Google AMP errors widely reported by webmasters and publishers

Seeing AMP errors over the past few days, don't run to fix them just yet - it might be a bug on Google's end.

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Many webmasters, developers and publishers are complaining about AMP issues in Google mobile search and within the Google Search Console. Some are seeing Google show their stories in the “Top Stories” section with and without the AMP icon within minutes of each other. Others are noticing significant spikes in AMP errors reported within Google Search Console. Either way, it seems to be a widespread issue and John Mueller, a Google webmaster trends analyst said he is investigating the reports.

What is the issue? Besides Google sending notifications via Google Search Console that the site has issues with AMP all of a sudden, some publishers are seeing Google show their AMP content in Top Stories in Google mobile and then minutes later, the AMP version disappears. It will eventually come back later. This is even when the URL Inspection Tool shows the AMP page is valid and working fine.

Screenshots: Here is the same content in Google mobile search both showing the AMP logo for the page and not showing the AMP logo for the page:

Top Stories Google Amp Top Stories Google No Amp

Here are screenshots showing the Search Console reports around this issue:

Google is investigating. Google’s John Mueller said on Twitter “the team here is looking into this.”

Why it matters. Many developers and publishers who see these AMP issues will run to make changes to their sites. In this case, it probably makes sense to wait, not make any changes and see what Google says. We will continue to monitor the issue and update this story with Google’s recommendations. But for now, we would recommend you wait and not make changes based on these specific AMP errors.

Postscript: John Mueller from Google confirmed on Twitter that this is a Google issue and they will resolve it on their end. There is nothing webmasters need to do to fix this specific issue on their end. Here is the tweet:


About the author

Barry Schwartz
Staff
Barry Schwartz is a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry can be followed on Twitter here.

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