AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages)

AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) is a Google framework, launched in 2016, built to make mobile pages load almost instantly. AMP pages use a stripped-down version of HTML with strict rules for scripts and design, and Google caches them on its own servers so they open from the search result in a fraction of a second.

From requirement to legacy format

For several years AMP was the entry ticket to the Top Stories carousel at the top of mobile search results, which is why news publishers built AMP versions of their articles. That requirement disappeared with the Page Experience update in 2021: Google opened Top Stories to all mobile pages and later removed the lightning icon. Mobile pages are now judged on their actual speed, measured through Core Web Vitals, and indexing starts from the mobile version under mobile-first indexing.

Why the format faded

The strength of AMP was also its weakness. Speed came from a closed system with its own rules, its own code and Google's cache as an intermediary, which meant double maintenance, less control over design and analytics, and a dependency many publishers were uneasy about. Once ordinary pages could reach the same speed, the reason for the extra system fell away. Google now evaluates speed and user experience directly, whatever technology a page is built with, and that benefits the whole site's SEO.