Pop-ups were unthinkable back when I was just starting to design websites. Ideally, the website itself still opened in a pop-up (then as an iframe) because you had to click a link on the home screen with “Open website.” Pretty much everyone did it until people started to resent it. In fact, pop-ups were not at all helpful for the visitor experience; you only saw half of the website, had to scroll a huge amount and it did not work nicely. People then moved to fully displaying the website but pop-ups remained somewhat, think of a screen to sign up for a newsletter or course or a pop-up with another call-to-action. This much to the frustration of visitors, as people still want to decide for themselves what opens and what does not.
Google will fine websites for improper use of pop-up
It became a bit of a taboo to use a pop-up, but in the last year you see them a lot again. Again, with a call-to-action for a newsletter, course, highlighting a blog article or something similar. Most entrepreneurs and bloggers use it to advertise and sell their products. But Google is now countering this by handing out “fines,” now don’t immediately think of a fine because that’s not what they mean by it (thankfully). They give a fine regarding your ranking/score of your website and if your website is a source of income, then it can be seen indirectly as a fine because if you have a low ranking score with your website then you will not get good results in the search engines. So fining affects what position your website will show up in search results.
Google believes that content that is read in and found through a search engine should also be able to be displayed. However, if this content is blocked by a pop-up and therefore cannot be displayed (properly), they feel the website deserves a penalty. It is frustrating for a visitor when they land on a website through a search engine, have to click away the pop-up only to then be able to read the content they went to the website for in the first place. And I agree. The more actions one has to do, the worse the user experience (user-experience) is of a website. And that is a point that Google actually values.
Google finds the following three issues impeding the user experience:
- Showing a pop-up that blocks the main content, either immediately when the visitor visits the website or when they are viewing the page.
- Displaying a pop-up that the visitor must click away before they can visit the website.
- Using a layout where the pop-up is processed above “the fold” (the top part of the website, the one you see first), while the content can be seen below the fold.
Can I not use pop-ups now?
Does this now mean you can’t use pop-ups at all? No, it didn’t. You may apply them to your website for a call-to-action, but keeping in mind that the visitor can see some of the content. Some examples are:
- Pop-ups used for a legal requirement, such as age verification or cookie declaration.
- Login pages where the content is not public and therefore not indexed by Google. For example, for private content such as e-mail or content that requires payment (such as a course).
- Banners that do not block the entire view of a website ánd that can be easily clicked away.
Google does still state that improper use of pop-ups is among hundreds of ways of fining a Web site. So it’s not that if you use a pop-up you immediately get a bad page-rank, for that you have to score poorly on several points that Google determines.
Delivering good, relevant content is still the way to rank high in search results. So by all means, keep doing that!
My opinion on using a pop-up
Personally, I really hate pop-ups and encourage my clients not to use them. I know that at one time they were very effective in bringing in subscribers, for example, but now they are so widely used and especially abused that visitors are more likely to ignore them instead of signing up for the newsletter.
Many times I have clicked away from a website when I got a pop-up, especially when they also appear multiple times while scrolling. I find the pop-ups that force you to sign up and don’t include a cross to click away the worst!
Imagine, someone wants to sell you something in a clothing store and keeps chasing you with that piece of clothing until you buy it. What would you do? Would you walk away or would you buy it? I would run away rock hard, would you?
The same goes for your website, once people click on the “X,” the pop-up does not need to be shown again. And that is precisely where things often go wrong.
By the way, not using a pop-up doesn’t mean you shouldn’t grow your website according to Google. It means you need to effectively incorporate opt-ins (subscription options) into your design. It means thinking precisely what are the best places to acquire subscribers, such as at the top or bottom of your content, in the sidebar or in the navigation. There are so many ways to grow your newsletter but you really don’t have to use an annoying pop-up to do so.
By the way, this applies not only to newsletters, but also the famous plugin that highlights your next and previous articles at the bottom of the screen. It blocks more than half your content and you often can’t click it away. Annoying, irritating and not beneficial to your user-experience. And just like Google, I believe that, óyou too need to start making user-experience a priority. After all, a beautiful website should also work well, right?
However, are you a tad stubborn and still want to use pop-ups? Then do this consciously (don’t just do anything!) and choose a way so that it doesn’t adversely affect the user-experience.
