TECHNICAL SEO · SEO GLOSSARY
AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) SEO
AMP is Google\'s deprecated fast-mobile-page format — a restricted HTML subset cached by Google. Google ended AMP\'s SERP benefits in 2021; the format is now optional and has no ranking advantage over well-optimised standard pages.
Definition
AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) was an open-source project initiated by Google in 2016 to create a fast-loading mobile page format. AMP pages used a restricted subset of HTML (AMP HTML), a custom JavaScript library (AMP JS), and were served from the Google AMP Cache (cdn.ampproject.org) — meaning Google served AMP pages from its own CDN, not from the publisher\'s server. This guaranteed fast TTFB because the page was pre-loaded by Google before the user clicked. AMP was a requirement for appearing in the Google News Top Stories carousel from 2016–2021. **In 2021, Google removed AMP as a requirement for Top Stories** — any page meeting Core Web Vitals thresholds (good LCP, CLS, FID/INP) can appear in Top Stories regardless of whether it uses AMP. AMP now provides no ranking advantage over well-optimised standard pages. AMP\'s canonical structure: a canonical HTML page and a linked AMP page. The AMP page has `<link rel="canonical" href="/standard-page">` and the canonical page has `<link rel="amphtml" href="/amp-page">`. This structure remains supported but is no longer advantageous for most publishers.
Why it matters for SEO
Sites that implemented AMP pre-2021 may still have AMP infrastructure (separate /amp/ URL paths, AMP-specific sitemaps, AMP validation rules) that adds complexity without benefit. The maintenance cost of keeping AMP pages in sync with canonical pages (content changes, structured data updates, new features) often outweighs any remaining value. For new sites, implementing AMP is not recommended — focus instead on Core Web Vitals optimisation on standard pages, which achieves the same eligibility for Top Stories and other SERP features. For existing AMP implementations, the decision to remove AMP requires a migration plan: redirecting /amp/ URLs to canonical pages, updating sitemap entries, and monitoring GSC for indexing status changes.
How DeepSEOAnalysis checks this
DeepSEOAnalysis detects amphtml link tags on crawled pages, checks whether the linked AMP URL is accessible and returns 200, validates whether AMP pages have correct canonical tags pointing back to the standard page, and checks whether AMP and canonical page structured data is consistent. The audit flags AMP/canonical mismatches (structured data present on canonical but missing on AMP, or vice versa) that can prevent rich results from appearing on AMP pages.
GLOSSARY
Related terms
performance
Core Web Vitals
Three Google metrics — LCP, INP, and CLS — that measure real-user loading, interactivity, and visual stability.
Read definition →technical
Mobile-First Indexing
Google\'s approach of crawling and indexing the mobile version of a page as the primary version for ranking purposes.
Read definition →technical
Canonical Tag
A canonical tag (rel="canonical") is an HTML link element that tells search engines which URL is the authoritative version of a page when duplicate or near-duplicate content exists at multiple URLs. It consolidates ranking signals from all duplicate variants to the canonical URL.
Read definition →structured data
Structured Data
Machine-readable annotations added to HTML — usually JSON-LD — that explicitly describe what a page is about to search engines and AI systems.
Read definition →See how your site scores on AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) SEO.
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