The Impact of Google’s Mobile Intrusive Interstitials Penalty
Search
× Search

Sprocket Websites - Blog / News / Updates

The Impact of Google’s Mobile Intrusive Interstitials Penalty
Breanne Bannon
/ Categories: DIY Sprocket Solutions

If you find this helpful, pay it forward! More after the article...

The Impact of Google’s Mobile Intrusive Interstitials Penalty

DIY Sprocket Solutions

Google announced that they would be applying penalties to sites that utilize problematic interstitial ads for visitors. These are ads that pop up and take up a considerable amount of screen space. At times, especially on mobile devices, these ads can be nearly impossible to get around. It’s something that site visitors complain about and get frustrated with time and again. Google has decided to penalize the offending sites by dropping their ranking on the search engine.

Now that Google’s mobile intrusive interstitial penalty has gone live, some sites have dropped more than ten spots in a day. They have given several examples of what these types of ads look like and which are problematic. The ads that they are applying consequences for are those that make the content less accessible. They are the ads that are intrusive. The exception to this rule would be interstitials that pop up for legal obligation –such as age verification, cookie usage, or log in dialogues on sites where the content isn’t publicly indexable.

The penalty also only impacts intrusive interstitials that occur right when a visitor goes from the Google mobile search result to that specific page. This is not a penalty that impacts or reaches pages after that. For those that have these types of interstitials that pop up later on other pages of their website, they won’t be impacted.

Here are the types of interstitials that Google explained will be targeted:

  • Popups that cover the main content of the page. This includes interstitials that pop up either immediately after the visitor arrives at the page from the search results or while they are still looking through that same page.
  • Standalone interstitial ads that visitors have to dismiss before accessing the main content.
  • Layouts where the above-the-fold portion of the main content page looks like a standalone interstitial ad. Users would then have to look underneath the fold for the actual main content.

These types will not be affected as long as they are used properly:

  • Interstitials that pop up for legal obligation. These include cookie usage, age verification and more.
  • Login dialogs. This is for sites with private content, like email for example, where content is not publicly indexable.
  • Banners that use a reasonable amount of screen space are allowed. They have to be easy to dismiss as well.

As a business with an online presence, your ranking on Google is exceptionally important. If you are using interstitial ads on your site, particularly your main content page, you should change or remove these ads as soon as possible so that your ranking is not severely affected.

What do you think of Google’s new mobile intrusive interstitials penalty? As a website visitor, is this a huge positive? As a website owner, how do you think this will impact you? What are your thoughts? Comment below!

Did you enjoy this article? Was it helpful? Insightful?
Then please share it! Post it on your favorite Social Media platform(s) so your followers see it.
It's easy. Just click on any of the social icons below and we'll do the heavy lifting for you.
Oh yeah, leave a comment below. We'd love to hear from you. Thanks for visiting!

Print
3992 Rate this article:
No rating
Breanne Bannon

Breanne BannonBreanne Bannon

Breanne is a Content Writer, Social Media Marketeer, and Sales Associate for Sprocket Websites.

Other posts by Breanne Bannon
Previous Article Start the New Year with a Clean Website
Next Article What Is the Mission of Your Business?

Leave a comment

This form collects your name, email, IP address and content so that we can keep track of the comments placed on the website. For more info check our Privacy Policy and Terms Of Use where you will get more info on where, how and why we store your data.
Add comment

Contact author

x

Stay In-The-Know...

Via QR Code

... With Every-Other-Week Tips!

Every other Tuesday, you'll receive the Sprocket Report completely free! Learn the latest business tip or news about what's currently happening in internet marketing. You get:

  • A web marketing tip from Kate
  • Another one from Breanne, and
  • Bonus! Tips curated from around the web

That's three valuable posts that you can read, plus a quick look at upcoming events and what's being discussed on Twitter. 

You'll want to get this info for yourself, in your own inbox. It's easy!

Type your email in the box above. OR scroll to the bottom of any page on this site. We have our subscription box there, too!

We NEVER give out your email address to anybody else and we don't flood you with ads. It's just good, free information. 

About Us

We turn surfers into visitors and visitors into customers.

We'll make you a beautiful, interactive website. Then we'll help drive traffic to it.

Read Archived Articles

Search

GET SOCIAL

LEARN MORE

Get The Sprocket Report

 

Terms Of UsePrivacy StatementCopyright © 2024 by Sprocket Websites, Inc.
Back To Top