Are Pop-Ups Bad for SEO?
You know, sometimes you want to hate them, but the truth is that pop-ups are a very useful tool when it comes to increasing sales and average conversion rates.
The thing is that, as with almost everything in the online marketing world, we must be very careful with our web pages and the use of pop-ups to avoid being punished by uncle Google on the search engine results page.
Google penalizes intrusive interstitials and intrusive pop-ups. This is something that has been constant since 2018, and it has increased in the latest Google core update when mobile users started to get more and more attention.
We must remember that uncle Google prioritizes the users’ experience above almost everything else, and intrusive pop-ups are detrimental to this user experience.
It seems like we are in the middle of a pickle here. Pop-ups have proven to be efficient in creating fast and engaging calls to action, but if we overstep, Google will punish our website and we do not want any negative impact on our SEO strategy.
So, are pop-ups bad for SEO and our ranking strategy? How can we use them properly without raising any red flags?
What constitutes an intrusive interstitial?
Google penalizes “intrusive” interstitials, which means that some of them are okay to use while others are a definitive no-go. Let us learn the distinction between types of pop.
Intrusive
- Pop-ups that prevent users from reading your content. For example: if someone is reading a blog post and, all of the sudden, out of nowhere and in the middle of the reading, a pop-up appears, and users are forced to close it to continue reading.
- New window pop (probably the worst kind)
- Ads that interrupt users’ pathways while they change from one page to another on your website.
- A standalone interstitial or any form of interstitial that users are forced to close before even beginning to access your content (for the love of SEO, please do not do this).
Non-intrusive
These are basically all kinds of interstitials that you are legally obliged to display, such as cookies policy, age verification or restrictions, etc.
Furthermore, exit intend pop ups are okay to use as long as you do not overuse them. If the bounce rate on your website is too high, try to go over your content marketing strategy to see if, perhaps, you are creating the wrong type of content for your audience.
Banner ads and tabs are okay to use as long as they do not take more than 20% of the screen portion (this is for mobile devices).
If you are doing everything correctly, you should not have a problem between your SEO and your pop-us strategy.
Creating a mobile-friendly website includes stepping onto any of these types of intrusive interstitials. Try to provide your website visitors with the most “clean” experience you can. They will thank you by engaging with you.
What can you do to use pop-ups without messing with your SEO?
As we said before, pop-ups ads and banners are effective but can be detrimental to users’ experience, therefore, to your SEO. However, you can take advantage of some “gray areas” on this subject.
For example, you can redirect all your interstitials to appear only on desktop devices. Go to Google Analytics and check which devices generate the most traffic to your website. If mobile devices such as tablets and cellphones are the most predominant, then you can configure those pop-ups only for desktop users.
Do we recommend this? Well, not really. You can do it, and Google won’t penalize you (for now) but think about it:
Why make the user experience more difficult for desktops? That does not seem to make too much sense.
People want to navigate a website as calmly as possible. You have no idea how many people abandon a website while using computers because of the ridiculously amount of pop-ups that appear.
Besides, we do not know if, in the near future, Google will also penalize intrusive desktop banners, ads, pop-up windows, and so on.
Another thing you can do is to time your pop. For example, you can make them appear only after users have completed a particular action, like finishing a blog entry. It will still be invasive, but at least it won’t be detrimental to the overall navigational experience.
The takeaway
To answer the question: are pop-ups bad for SEO?
We can say: yes and no.
As long as you are doing things correctly, you should not have problems with SERPs ranking. The main takeaway we want to have is that you should always pay special attention to creating the greatest experience for your users.
Your website should run smoothly. Whether by keeping your technical SEO up to date or by avoiding the use of intrusive pop-ups. That is the only way to make yourself a place in the digital jungle.
At Inspiral we take care of details such as this one. Our main goal is always to help brands across the world to reach the right people.
Book a free consultation on our website. We will sit with a digital coffee to discuss all the possibilities for growing your brand.
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