In a Google Webmaster Hangout, a publisher asked if it was OK if the AMP version of the website was missing structured data. Google answered that it was OK. But also warned that the desktop and AMP versions of the content must be equivalent.
What is AMP?
AMP stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages
Accelerated mobile pages are alternate versions of content that are designed to download quickly. AMP is a web framework designed to provide a superior user experience for users while also catering to publisher’s need to display advertising.
When showing AMP content it is specified that the content between the regular version of the web page and the AMP version must be equal.
Desktop and AMP Content Should Match
It’s Google’s guidance that the desktop and AMP version of a web page should match. The concern in this question is if a web page would be in violation of Google’s guidelines should the structured data present in the desktop version of a web page be missing from the AMP version of a web page.
John Mueller’s answer gave an interesting insight into the division of meta content such as structured data and content that is visible to the site visitor.
AMP Structured Data Can Be Missing
This is the question that was asked:
“With the desktop version I have structured data but no AMP version. Does it violate Google’s policy because of two different versions?”
This is how Google’s John Mueller answered:
“It doesn’t violate our policies.”
Then Mueller cautioned that the content that site visitors see should match between the two versions:
“But we really, really want you to have the AMP version be equivalent to the normal version of your website.
So structured data is usually less of a problem but content-wise, navigation-wise, internal linking, all of that should be equivalent on AMP so that when users go to your AMP page they’re not served a stripped-down page that doesn’t serve their needs.”
That makes sense because the structured data is meta data. Except for meta descriptions and titles, most meta data is meant to be seen used by browsers and search engine bots, it’s not generally seen by users.
Watch the Webmaster Hangout here.
