Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages framework, known as AMP, lends itself to a better, faster experience with compatible websites on mobile devices, and the company has announced that it will begin cracking down on pages that are content-weak compared to their normal mobile counterparts. AMP pages are supposed to be optimized to load faster than a normal mobile page, but still serve a wealth of content like images inside news articles, among other things. Some websites omit some content in the name of loading and serving the AMP page as fast as possible, or even omit significant content in order to lure a user to the normal mobile or desktop page. The image attached to the bottom of this article is a good example of that behavior. Starting on February 1, 2018, the company will begin to essentially de-list improperly made AMP pages, directing users to the full mobile page instead.
When Google finds a page that does not live up to its standards for AMP page content, it will begin directing users to the normal mobile version of that page, and take the AMP page off of all AMP-based listings, which takes away many benefits that could otherwise help websites to build publicity. They will no longer be featured in carousels of AMP-based pages for relevant results in searches, as one major example. It should be noted that nothing regarding AMP will affect a site’s search ranking or other metrics outside of AMP, and webmasters will not see any adverse action from Google aside from directing people away from the AMP page in question and sending the webmaster a message about the situation in their Search Console.
AMP was launched back in February of 2016, and quickly caught up to Facebook Instant Articles, which had launched less than a year before then, in terms of pages, webmasters, and views on the service. AMP versions of many popular pages, including articles right here on Android Headlines, are shown by default when opening a search result from the Google App or a compatible mobile browser like Chrome. Thanks to its usage of an entirely new HTML framework, AMP is able to save data usage and bandwidth while providing a quick, smooth, and content-rich browsing experience. AMP is optimized for mobile devices, but unofficial Chrome extensions allowing the viewing of AMP pages on desktop do exist.
