Has Google removed AMP pages from search results?

No. AMP pages can still appear and rank. What changed is delivery: clicking an AMP result now opens the page on the publisher's own domain instead of a copy served from the Google AMP Cache.

Will my rankings drop because I use AMP?

Google says AMP content continues to rank the way it did before. The change affects how the page is delivered to the visitor, not how it is ranked.

Not officially, but Google has spent years stepping away from it: no AMP requirement for Top Stories, no AMP badge, and now no cache. Keeping AMP is a business decision, not an SEO requirement.

How do I disable AMP on my website?

Deactivate the AMP plugin or remove the AMP templates and the rel="amphtml" link, then 301 redirect the old AMP URLs to the canonical pages and check Search Console for errors.

Google Updates

Google Just Pulled the Plug on the AMP Cache: What Happened, What's Next, and What to Do

Q: Do I still need signed exchanges?

No. Google removed references to the AMP viewer, the AMP Cache and signed exchanges from its AMP documentation for Search, so there is nothing left to configure for that purpose.

Daniel Vella8 October 20264 min read

Google has quietly changed how it delivers AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) in search. If your site still runs AMP pages, or a developer once set them up and nobody checked since, here is the short version: nothing breaks, but the main reason for having AMP has gone.

Some headlines say Google has "disabled" AMP in search. That is not accurate. AMP pages are not being removed or demoted. What disappeared is the cache that made AMP fast.

What happened

Until now, tapping an AMP result in mobile Google Search did not take you to the publisher's website. It loaded a pre-rendered copy from the Google AMP Cache, with a google.com URL in the address bar. Publishers who wanted their own domain shown had to set up signed exchanges.

Since 1 July 2026, that no longer happens. Clicks on AMP results now go straight to the AMP page on the publisher's own domain. Google also removed the AMP viewer, the AMP Cache and signed exchanges from its AMP documentation for Search.

Google's stated position is that this changes delivery, not ranking: AMP content continues to rank as it did before.

This is the last step in a long wind-down:

2020-2021: AMP stopped being required for the Top Stories carousel, and the lightning-bolt badge was retired from mobile results.
Google News on mobile: it had already stopped sending people to cached AMP copies.
July 2026: Search follows, and the cache is gone.

What happens now

Rankings: unchanged, according to Google. Having AMP pages is not a ranking boost, and removing them is not a penalty.

Speed: this is the real change. AMP pages used to feel instant because Google pre-loaded them. Now they load from your server like any other page, so an AMP page is only as fast as your hosting and build allow.

Your URL: visitors now see your own domain instead of a google.com address. That is a small win for branding and trust.

AMP SEO as a tactic: with no cache and no ranking advantage, there is little left to optimise for. A normal page that passes Core Web Vitals gets you the same result with one version of each page to maintain, instead of two.

What you can do

If you don't use AMP

Nothing. This does not affect you.

If you use AMP

Don't panic and don't rush. Do these checks first:

Find out if AMP is still live. Look for rel="amphtml" in your page source, or check the AMP reports in Search Console.
Compare speed. Run an AMP URL and its normal version through PageSpeed Insights. If the normal page passes Core Web Vitals, AMP has little left to offer.
Check your analytics. AMP pages often use separate tracking. Make sure visits to AMP URLs are being counted.
Decide. Keep AMP only if it still measurably helps your mobile speed or conversions.

How to disable AMP safely

If you decide to drop it:

Deactivate the AMP plugin (on WordPress, this is usually the AMP plugin, or the AMP feature in your theme or SEO plugin), or remove the AMP templates.
Remove the rel="amphtml" link from your normal pages, and make sure the canonical tags are correct.
301 redirect every AMP URL to its canonical page. Don't leave them as 404 errors.
Submit your sitemap again and watch the Page Indexing report in Search Console for a few weeks.
Re-test Core Web Vitals on the normal pages. If they were relying on AMP for speed, fix images, caching and scripts first.

Our view

For most Malta business sites, which are small WordPress or custom-built sites rather than news publishers, AMP was rarely worth the complexity. Now that Google has dropped the cache, it is even harder to justify. A lightweight page with optimised images and good caching does the same job, and it is one set of pages to keep tidy.

If you are not sure whether your site still carries AMP leftovers, or how fast your pages really are on mobile, request a free SEO audit or see our SEO services for Malta businesses.

Sources

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