Google Issues Website Pop-Up Penalties

Apparently mobile users aren’t the only internet users who are sick of pop-up ads and interstitials (full page ads that pop-up before a web page opens fully.)

On January 10, 2017 Google implemented new regulations that will affect a website’s rank. The algorithm was announced in 2016 and was implemented in January this year.

Google gave three examples of “problematic transitions” that would be affected by this new regulation:

• A pop-up that opens after a user clicks a link or scrolls a website page.
• Pages that show an interstitial ad that must be closed before they can access the website.
• Pages that keep content “under the fold” with an interstitial or ad at the top of the page.

Websites that purposely hide content or force interaction with an ad will be penalized.

Google stated that, “although the majority of pages now have text and content on the page that is readable without zooming, we’ve recently seen many examples where these pages show intrusive interstitials to users. While the underlying content is present on the page and available to be indexed by Google, content may be visually obscured by an interstitial. This can frustrate users because they are unable to easily access the content that they were expecting when they tapped on the search result.”

At this time, this only applies to mobile versions of a website. Desktop pages are still able to use pop-ups and interstitials. Additionally, this only applies to the first click on a page from Google. Once users are on a web page there are no penalties for links within the website.

Google will also allow interstitials that are legally required, websites that must provide legal information will not be downranked. “Small” pop-ups will also not be affected by these new rules, but Google gave no indication what the definition of “small” is regarding acceptable sizing.

The new regulations have been in place for a few weeks now and there are no reports of any major impact.