Marketers are preparing for Google’s upcoming page experience update. Within this update, one imminent change that’s slipped under many radars is the Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) modifications. First, the Top Stories carousel no longer requires AMP to rank. And, Google will remove the AMP icon altogether.
Yes, you read that right. The AMP badge icon is on its way out. Google’s Search Central Blog stated, “We will no longer show the AMP badge icon to indicate AMP content. You can expect this change to come to our products as the page experience update begins to roll out in mid-June.”
What value did the AMP badge actually bring to regular search users? And what will take its place? Lily Ray, Senior Director of Search and Head of Organic Research, shares her original research and offers an expert opinion about what this means for search marketing.
Read her full column at Search Engine Journal.
Within her article, you’ll learn the answers to your pressing questions, including:
- What’s the new eligibility of sites not using AMP to be able to appear in Top Stories?
- Google will deprecate the AMP icon; do users even care about the AMP badge?
- Does the AMP badge increase click-through rates (CTR)?
- What does the average user think about the AMP badge in search results?
AMP is no longer needed to rank in Top Stories carousel.
Theoretically, ending the AMP requirement for Top Stories could result in more sites being able to rank. However, Top Stories requirements are still strict. Google News expert John Shehata shares relevant Top Stories ranking factors, including:
- Overall authoritativeness of the publication
- A clear focus on entities in the headlines and content
- Topical authority of the publication (i.e., sports, local news)
- Trustworthiness (credible authors, factual integrity)
- Citations and buzz (links and social media shares)
- Article click-through rate
Google is retiring the AMP badge icon.
Announced in its recent Page Experience update, Google casually mentioned it will be discontinuing the AMP badge icon in mid-June.
“Additionally, we will no longer show the AMP badge icon to indicate AMP content. You can expect this change to come to our products as the page experience update begins to roll out in mid-June.”
Google Search Central Blog
What does this mean for digital marketers? Read Lily Ray’s thought leadership and original research in Search Engine Journal to find out the impact (or not) on users and search marketers.
To learn more about three key Google features, read The Ultimate Guide to Optimizing for Google News, Top Stories, and Discover.
