Let's step back quickly and remind you that Google is releasing the Page Experience Update. Part of that are the core web vitals will become a ranking factor and you want your pages to be fast. If you use AMP, Google will use your AMP page for measuring those factors.
Google's John Mueller said it is not cheating to use AMP. The question came up when someone asked which version will Google use, which we already answered above, the version Google serves to the searcher.
But here:
Hey @googlewmc @JohnMu @dannysullivan with the new #webvitals "ranking factor" and news on removing the @AMPhtml requirement from Top Stories - which version will be considered for evaluation? the URL or the cached? As our cached AMP has much better scores than our valid AMP? pic.twitter.com/AKti6ExKSb
— Dan Smullen (@dansmull) June 22, 2020
John says Google measures what the searcher will see:
The general approach is to measure what users see in practice.
— 🍌 John 🍌 (@JohnMu) June 23, 2020
Is that cheating? John says no.
You can make slow AMP pages, you can make fast legacy pages. Using a framework that's designed to be fast isn't cheating when it comes to speed -- if it's the right tool for the job, then it's a potentially logical approach. Luckily, there are lots of ways to make fast sites.
— 🍌 John 🍌 (@JohnMu) June 23, 2020
You don't have to use AMP, you can use whatever you want to make your pages fast. But Google generally sees AMP pages as super fast, just because it is designed to be fast. Of course, you can make AMP pages slow and then Google will see those pages as slow.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
