George S. SEO Expert

The main rules for popups

Popups are used on almost every website these days. They can be very powerful for lead generation, as interstitials can capture the viewer's attention and steer them in the direction that best serves your brand focusing on your value proposition or campaign.

Moreover, practical business cases have shown that the implementation of a popup strategy immediately increases the number of subscriptions to the newsletter. The average conversion rate for a high-performing interstitial ad is 9.28 percent.

Google policies against interpage ads

All these facts and statistics show that popups are a great way to reach potential customers by focusing on the most relevant marketing messages. However, in recent years, Google policies have been focusing more and more on user intent by displaying pages that offer better UX (user experience), rank higher in SERPs, and provide personalized content.

In the event that your interstitials look like spam or devalue the user experience because they are difficult to reject or hide much of your content, your page may be devalued by the search engine. Since the most commonly used types of popups are considered "intrusive", using this marketing technique can have a significant impact on your page's SERP ranking.

Interstitial ads that Google doesn't like:

- Popups that obscure content that users need to close in order to continue exploring the page.

- Standalone popups that require users to close them before accessing your content.

- Deceptive page layouts that have sections that look like interstitials.

- Interstitial ads that fire unexpectedly as soon as a user clicks on your page.

- Overlay modals that are difficult to close and/or easily redirect visitors who accidentally click them.

In the world of unobtrusive popups

"Interstitials" is a broad term that can refer to most popups, modals, and overlays, but not all interstitials are equally obtrusive, as some are built with the user's path in mind. This can help you achieve great results like the 9.28 percent conversion rate mentioned above. And without risk to your SERP rankings and your direct search leads.

Anything you are legally required to display to provide information to users or limit their access to certain content (personalization of experience) is not subject to Google's penalty.

Examples of such popups are cookie notifications and age verification interstitials. However, keep in mind that language selection popups on web pages with an international audience are not considered unobtrusive or something you should display. Google believes that this detracts from the user experience, and therefore, such interstitials are more likely to hurt your SERP rankings.

Other interstitials that are not considered obtrusive are those that take up to 15 percent of the screen, such as banner ads and slides. Because they allow the user to view your website without having to close it, these pop-ups are ideal, especially if you want to increase mobile user engagement.

You won't always be able to tell if a popup is intrusive or not. As a general rule, refrain from interstitial ads that take up the entire screen. Always keep the user journey and UX in mind. Use interstitial ads that don't interfere with the reader's view of your page content, contributing to a smoother UX.

Timed popups

Full screen popups and overlays are perfect for a newsletter campaign or for announcing a new product launch or event because they capture the attention of users. This is why sometimes interstitials that cover the entire screen are a necessary part of your content strategy. If you need to use these pop-ups, it's important to make them more in line with Google's ranking policy and user requirements.

Google only penalizes pages that display interstitial ads immediately after users open them from search. This policy opens up a gap that marketers can exploit. Timing popups is a way to get around the search engine's policy of discounting pages with obtrusive interstitials.

- Popups with exit intent

- Kissmetrics exit Intent popup

Exit intent popups are becoming more and more widely used. Such interstitials fit well with the user journey and can be quite useful for lead generation as you personalize your content based on user behavior, giving you the opportunity to make your marketing message more relevant.

Another useful type of popup that you can use is interstitial ads, which automatically close after a certain period. Since they can be viewed on the Webmaster Central Blog, they are also viewed by search engines as not interfering with the user experience.

In general, timed pop-ups are not a separate advertising campaign, but rather a part of the entire content strategy. They are just as effective as your content because they require user interaction to display.

Interpage ads based on user behavior

Interstitial ads that are triggered by certain user behaviors are also intent for the viewer and are considered non-interfering with the user experience. Effective popups you can use include:

1. Pop-ups with 50% scroll and sliders, these are shown to the reader when he has already scrolled 50% of the page. This behavior shows that readers are interested in the content of the page. It is advisable to use interstitial ads that are directly related to the topic of the page, such as a blog subscription popup in an article.

2. Page visit precondition popups. These interstitial ads only appear if the user has already visited a certain page before or has visited a fixed number of pages on the site. These pop-ups are most useful when converting leads that you've already referred to or marking them as eligible for sale based on their activity in the pop-ups.

3. Preconditional interstitial ads. Other conditional interstitials that don't get in the way include popups that only appear for users who have completed/or haven't completed a form on the site and are displayed based on whether the user is logged in or not, their purchase history, whether either a new or returning visitor.

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