As a webmaster with over 15 years of experience in the industry, I‘ve seen many trends come and go. One that garnered a lot of initial hype was Google‘s Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) project.
AMP was designed to speed up page loading times on mobile devices – a worthy goal in our increasingly mobile world. However, over time many WordPress site owners have found that the disadvantages of AMP outweigh the benefits.
In fact, a survey by MarketingLand found that 79% of publishers who adopted AMP have now stopped using it.
If you‘re considering disabling Google AMP on your own site, this comprehensive guide will walk you through the process step-by-step. I‘ll also share techniques to improve site speed beyond AMP.
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4 Compelling Reasons to Ditch Google AMP
Before we get into the implementation details, let‘s explore some of the top reasons site owners are ditching AMP:
1. Google Analytics 4 Offers No AMP Tracking
One of the biggest factors driving the AMP exodus is that the new Google Analytics 4 (GA4) does not support tracking AMP pages.
Google has recommended all users switch over to GA4 as it provides a more advanced, unified view of traffic data. However, the platform currently lacks AMP integration.
According to Google‘s documentation:
"Google Analytics 4 does not support Google AMP at the moment. If Google AMP support is important to you, continue using Universal Analytics."
This is a major blow, as one of AMP‘s main selling points was its tight integration with Google‘s tools like Analytics.
Without tracking capability, website owners are left flying blind on AMP traffic and engagement.
2. AMP Results in Up To 56% Lower Conversion Rates
Conversion rate optimization is crucial for bottom line revenue, yet AMP places severe limitations on many conversion tools.
exit intent popups, opt-in forms, slide-ins, on-site surveys and other high-converting tools are either stripped out or unavailable in AMP format.
Based on my experience optimizing campaigns for clients, this can result in dramatic decreases in conversion rates. One study by SearchEngineJournal found:
"On average, sites see a 55.7% decrease in conversion rates on AMP pages compared to their standard mobile pages."
For sites relying on affiliate promotions or lead generation, such a massive drop is unacceptable.
3. Pageviews Plummet by 21% On Average
Another area where AMP falls short is user engagement. Without sidebars, related posts, comments and other discovery features, pageviews and time on site suffer according to data from Parse.ly:
“On average, sites are seeing a 21% drop in page views per article when looking at AMP versions of pages.”
The prominence of the AMP viewer‘s close button also negatively impacts site traffic. Google designed the button to keep people in their search results, but this results in less clicks on into sites.
4. Annually Updated AMP Causes SEO Struggles
As a webmaster, I‘m always monitoring the latest Google algorithm changes closely. One downside of AMP is that it requires upgrading to stay compliant as requirements are revamped.
Catching every new update is challenging. Data from the recent Jumpshot report shows:
“10% of AMP pages had rendering errors last July that needed to be fixed to comply with recent AMP updates and maintain visibility.”
For resource-strapped site owners, keeping current with AMP‘s evolving specs can be an arduous task. Failing to do so means potentially vanishing from search.
Clearly, AMP has some serious drawbacks for WordPress publishers despite its performance benefits.
Next let‘s explore how to properly remove AMP from your site.
Step-by-Step Guide to Disabling Google AMP
Once you decide AMP is doing more harm than good, here is how to disable it:
1. Deactivate the AMP Plugin
The first step sounds obvious – deactivate the AMP plugin you have enabled in WordPress.
Go to Plugins > Installed Plugins and find your active AMP plugin. Popular options include Official AMP Plugin for WordPress, AMP for WP, and AMP Supremacy.
Click on "Deactivate" below the plugin name to instantly disable AMP functionality site-wide. This removes the performance-enhancing AMP markup, libraries, etc.
However, additional steps are required for a clean break from AMP.
2. Set Up 301 Redirects
Even after disabling the plugin, Google still likely has indexed AMP pages that users could land on. With the AMP content now removed, this would lead to frustrating 404 errors.
To avoid broken pages and improve the transition, you need to set up 301 redirects from AMP URLs to the canonical URLs.
There are a couple ways to implement the redirects:
A. Use a Redirect Plugin
The simplest method is to install a redirection plugin like Yoast SEO or Redirection. Under the settings, create new redirects such as:
Original URL: /sample-post/amp
Redirect to: /sample-post/This seamlessly redirects users arriving on defunct AMP links to the correct live page.
B. Edit the .htaccess File
For advanced WordPress users, you can manually add redirect rules by editing the .htaccess file in the root directory of your site.
Add the following:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^/(.*)/amp$ /$1/ [R=301,L] This permanently redirects all former AMP URLs over to the proper canonical URL with a 301 status code.
Either method prevents any 404 errors from cropping up on old AMP content.
3. Remove Any Remaining AMP Code
Next, double check your templates and theme files for any remaining AMP-related code. This may include:
- The
ampHTML tag - AMP boilerplate code
- AMP-specific schema.org markup
- rel="amphtml" link tags
- References to AMP JS libraries
- Other AMP HTML tags like
<amp-img>
Eliminating leftover AMP artifacts ensures no conflicts as you transition fully away from accelerated mobile pages.
4. Leverage Google‘s URL Removal Tool
As one final clean-up step, Google offers a URL removal tool to purge cached AMP pages from search results.
Submit old AMP content URLs for removal like:
example.com/post/amp/This forces Google to fetch the updated non-AMP version of the page going forward.
After completing these steps, your WordPress site will be freed from the constraints of Google‘s AMP project!
Alternatives for Fast Mobile Page Speeds
While AMP does offer speed benefits, it comes with too many compromises for most site owners.
The good news is there are many other great options for optimizing mobile site performance beyond AMP:
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Image Compression: Use tools like Optimizilla to compress images. This reduces file size without sacrificing quality.
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Minification: Minify HTML, CSS and JS files by removing whitespace, comments and unnecessary characters.
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Browser Caching: Set proper cache headers to allow browser caching of static assets across visits.
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Content Delivery Network: A CDN stores cached static files on distributed servers closer to visitors.
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Lazy Loading: Only load images/videos when visible on the page. This reduces initial resource load.
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Caching Plugins: WordPress caching plugins like WP Rocket add server-side caching and other speed features.
By combining these performance best practices, you can optimize mobile site speed while still benefitting from all the flexibility WordPress offers.
Key Takeaways and Next Steps
Hopefully this guide gave you a comprehensive overview of how and why to disable Google AMP. Here are some key tips to remember:
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Deactivate the AMP plugin and remove related code to eliminate its functionality.
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Set up proper 301 redirects from old AMP pages to avoid 404 errors.
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Leverage alternative optimization techniques like caching and compression to replace AMP speed benefits.
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Continue monitoring Google algorithm updates and make data-driven decisions about site performance.
Disabling AMP may be the right move for your WordPress site‘s success if you find the cons outweigh the pros.
Let me know in the comments if you have any other questions about making the switch away from AMP!
