CODEWITHSUNDEEP
amp-htmlgoogle-cdn
Šime Vidas
Šime Vidas

Reputation: 185933

Does Google AMP Cache guarantee that it won’t create link rot?

Google AMP Cache is a service that serves cached versions of AMP pages via URLs in this format: 

// original URL
https://amp.theguardian.com/football/2016/aug/23/roma-champions-league-porto-dundalk  

// cached version on Google AMP Cache
https://cdn.ampproject.org/c/amp.theguardian.com/football/2016/aug/23/roma-champions-league-porto-dundalk

Live demo: original URL, cashed version on Google AMP Cache.

Does Google guarantee that this service will be available (virtually) forever? (I haven’t found any mention of this in the docs and FAQ.) I’m asking because if Google were to shut it down, that would create a fair amount of link rot, since various parties (including end users) may rely on these AMP Cache URLs.

Related discussion on Twitter.

Update: I have updated the example with real URLs.

Upvotes: 3

Views: 366

Answers (2)

SBDuvallian
SBDuvallian

Reputation: 171

Why are you using the AMP cache URL directly? If you need to update cache or remove a url from the cache to prevent link rot, use the AMP cache ping url.

Linking to the Cache version directly will cause issues if the AMP cache is ever unavailable. If someone has bookmarked that cache URL it might not exist in the future. You need to leave the decision to send a user to the AMP verions up to Google.

When all is said and done you would have two version of every page you want AMP'd. You'll have the regular version and the AMP version. The regular version has a canonical link tag to point to the AMP version and vice-versa. Read more on making your AMP pages discoverable. When the AMP canonical is not present in the head tag of the regular page Google assumes there is no AMP version and therefore you stay right where you're at. If that AMP canonical DOES exist, AMP will try to server a cached version otherwise it will send you directly to the AMP canonical.

Hope this helps.

Upvotes: 0

ade
ade

Reputation: 4074

We recommend that people link to the canonicals not to the Google AMP Cache versions of their pages. That prevents the link-rot problem you've described.

We also published (yesterday) a set of design principles which say that things should work without the cache as well as with the cache.

Upvotes: 4

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