Google is ending AMP's special route: what this means for your website

You saw a headline: "Google is changing AMP as of July 1, 2026." And now the question in your head: Do I need to react? Will it cost me visibility?

A quick reassurance up front. For the vast majority of company websites, the answer is no.

In this post, we calmly sort out what Google actually changed. What AMP even was. And why this change is likely a relief for you, not a problem. No hype, no alarm.

What AMP was and why it came

AMP stands for "Accelerated Mobile Pages." Google introduced the format in 2015. The idea: a stripped-down version of your page that loads very fast on a phone.

The trick behind it was delivery. Google cached the AMP version on its own servers (the AMP Cache). When someone clicked your result in search, the page came lightning-fast from Google, not from your server.

Back then, that was an advantage. In 2016, many mobile pages loaded painfully slowly. AMP was Google's answer to that.

The price: you effectively maintained two versions of your page, the normal one and the AMP variant. And the URL in search often pointed to Google, not to your domain.

What changes on July 1, 2026

Google has switched the delivery path. The original wording from Google's documentation:

> "Starting today, Google Search is updating how it connects users to AMP pages, and will now take users directly to the publisher's AMP host pages."

In plain terms: from now on, Google sends users directly to the AMP page on your domain. The cache (AMP Cache), the AMP viewer, and the so-called Signed Exchanges are gone.

For publishers, Google says, this means less maintenance. You no longer have to keep the cache up to date or set up Signed Exchanges.

Important for peace of mind. Google writes in the same breath:

> "AMP content will continue to rank just like any other web page."

So: AMP content is still judged like any other page. The change concerns the path to the page, not its place in the results.

Why AMP lost its importance long ago

The change looks bigger than it is. AMP had been in retreat for years. Three points explain it.

First: AMP is not a ranking signal. Google judges pages by the same standard, no matter which technology built them. That is stated in the official AMP documentation.

Second: since April 2021, AMP is no longer a door-opener for Top Stories. With the Page Experience update, Google opened this news box to every page, regardless of AMP. That removed the most important reason publishers used AMP at all.

Third: Core Web Vitals took AMP's place. These are Google's metrics for user experience. They capture three things: how fast the main content appears, how fast the page reacts to clicks, and how stable the layout stays while loading. If you meet these values and have a responsive design (a page that adapts to any screen size), you don't need AMP.

What this means for the B2B mid-market

Most mid-market company websites run on TYPO3 or WordPress with a responsive design. Many never used AMP. For them, nothing changes on July 1, 2026.

One case still deserves a look. Some WordPress sites were given an AMP plugin years ago. Often for the blog, often "because that's how it was done back then." To this day, that plugin generates a second version of every page.

This is exactly where the honest question is worth asking: do you still need it? AMP's main benefit was the fast delivery path over Google's cache. Google is now dismantling that path. So all that's left for you is maintaining a second page version, without the old payoff.

That is no reason for hasty action. It is a good occasion to review an old plugin and decide cleanly.

What you can do now

No big program. A few sober steps, in a sensible order.

1. Check whether your site uses AMP at all. Signs: URLs ending in "/amp/" or an active AMP plugin in the WordPress backend. If you find nothing, you're done here.
2. If you don't use AMP: do nothing. The change passes you by.
3. If you use AMP: look at the Core Web Vitals of your normal pages. You can do this for free in Google Search Console (Google's tool for website owners) under "Page experience."
4. Decide deliberately whether the AMP version can go. If your normal pages are fast and mobile-friendly, the AMP version is usually dispensable.
5. No snap decision. Anyone removing AMP must redirect the old AMP URLs cleanly (a 301 redirect that points permanently to the main page). Otherwise you create dead links.

If you're unsure whether your setup is affected, you can [have your site's load time and technical setup checked]. That's the sober starting point: first see what's running, then decide.

What we take away from this

A candid word from practice. We've been building and maintaining websites since 2007, across TYPO3, WordPress, and Neos. We've followed AMP from the first hype in 2016.

What we learned: new formats often promise speed and a special spot at Google. A few years later, Google folds them back into the normal web. Whoever went along with every promise back then ended up maintaining duplicate technology with no payoff.

The calmer path lasts longer. A clean, responsive site with good Core Web Vitals needs no special route. It's fast because it's well built, not because a cache steps in.

That's exactly why July 1, 2026, is no alarm for most. It clears away an old detour. Nothing more.

Conclusion

Google is ending AMP's special route. As of July 1, 2026, users land directly on your domain, no longer via Google's cache. AMP pages are still judged like any other page.

For most company websites, this is no reason to act. If you still run an old AMP plugin, now is a good time to review it. The lever for speed stays the same: good Core Web Vitals and a clean, responsive design.

Not sure whether your site uses AMP or how fast it really loads? That's exactly what a short check can clarify.

→ Have your site's load time and technology checked

• Google Search Central: Latest documentation updates, entry "July 1, 2026, Updating our AMP documentation." developers.google.com
• Google Search Central: AMP on Google Search. developers.google.com
• Google Search Central Blog: A more detailed look at the page experience update. developers.google.com