If you would like to disable Google AMP in WordPress, follow this article.
In this article, we will show you quickly how to permanently disable Google AMP on your website without dropping traffic.
Disabling AMP on your website isn’t an easy process. If you just go to your WordPress dashboard and uninstall the AMP plugin, you will lose lots of traffic that you are getting from your AMP pages. In addition to that, these pages will show up as 404 error. To disable Google AMP, first, you have to uninstall the AMP plugin and then you will have to redirect all the AMP pages to non-AMP pages.
Should You Disable Google AMP in WordPress?
Before we jump into the nitty-gritty of disabling Google AMP in WordPress, let us quickly understand why you might need to disable Google AMP on your site.
- Lower Pageviews: Google AMP was launched in October 2015 to make websites faster for mobile users. Once you install Google AMP, all your site pages will be hosted on Google AMP Cache, and all pages instantly load from Google cache. But, it cuts out a lot of HTML and JavaScript. It also removes lots of elements from your page like the navigation menu, sidebar, footer. Therefore, visitors are not able to explore the other contents of your site. As a result, it decreases pageviews by mobile users.
- As Google AMP does not display your web page’s unique design, it is not good for the brand value of your business.
- AMP Design Not Engaging: Amp pages are much less engaging for mobile users as AMP pages do not show your web page’s unique design.
- Low Conversion Rates: It has also been found by many website owners a big drop by conversion rates because of the use of Google AMP.
- Issue With Running AdSense Ads and Other Ads in AMP Pages: Running AdSense ads and other ads in AMP pages still remains challenging. There is no easy option to add AdSense ads in Google AMP pages. We tried to run AdSense ads using AMP for WP and Ad Inserter plugins. But for both the plugins, we found that AdSense automatically stops showing ads after a couple of days. Only the best plugin for running AdSense ads in AMP pages is Advanced Ads.
- AMP Page is valid with Warnings: For our site, we also found that the Google search console is always showing the following error.
If you have decided to disable your AMP plugin by considering the above facts, let’s get started.
Step-by-Step Guide for Disabling Google AMP in WordPress Websites
Step 1: Disable Google AMP Plugin in WordPress
- Login to your WordPress dashboard
- Navigate to Plugins >> Installed Plugins
- Deactivate and delete your Google AMP plugin
Step 2: Redirect AMP Pages to Non-AMP Pages
After disabling the Google AMP plugin, you have to redirect all the AMP pages to non-AMP pages. Two methods are shown here. Follow one of them to redirect from AMP to non-AMP.
Method 1: Setting up Redirects Using Redirection Plugin
- On your WordPress dashboard, navigate to Plugins >> Add New.
- Search for Redirection plugin using the ‘Search Plugin’ field.
- Install and activate the “Redirection” plugin.
- Then, navigate to Tools >> Redirection settings page on your WordPress dashboard.
- Now, you have to set new redirection. First, add the following code within the Source URL field and check the Regex checkbox.
/(.*)\/amp- Then, add the following code within the Target URL field
http://www.yourdomainname.com/$1- Select the ‘Redirection‘ option from the ‘Group‘ field drop-down menu.
- Click on the ‘Add Redirections’ button to save it.
Method 2: Setting up Redirects in .htaccess
If you don’t want to set AMP redirection using the Redirection plugin, you can set redirection in your .htaccess file. You have to first access your .htaccess file. You can either access your .htaccess file directly from your cPanel or access it by connecting your cPanel through a FTP client. After connecting cPanel, open your .htaccess file and add the following code in your .htaccess file.
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (.+)/amp(.*)$
RewriteRule ^ %1/ [R=301,L]Now, you are done. Check your AMP pages and make sure all AMP pages are properly redirected to non-AMP pages.
FAQs
If you find that your site is not properly optimized for mobile users and speed, you should consider using Google AMP. Also, we recommend Google AMP for news websites.
Anyone can disable Google AMP as Google AMP is not considered as a ranking factor. Google AMP was launched only to make your site faster for mobile users. If your site is already fast enough for mobile users, there is no need to use Google AMP. However, don’t forget to redirect from AMP to non-AMP after disabling AMP.
Although AMP is not a direct ranking factor for search engines. However, website speed is a crucial ranking factor of search engine. Therefore, disabling AMP will impact SEO if your website speed is not fast enough for mobile users. However, if your website is fast enough and properly optimized for mobile users, then disabling Google AMP will not impact SEO.
For our site, we are using Cloudways hosting, Genesis theme, and WP-Rocket cache plugin. Our website is extremely fast and properly optimized for mobile users. So, after disabling AMP on our site, we did not find any effect on SEO and traffic. In fact, after disabling, pageviews of our site dramatically increases.
If you have any further queries, write within the comment box below.
