By Using interstitial (popups) on the webiste, will google penalize ranks for desktop and mobile both ?
-
We have implemented interstitials (pop-ups) on a website (Business Articles Website). The popups are basically used for getting leads from the website (using Signup popups).
Before Popup implementation the traffic was steady, After the implementation, the traffic started to decay after a couple of weeks and due to the drop we disabled the popup from the website and initiated a force crawl and within next few weeks, we observed traffic gaining back to its normal trend.
Within these timelines drop in desktop traffic was more and mobile traffic remain steady. As per Google guidelines, interstitials are more likely to be affected on mobile than desktop. But in our case, desktop traffic was hit more than mobile. So we carried out this experiment for 3 months. And we observed traffic decay and regain.
Is interstitials the only culprit here (as the drop is only in desktop) or Can there be some other reasons as well for the traffic drop?
-
It seems likely that the interstitial is at least contributing to this pattern given the correlation during your test and given the fact that Google has specifically noted that they view interstitial pop-ups (at least certain implementations) as detrimental to the user experience. It is also possible that it isn't the interstitial itself that is raising a red flag as a ranking signal, but some other related issue (for instance, if the interstitial causes a significant page load delay, higher bounce rate, or if there is some rendering issue caused by the implementation of the pop-up).
As you note, if the interstitial is the issue, I would have expected it to affect mobile primarily and desktop less so - so the fact that the result is the opposite is surprising and may indicate a different cause for the traffic dips. I assume that you have compared this data not just WoW but YoY and are certain that the pattern isn't seasonal.
We do know, however, that Google is starting to move in the direction of mobile first in how they rank sites, making the mobile index and experience their primary source for rankings of both mobile and desktop versions.
In any case I would recommend testing a version of your pop-up which is not of a type that Google would consider "intrusive" (see this post for more detail: http://searchengineland.com/google-confirms-rolling-mobile-intrusive-interstitials-penalty-yesterday-267408) or adding a trigger to it (so for instance, don't show the popup immediately but only if the user scrolls a certain percentage of the page, or remains on the page for a set period of time).
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Post-August Google Updates High volume keyphrases rankings mess
Howdy, fellow mozzers, Couple of our clients keep losing rankings, slowly but surely, which seem to correlate to August Google updates. No major changes to the websites have been done - neither code, backlink profile nor content. It seem to affect higher search volume keyphrases, while other longer tail keyphrases are climbing up. The screenshots of the visibility rankings are attached below. Any ideas/news/thought about the Google update itself or what might be happening? I know that the Medic update was overall quality, yet it seems to be that these websites in particular are going down after Birthday update, not Medic itself. Google and da mighty Internets being quite.. Help! Links to screenshots (includes higher volume keyphrases only): https://dmitrii-regexseo.tinytake.com/sf/MzAyNjg0MV85MDczNDkz https://dmitrii-regexseo.tinytake.com/sf/MzAyNjgzN185MDczNDY1
Algorithm Updates | | DmitriiK0 -
Google asking questions in SERPs
I just did s search for Hayley Kiyoko, and Google asked me which song is my favourite from her new album. Is this a new thing? I've never asked Google a question before and had it ask me something back, other than "did you mean... (the correct spelling for what I was looking for)?" u6qYnwq.png
Algorithm Updates | | 4RS_John1 -
Google Algo Update
Hi I'm trying to look into how the update in Oct - Nov affected our site. It's positive with us ranking for more keywords, but I wondered if anyone knew what had changed. For example, one of our pages ranked for 291 keywords in October, now it ranks for 406 keywords. We've done nothing to this page in that time. I just want to try and understand what's happening with the algorithm a little more (although I'm sure everyone does :). Does anyone have any insights? Thanks!
Algorithm Updates | | BeckyKey0 -
Desk top rankings differ from mobile rankings
Hi there! We are working on clients site for SEO. We have noticed that our clients 'desk top search results' on Google differ from the 'mobile / tablet search results'. For the desktop - the client is in the top 4 results of page one for Google, but for mobile / tablet results they are at the bottom of page one. We converted the clients site to be responsive 6 months ago. We have been through Google webmaster tools and made all suggested alterations. All programming is to a high standard. Competitors all seem to keep their current rankings - whilst our clients seem to drop. Any suggestions what the issue is would be very much appreciated 🙂 Thanks in advance. Phil. . We re-built their website so that it was responsive. We have been But -
Algorithm Updates | | Globalgraphics1 -
Bounce rates: Google vs others
Hello Mozzers, I was wondering if anyone could share some insight into how Google calculates bounce rates vs other analytics out there. We use both Google analytics and Clicky here. I've made several changes and additions to the website in hopes to increase traffic, optimization and reduce bounce rates. So far so good on all fronts. However I do notice bounce rates are way higher on google analytics than Clicky. While I get a bounce rate of 20%-29% on Clicky, Google has me way up the 50's or 60%s. I've read a few articles on it but I'm still a bit confused. Thanks!
Algorithm Updates | | md30 -
Why Am I Ranking in Bing but Not Google
My website is ranking is ranking in Bing, but it's nowhere to be found on Google? What can be some causes for this?
Algorithm Updates | | locallyrank0 -
How to Recover Ranking from Latest Google Panda and EMD Update?
We have 7 websites with the exact match domains. Our Website has been affected by Google recently updated (Panda and EMD Update). we don't want to do any changes in our existing domains. What should we do? So, What is the exact solution for that. Help Us out! Website Names: http://www.hamptoninndenverairport.com http://www.wingatehotelcolumbia.com http://www.fairfieldinnhotelaurora.com http://www.hamptoninnhotelcrestwood.com http://www.laquintahoteldavenport.com http://www.redroofinnhotelcedarrapids.com http://www.hamptoninnhotelcarolstream.com Thanks in advance.
Algorithm Updates | | CommercePundit1 -
Is it normal to receive 2 mails from Google?
I filed a reconsideration request that was answered in less than a week. Subsequently I was told that no manual penalty was in place but various algorithm factors might be causing my heavy drops in ranking. Then I got a second email which was even more specific. This was great, really heartening stuff and a total surprise as it was very helpful. Is it normal to receive 2 emails from Google with such clear information? I have been very pleased by the comments they have made as it has shown me that they're more customer focused than I had been led to believe by all the research I had done pre reconsideration request. Has anyone else had a clear outline of what they needed to fix and has their site subsequently rebounded post fixing?
Algorithm Updates | | swimwithfishes0