How to Disable AMP in WordPress Without Losing SEO Traffic – Many bloggers disable AMP on their websites for various reasons. Although AMP does speed uploading websites on mobile, in reality, there are several issues that make bloggers unhappy.
At the beginning of its appearance, AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) claimed that it could improve website performance and improve user experience.
However, the webmaster version, AMP is often felt to reduce website functionality and not really contribute to SEO.
This techjustify article will review in full about AMP, a problem that webmasters often complain about AMP, and how to remove AMP from a WordPress website.
- 1 What is Google AMP?
- 2 Reasons Webmasters Choose to Remove AMP
- 2.1 1. Conversion Rate Decreases
- 2.2 2. Very Limited Mobile Features
- 2.3 3. Low User Interaction
- 2.4 4. Already Using Responsive WordPress Theme
- 2.5 4. Google Adsense Revenue Decreases
- 3 Ways to Disable AMP on Websites Without Losing Traffic
- 3.1 A. Setting ‘no-follow’ on the AMP page
- 3.2 B. Removing the AMP Plugin
- 3.3 C. Creating an AMP Page Redirection
- 4 Conclusion
What is Google AMP?
AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) is a technology that Google developed to increase the speed of access to a website on a mobile browser.
Google AMP works to serve pages with minimal HTML and javascript so that they can be stored in the Google AMP Cache. That way, Google can use the cache for users who access the link via search results.
Because it uses a minimum of HTML and javascript, it means that some elements of the website are missing for faster access. That’s why the appearance of AMP looks more ‘minimalist’ than a regular website and lacks features.
In a previous article, techjustify also reviewed what Google AMP is and how to use it. If you want to know more about AMP, this article can be your reference.
Why Webmasters Choose to Remove AMP
AMP implementation itself tends not to be easy. There are several potential problems that often arise when using AMP. Starting from the interface and website functionality to the decline in the performance of most metrics.
One of the famous bloggers and writers at Hacker Noon, Alex Kras, once wrote the reason why he disabled AMP from his website.
According to Kras, because AMP minimizes javascript, this makes the website features not run optimally. In addition, when you click on an image or link, AMP will continue the search to Google instead of leading to the same website.
He also records what happened during the month after disabling AMP.
Traffic levels appear to have remained roughly the same and all metrics appear to be improving. To be fair, I published four new articles because I disabled AMP, so my numbers could be a nice bump from the new content.
In addition, here are some problems that often arise when webmasters use AMP:
1. Conversion Rate Decrease
Due to the limited use of HTML and javascript, webmasters will find it difficult to maximize the features on their websites. Especially in terms of encouraging visitors to subscribe, fill out contact forms, and buy products.
As a result, conversion rates on AMP websites tend to be lower than regular websites that can maximize the button, column, and CTA (Call to Action) features on their website.
2. Very Limited Mobile Features
AMP can’t display website navigation menus as webmasters expect. Including sidebars or other content. This resulted in decreased pageviews from mobile visitors.
In addition, user experience experts also strongly oppose the ‘close button located above the AMP display. This button gives the visitor a psychological urge to return to the Google search engine and not read other topics that the webmaster has to offer on his site.
3. Low User Interaction
The limited features on the website will of course have an impact on decreasing user interaction. Users will find it difficult to share content to social media accounts, comment, rate, and interact with other content.
4. Already Using Responsive WordPress Theme
One of the goals of using a responsive WordPress theme is to present a good UX display for mobile users. Many webmasters feel that the use of responsive themes is enough to serve their mobile users.
4. Google Adsense Revenue Decreases
Many webmasters feel that their income from Google Adsense decreases with the use of AMP. This happens because not all types of ads appear in AMP.
Also, ads in AMP appear more slowly and revenue per 1000 AMP views is less than regular pages.
How to Disable AMP on Websites Without Losing Traffic
There are several steps to removing AMP from a website without affecting SEO and without losing traffic. Yes, disabling AMP on the website is not just removing the plugin and it’s over.
Because if you just do this, Google will warn you that there are a lot of 404 error pages on your website. To avoid this, there are at least 3 steps that you can follow:
- No-follow’ setting for AMP pages
- Setting Redirection
- Removing AMP Plugins
Let’s start doing it one by one:
A. Setting ‘no-follow’ on the AMP page
If you previously used the AMP by AMP Project Contributor plugin, you’ll need to switch to the AMP for WP plugin first . This is because this plugin allows you to no-index tags to AMP.
After installing and activating the AMP for WP plugin, go to the AMP > Settings > SEO section. Next, add the following no follow meta tag:
<meta name=”robots” content=”noindex,follow”/>
This nofollow tag will later work so that Google robots stop crawling the AMP pages of our website.
B. Removing the AMP Plugin
Even if you have a no-follow setting for AMP pages, Google Search generally takes a few days to delete AMP pages to 0.
For that, you need to wait a few days for AMP pages to decrease in search results. Or, make regular observations in Search Console > AMP.
After that, please deactivate and remove the AMP plugin from your website. After that, continue this process to the last stage.
C. Creating an AMP Page Redirection
The last step is to make a redirect for cached pages that are still left on Google to avoid a 404 error.
You can do this redirect in two methods, namely:
- Using the Redirection Plugin
- Adding Redirects Manually via .htaccess
1. Redirect via Plugin Redirection
First you need to install and activate the Redirection plugin. After that, go to the menu Tools (Tools) >> Redirection (Redirection), and Add New.
In the source URL field, add the following code:
/(.* )/amp
In the target URL field, add the following code:
https://techjustify.com/$1
Don’t forget to replace the url in the target field with your website address.
In the URL option column, don’t forget to select Regex and select Redirection in the Group option. After all the options are done, tap ‘Add Redirect’ to save all changes.
After a few minutes, try to visit your AMP page and check if the redirect is working properly.
2. Redirect Manual via .htaccess
In addition to the Redirection plugin, another method that you can use is setting a manual redirect in .htaccess.
First of all, you need to go to your cPanel or website directory. Select public_html or your domain’s root folder, and select .htaccess. Open the .htaccess file and add the following lines of code at the bottom of the .htaccess :// Redirect AMP to non-AMP
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (.+)/amp(.*)$
RewriteRule ^ %1/ [R=301,L]
When finished, don’t forget to click Save to save the changes.
Conclusion
Google AMP basically does have an impact on increasing website performance in terms of speed. But in practice, AMP also degrades the overall website functionality. In addition, in its application, there are also frequent error problems that often appear.
techjustify’s suggestion, try to do a performance test first before vs after using and leaving AMP. This testing lasts at least 1 month each.
Create some indicators that you think need to be included in the assessment. For example, the UX side increased traffic and performance of other metrics (page views, CTR, etc.).
After that, if you decide to remove AMP, you can follow this techjustify tutorial to disable AMP on your WordPress website without losing a lot of traffic.
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