Google to Penalize Wrong Use of AMPs

AMPs or Accelerated Mobile Pages were launched by Google with a purpose. These were created to help users find their desired content through snap-quick searches. The entire web page would take longer to upload on the user’s screen and that wasted time. To facilitate and quicken this experience, AMPs came into being.

But like every other online tool, some digital marketers started abusing this function. AMPs were being created to act as teaser pages, more like landing pages. There was gross mismatch between the original web page with the full content and the corresponding AMP created for the search engines.

As a result of this, users could only catch a sneak peek of the content on the AMP. On clicking through, they could have access to the entire content available on the original web page. This was self-defeating because it actually took longer for a user to reach the content they had searched for as opposed to the initial objective of Google in developing the concept of AMPs.

To stop this malpractice, Google will penalize websites and webmasters who violate the policy and use AMPs as teasers to the actual content. AMPs need to have the actual content and they should not be vessels for click-through. Violating websites will have their AMPs stuck off the Top Stories package offered by Google on the search results, denting their chances of garnering more traffic on their website. However, the AMPs will continue to feature on organic search listings.

So, as a digital marketer, you have two options: follow the AMP policy of Google or shut them down altogether if they are not generating enough revenue for your website.