One SEO professional was asking John about AMP pages and how they would be cached by Google.
Their main question was: will AMP pages still be cached by Google the same way that a site with an AMP version would be, and would it appear in the search results in the Google cache viewer?
they also asked: what happens if there’s an error that invalidates the page? Will it just not be shown at all in the search results?
John explained that they need to watch out for the difference between pages that are purely on AMP and pages that are this paired setup.
If a page is purely on AMP, from Google’s point of view, it’s just a normal HTML page.
So this would still be indexed normally, even if it’s an invalid homepage.
And the cached page should also just work normally, like any other HTML page. It may be challenging with AMP regarding JavaScript and CSS though.
John also explained that when it comes to the JavaScript and CSS side, you can double-check what it actually looks like in the cache.
One other thing you can check also is to disable JavaScript and then load the page.
John’s understanding from the AMP format is that it would work, but he doesn’t remember all the details regarding how it works.
This happens at approximately the 7:09 mark in the video.
John Mueller Hangout Transcript
SEO Professional 3 7:09
Hi, John. I have a question about building my mobile site on AMP. So will it still be cached by Google the same way as a site with an AMP version would be and would it, you know, appear in search results in the Google Cache Viewer? And what happens if there is an error that invalidates the page, will it just not be shown at all in the search results?
John 7:36
So I think you need to watch out for the difference between having pages that are purely on AMP and pages that are kind of this paired setup. And if a page is purely on AMP, from our point of view, it’s essentially a normal HTML page. It can also be a valid AMP page. And if it is a valid AMP page, then we can use the AMP cache and kind of all of the AMP functionality in search as well. But either way, it’s still an HTML page. So that would still be indexed normally, even if it’s an invalid AMP page. And the cached page should also just work normally, like any other HTML page. I suspect it might be a bit tricky with the AMP page with regards to JavaScript and CSS there. I don’t know how that’s embedded on AMP pages.
SEO Professional 3 8:28
So the caching or serving it from the cache in search results may not be consistent?
John 8:33
Yeah. So I don’t know how the JavaScript side kind of plays in there. One way you can do this is to double-check what it actually looks like in the cache. Another thing you could check is to disable JavaScript and then load the page. My understanding is, from the AMP format, is that it would just work essentially, but I don’t remember all of the details there. So I would double-check.
