Google to punish websites using pop-ups

Started by Brad, August 23, 2016, 08:43:01 PM

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ergophobe

#1
August 23, 2016, 09:39:18 PM
Suggested title change... "punish mobile websites"

This is mobile only. Which is an interesting choice. Why? I get that the screens are smaller, but are popups really more annoying on mobile? I guess I find them harder to close quite often, so perhaps yes.

Brad

#2
August 23, 2016, 10:05:19 PM
The article is badly written and the author does go on about mobile sites, but the way I read it, it seems to apply to all sites. 

In any event, whatever puts a damper on pop ups and interstatials I'm all for.

rcjordan

#3
August 23, 2016, 10:43:20 PM
https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/23/good-riddance/

Some better. Starts off as mobile, but...

ergophobe

#4
August 23, 2016, 11:10:28 PM
I'm going off the Webmaster Central article which is what the others seem to be sourcing

https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2016/08/helping-users-easily-access-content-on.html

Brad

#5
August 24, 2016, 12:51:18 AM
All the action is in mobile these days.  Well, death to pop ups anyway!   ;D

Drastic

#6
August 24, 2016, 11:28:16 AM
>All the action is in mobile these days.

except conversions?

littleman

#7
August 24, 2016, 06:05:44 PM
>except conversions?

Yeah, that's still what I'm seeing, at least for retail.  I imagine that it's different for services.

Rooftop

#8
August 25, 2016, 01:51:06 PM
Google has stopped talking specifically about mobile. That is the web... a small number of us just use bigger screens sometimes.

This is particularly aimed at mobile interstitials though.  They did a big mobile user study a while back and mobile interstitials were about the most hated thing after auto-play video with audio on.  That + "removing barriers between search and the answer" are the combined motive/justification (delete depending on your perspective).  The focus in the first round of this was app install interstitials, but this is now broader.

This was coming.  The first round + the fact that Google's own interstitial offering never fires on a landing page were massive signals (that was a lot of money G were passing on by only triggering between page loads). 

What is interesting is that G no longer holds the power for the sites that are the worst offenders.  Unless facebook also follows suit, the sites that use these most are hardly going to be impacted.

aaron

#9
August 30, 2016, 05:02:05 PM
Quote from: littleman on August 24, 2016, 06:05:44 PM
>except conversions?

Yeah, that's still what I'm seeing, at least for retail.  I imagine that it's different for services.
Last quarterly conference call TripAdvisor stated their visitor value on desktop & tablet were on par, but mobile visitors were only worth about 30% to 1/3 as much.

That said, Amazon.com converts well on mobile.

Other sites should presumably improve if/when/as Google or Apple get far more serious about online checkout features built into the phone.  Google's had a couple blunders on the payments front already though with Google Checkout & Google Wallet.


Quote from: Rooftop on August 25, 2016, 01:51:06 PM
Google has stopped talking specifically about mobile. That is the web... a small number of us just use bigger screens sometimes.

This is particularly aimed at mobile interstitials though.  They did a big mobile user study a while back and mobile interstitials were about the most hated thing after auto-play video with audio on.  That + "removing barriers between search and the answer" are the combined motive/justification (delete depending on your perspective).  The focus in the first round of this was app install interstitials, but this is now broader.

This was coming.  The first round + the fact that Google's own interstitial offering never fires on a landing page were massive signals (that was a lot of money G were passing on by only triggering between page loads). 

What is interesting is that G no longer holds the power for the sites that are the worst offenders.  Unless facebook also follows suit, the sites that use these most are hardly going to be impacted.
Both are going after the worst offenders on this front...largely news sites.

Facebook's EdgeRank (or whatever it is called equivalently now) will rank Facebook hosted Instant Articles better.

Google is going to push AMP more aggressively in the organic results to displace non-AMP listings.

Host & control, without needing to spend the money to create or own. Sort of like a rent to buy solution where rent is $0. ;)
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