Google cuts search rankings for sites with pop-ups

Bad news for online businesses which feature big pop-up ads, Google is updating the algorithms used to rank its search results so that those pages are more likely to get lower placings.
The change, which is due to come into effect on January 10, is being seen as Google wanting to give users one less reason to use ad-blockers, although the search giant claims the move is designed to make using some of its results less frustrating.
“Pages that show intrusive interstitials [elements that cover the content] provide a poorer experience to users than other pages where content is immediately accessible,” it said in a blog post. “This can be problematic on mobile devices where screens are often smaller.”
The California-based company gave three examples of practices it wanted to discourage:
– Pop-ups that covered part of the main content when the user clicked on to a page
– An intermediary webpage that had to be dismissed before the main content could be seen
– An ad that filled the web browser’s screen so users had to scroll down “below the fold” before they could see the material they wanted
Google will, however, make some exceptions. Pop-ups that alert readers to the use of cookies are still permissible, for example, as are ones that require log-in details to let visitors get behind a paywall.
“Google is one of the largest advertising companies in the world, but it’s in a very different position to Facebook, Snapchat and other global media consumption apps,” Daniel Knapp, senior director of advertising research at the IHS consultancy told the BBC.
“Google is still very reliant on the desktop and mobile web to make money, and it’s much more difficult to clean up that experience than the native app environments. That’s why it needs to tighten the screws on everyone with this crackdown.”

TOPICS:Google online advertising