How to Remove AMP from WordPress

As a website owner, you may have heard about AMP or Accelerated Mobile Pages. These pages aim to provide faster mobile webpage loading times through a web component framework. However, if you have integrated AMP into your WordPress website, you may want to remove it for various reasons. In this article, we will show you how to remove AMP from WordPress.

Why Remove AMP from WordPress?

There are several reasons why you may want to remove AMP from your WordPress site. Some of them include:

1. Design limitations that can restrict the functionality and aesthetics of your website
2. Decreased monetization opportunities due to the removal of advertising and tracking scripts from AMP pages
3. Possible duplication of content (mobile and desktop versions) that can negatively impact your website’s SEO rankings.

If you are facing any of these concerns, you can choose to remove the AMP pages from your WordPress site. Here are the steps to do this:

Step 1: Prepare Your Website for AMP Removal

Before proceeding with the removal process, you need to back up your website files and database. Use website backup plugins like UpdraftPlus, BackWPup, or Jetpack Backups for this purpose. Once you install the backup plugin, configure the settings to schedule the backup frequency and storage location.

Step 2: Disable the AMP Plugin

If you have been using the AMP plugin to create AMP pages, you can disable it to remove the mobile pages from your website. Here’s how:

1. Login to your WordPress dashboard.
2. Navigate to the ‘Plugins’ option.
3. Scroll down to find the ‘AMP’ plugin.
4. Click on the ‘Deactivate’ option.

Alternatively, you can also delete the AMP plugin from your WordPress website.

Step 3: Remove the AMP Plugin Code from Your Website

After disabling the AMP plugin, it’s time to remove the code that the plugin added to your website. Here are the steps:

1. Login to your WordPress website using FTP (File Transfer Protocol) software like FileZilla or Cyberduck.
2. Navigate to the ‘wp-content’ directory.
3. Open the ‘themes’ folder.
4. Look for the ‘functions.php’ file in the theme that you are using.
5. Open the ‘functions.php’ file with a text editor.
6. Search for the ‘add_action’ code that has the ‘amp_post_template_file’ in it.
7. Remove the entire add_action code related to AMP.
8. Save and close the ‘functions.php’ file.

Step 4: Remove the AMP Pages from Google Search Console

If your website’s AMP pages were indexed by Google, you need to remove them from the Google Search Console. Here are the steps:

1. Login to your Google Search Console.
2. Select the website for which you want to remove the AMP pages.
3. Navigate to the ‘Search Appearance’ option.
4. Click on the ‘Accelerated Mobile Pages’ option.
5. Look for the AMP pages listed on this page.
6. Select the checkboxes next to the URLs that you want to remove.
7. Click on the ‘Delete Selected’ option.
8. Finally, click on the ‘Submit’ button to confirm the removal of the AMP pages.

Congratulations! You have successfully removed the AMP pages from your WordPress website!

Conclusion

While AMP is promising technology for improving the mobile browsing experience for your website visitors, it may not always be suitable for your website’s design, monetization, or SEO requirements. Removing AMP is a simple process that involves disabling the AMP plugin, removing the code, and deleting the AMP pages from Google Search Console. Once you have removed AMP, you can redesign your website for a mobile audience using other mobile optimization tools like responsive design, mobile-friendly themes, and plugins.