AMP validation
As of September 1st, 2022, wbAMP is discontinued. The AMP technology is on its way out and most users are progressively phasing it out, while Google itself no longer requires it for SERP features such as Top Stories or News carousels. The extension will be in security mode only, meaning only security issues will be fixed going forward, for existing subscribers. It is no longer possible to purchase or renew wbAMP subscription.
Once you have enabled Accelerated Mobile Pages on your site, you can (should!) verify that the generated pages are valid. The AMP specification is very strict, and a syntaxically invalid page will not be indexed by Google, thus defeating most of the purpose.
There are basically 2 tools you need to use. The AMP validator will check AMP syntax. Valid syntax is required and will prevent your pages to be used if not achieved. The Structured Data tester verifies that your AMP Pages have appropriate meta data. Since August 1 2016, structured data validation is no longer an absolute requirement for inclusion in search results. It is still needed for your AMP pages to be included in the top stories section, or in the AMP carousel.
We have created a Firefox, Chrome and Brave browser extension called SEOInfo that you can use to instantly validate your AMP pages - both AMP and structured data. It can actually do a lot more things in terms of SEO. And is totally free. Get it here for Chrome/Brave and there for Firefox.
Google chrome with AMP validator
Google Chrome comes with a AMP validator that will tell you most of the problems of your AMP pages, if any. To use it:
- load an AMP page in Chrome
- open the
developer tools, and select theconsole - append
#development=1to the URL, and reload the page
The console will either say something like AMP validation successful or throw a list of error messages, that you will have to fix in your original content.
You can also use the AMP validator in two additional and very convenient ways:
- Install the Google AMP validator extension in your Chrome browser
- Use the AMP validator website, created by Google as well, available on this page. Just paste in your page URL, press the "Validate" button, and you'll see the validation result.
Some CDN (this has been reported for Cloudflare at first), will inject some custom javascript into your pages, thus destroying the carefully crafted and valid AMP markup created by wbAMP. Google has reached out to Cloudflare, and a resolution will probably happen soon. At the time of writing (May. 2016), Cloudflare has reported fixing the problem by detecting AMP pages and leaving them untouched. Other CDNs however may well be the first reason for validation errors.
Google structured data testing tool
Once your pages are all all green using the Chrome AMP validator, you should check that the meta data associated with it is correct and valid.
You can do this with the
Google Structured Data testing tool
Using it is fairly simple, just enter the full URL to an AMP page, and the tool will display whatever meta data it found in the page, and possibly any error.
wbAMP automatically adds meta data to your page, as required by the AMP specification. This includes a representative image, a headline, publication and modification dates, an organization and an author information,...
This data is extracted from wbAMP settings, and from your site (automatically) most of the time. You can also add some custom tags in your content if needed, for instance if there is not image associated with a page, or that image doesn't suit you. Lastly, if you use sh404SEF on your site, sh404SEF will be able to use the Structured data that you may have setup there.
If you enabled the
Developmentoperation mode earlier, now is the time to switch back toNormalmode. The development mode has let you setup AMP and validate your pages. Switching to Normal mode will make your AMP pages "public", visible to Google and others.