Google Cracks Down Again!

Google is always trying to improve user experience, and I like this Google cracks down that will be in place January 10th, 2017. They’re going to introduce a signal that will give lower ranking to websites that use large pop ups (interstitials) – in other words, if a page is not easily accessible to a user, from a mobile search result, that page may not rank high for those search results.

The article specifies that this is directed at mobile use, however, I suspect this will affect all pages… if not as much now, it will occur naturally.

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In our research, people HATE pop ups, so YAY! Google!

I bet you get annoyed when you land on a perfectly good website and you get into reading some interesting content and BOOM! you get a big pop up that completely distracts what you’re trying to do. There are ways to build your mail list or get people to sign up for things without being a nuisance.

In one survey by usability researcher Jakob Nielsen, 95% of users reported that their online experience was affected “negatively or very negatively” by design elements that popped up in front of their windows.

Their are some exceptions to the rule; for example if it is an age requirement to enter a site, that will be allowed, or cookie usage, or an extremely small amount of screen space is used for a pop up – this is good news for email list building <wink, wink>.

Google also mentions that this new ‘signal’ is just one of hundreds of signals that are used in their ranking algorithm.

BEST PRACTICE = EXCELLENT, FRESH, ORIGINAL CONTENT.

to read the article straight from Google’s blog!