Why Your Traffic Drops After Installing or Removing AMP (And How to Fix It)

Many WordPress users report a sudden, significant drop in website traffic after making changes related to the AMP plugin. This can happen after either activating the plugin for the first time or deactivating it. Based on common community reports, this guide explains the likely causes and provides steps to troubleshoot and resolve the issue.

Common Causes of Traffic Drops

The traffic loss is rarely due to a single factor. Instead, it's often a combination of configuration and indexing changes.

1. After Activating AMP

• Incorrect AMP Mode: Using 'Standard' mode (full AMP) can sometimes cause compatibility issues with certain themes or plugins, leading to a poor user experience that visitors abandon.
• Indexing Transition: Search engines like Google begin to index and serve the new AMP versions of your pages. If these pages have validation errors or load slower than expected, your click-through rate from search results can temporarily fall.
• Content or Design Differences: The AMP version of a page might lack certain elements present in the canonical (non-AMP) version, confusing users who expect a consistent experience.

2. After Deactivating AMP

• Improper Plugin Removal: A critical issue, as seen in the threads, is that deactivating the AMP plugin can sometimes break a site, causing all mobile URLs to redirect to the homepage. This is often due to incorrect server rewrite rules that were not properly cleaned up.
• Search Index Lag: Search engines need to re-crawl your site and replace the indexed AMP URLs with their canonical counterparts. During this period, traffic from mobile search can dip.

How to Troubleshoot and Fix the Problem

If You Just Activated AMP and Lost Traffic:

1. Switch AMP Modes: If you are using 'Standard' mode, try switching to 'Transitional' or 'Reader' mode. This serves AMP pages alongside your traditional theme, which can improve compatibility while still providing AMP benefits.
2. Validate Your AMP Pages: Use the Google AMP Test tool or the AMP report in Google Search Console to check for and fix any errors on your AMP pages.
3. Check for Design Inconsistencies: Compare your AMP and non-AMP pages. Ensure crucial elements like navigation menus, calls-to-action, and ads are displaying correctly on the AMP version.

If You Deactivated AMP and Lost Traffic or Broke Your Site:

1. Re-activate the AMP Plugin: If your site breaks with redirects to the homepage after deactivation, the immediate fix is to reactivate the plugin. This restores functionality while you find a permanent solution.
2. Clear All Caching: After reactivating the plugin, clear your WordPress cache, any server-level cache (like Varnish), and your CDN cache (like Cloudflare). This ensures old rewrite rules and cached AMP URLs are purged.
3. Deactivate Properly: Once your site is stable, you can attempt to deactivate the plugin again. Before doing so, it is highly recommended to switch your AMP mode to 'Reader' or 'Transitional' first, as these modes are generally easier to remove cleanly than 'Standard' mode. After deactivating, clear all caches again.
4. Check .htaccess: If problems persist, examine your WordPress `.htaccess` file. The AMP plugin may have added rewrite rules that need to be manually removed after deactivation. The standard WordPress `.htaccess` rules are typically sufficient, and any extra rules related to `amp` or `endpoint` can be deleted.

Important Considerations

• Google and AMP: It is true that Google no longer requires AMP for its Top Stories carousel. However, AMP can still provide performance benefits. The decision to use it should be based on your specific goals and your ability to maintain a error-free implementation.
• Be Patient: Any major change to your site's structure can cause temporary fluctuations in search traffic as algorithms re-crawl and re-index your content. It can take several days or weeks for traffic to stabilize.

Traffic drops related to AMP are almost always solvable. The key is to methodically check your configuration, validate your pages, and ensure a clean transition when enabling or disabling the plugin.