From the 10th January 2017 Google will begin to penalise the rankings of mobile websites that have ‘intrusive interstitials’ or pop-up ads or email capture lightboxes to most of us.
In the ongoing effort to create the best mobile experience for uses Google will implement two upcoming changes to mobile search results to make finding content easier for users. While the pop ups are not mentioned straight up it is an important change to be aware of.
First change
The first change is essentially some Google housekeeping; they will be removing the labels introduced two years ago as part of the mobile friendly algorithm update. Since most website heard the call and ensured that their sites were mobile-friendly the ‘Mobile Friendly’ label in search results is now considering largely redundant and only serving to clutter the results page.
Second change
As mentioned, from January 2017, Google will begin penalising websites with ‘intrusive interstitials’ which essentially means anything that obscures the main content – prior to or while the user is accessing the site. Google has provided three examples that make content less accessible and will therefore be on their hit list:
- A popup which covers the main content when the user first navigates to the page from the search results or while they are viewing the page;
- Displaying a standalone popup that the user must dismiss before accessing the main content;
- Using a website layout where the above-the-fold part of the web page appears similar to a standalone pop up but the original content is underneath the fold.
The premise behind the changes is an ongoing move to try and improve the mobile experience. Google suggests that intrusive interstitials offer a poorer user experience compared to pages where the content is available immediately and uninterrupted. Not all pop ups or interstitials will be penalised and Google has offered a few examples of those which will not be affected by the new update if used responsibly:
Those which appear in response to a legal obligation such as for age verification or cookie usage;
Logins dialogs where the content is not publicly indexable such as private content behind a paywall;
Banners that use a reasonable amount of space and are easily dismissed on a mobile device.
If you currently use pop ups on your website there’s no need to panic, the changes and therefore penalties will not be implemented until 10th January 2017 so you have plenty of time to chat with your website developer to ensure your pop ups are in line with the update and make any required changes.
For more information just contact the team at Website Design Centre.
