 2021 it moved the start to mid-June 2021. Since then, any page meeting the Google News content policies is eligible, whether built with AMP or other technology and regardless of its Core Web Vitals or page experience status. Google also stopped showing the AMP badge. Google’s current documentation says Search indexes AMP pages like any other page and applies the same standards regardless of the technology. Since July 1, 2026, according to the Search Central Changelog, Google takes users directly to the publisher’s AMP pages, and the documentation no longer mentions the AMP Cache or signed exchanges.
Google still requires AMP pages to be valid and to offer the same content and actions as the canonical page where possible.
- Google introduces the improved sitelinks search box. It sends queries straight to the site's own search pages.Source: developers.google.com
- Google announces it will remove the “mobile-friendly” label from mobile results, as 85% of pages already meet the criteria.Source: developers.google.com
- Google announces the end of data-vocabulary.org. Markup in this format is to lose rich result eligibility from April 6, 2020.Source: developers.google.com
- Google moves the end of data-vocabulary.org support to January 29, 2021.Source: developers.google.com
- Google announces that from May 2021, non-AMP pages will also be eligible for the mobile Top Stories feature.Source: developers.google.com
- New timing from mid-June 2021. AMP is then no longer required for Top Stories, and Google stops showing the AMP badge.Source: developers.google.com
- Google removes the related: search operator from its documentation, as it is no longer supported.Source: developers.google.com
- Google limits FAQ rich results to well-known government and health websites. How-to rich results are shown on desktop only.Source: developers.google.com
- How-to rich results are no longer shown on desktop either. Google calls the result type deprecated.Source: developers.google.com
- Google removes the host group element from its visual elements gallery, as it no longer appears in search results.Source: developers.google.com
- Google removes the guidance for the limited-access video carousel after the markup proved not useful at scale.Source: developers.google.com
- The Notes experiment, which let users add notes to search results, has ended. Google removes its documentation.Source: developers.google.com
- The cache: search operator no longer works. Google removes its documentation.Source: developers.google.com
- The cached link is no longer available in search results. Google keeps noarchive only as a historical rule.Source: developers.google.com
- Google announces that it will remove the sitelinks search box worldwide from November 21, 2024. Other sitelinks remain.Source: developers.google.com
- Google removes the sitelinks search box documentation and archives the nositelinkssearchbox rule.Source: developers.google.com
- Mobile search results no longer show breadcrumbs in the visible URL, only the domain. They remain on desktop.Source: developers.google.com
- Google announces it will phase out several structured data features, including Book Actions, Course Info, ClaimReview, Estimated Salary, Learning Video, Special Announcement and Vehicle Listing.Source: developers.google.com
- Google removes the documentation for course info, estimated salary, learning video, special announcement and vehicle listing. These types no longer appear in results.Source: developers.google.com
- Google phases out the practice problem and dataset types in Search. For Book Actions, Google withdraws the deprecation notice.Source: developers.google.com
- FAQ rich results no longer appear in Google Search. Google announced this in its changelog entry of May 8, 2026.Source: developers.google.com
- Google removes the documentation for the FAQ rich result.Source: developers.google.com
- Google now sends users directly to AMP pages on the publisher's own host. The AMP viewer, AMP Cache and signed exchanges are no longer involved.Source: developers.google.com
Only backed by press or social media, so not listed as events. Author photos (Authorship) disappeared in June 2014 according to Search Engine Land, and Authorship display in August 2014 according to Search Engine Watch. Google's Search Liaison confirmed the end of the cached link on X on February 1, 2024 (per 9to5Google). According to Search Engine Land, continuous scroll ended on desktop from June 25, 2024, with mobile following in later months. Last checked: .
Example
<!-- Regular page points to the AMP version -->
<link rel="amphtml" href="https://example.com/amp/giraffes">
<!-- AMP page points back to the canonical page -->
<link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/giraffes">
Common mistakes
- Invalid AMP pages. Google requires the AMP page to follow the AMP HTML specification and to be valid. Checking it with the AMP test is part of that.
- Diverging content. Users should be able to see the same content and complete the same actions on the AMP page as on the canonical page, where possible.
- Confusing AMP URLs. The URL scheme should make sense to users, for example
example.com/amp/giraffes, rather than point to an unrelated domain. - Ignoring structured data policies. The structured data policies apply to AMP pages as well.
FAQ
Is AMP still a thing? Existing AMP pages keep working and are indexed. For rankings and Top Stories, new sites do not need AMP.
Does AMP improve rankings? Google states that all pages are held to the same standard, so AMP gives no ranking advantage on its own.
Sources
- About AMP on Google Search – Google Search Central (updated 2026-07-01)developers.google.com
- Timing for page experience – Google Search Central Blog, 2020-11-10developers.google.com
- Page experience in Google Search – Google Search Centraldevelopers.google.com
- Google ends cache-served AMP pages in Search – Search Engine Journal (secondary)searchenginejournal.com
- Accelerated Mobile Pages – Wikipedia (secondary)en.wikipedia.org
- Updating our AMP documentation – Google Search Central Changelog, 1 July 2026developers.google.com
- More time, tools, and details on the page experience update – Google Search Central Blog, 2021-04-19developers.google.com
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