Ask any internet user how they feel about pop-ups? Chances are you’ll learn some new curse words. And yet, many sites still use them to push their marketing messages. Why?
The thing is, pop-ups may be the most disliked form of online advertising, but they still work.
Yes, indeed… Pop-ups work because they grab attention and position the message or call to subscribe above other distractions.
As users, we hate them because they get in our way. As designers and developers, we love being asked to include them in a site because in many cases they make it difficult to create accessible and delightful websites.
While they may improve conversions
They don’t improve subscriber engagement. And even those that only appear when a user leaves the page (exit-intent popups) still cause a negative reaction.
“I wrote code to run a pop-up ad. Sorry.”
– Ethan Zuckerman, inventor of the pop-up ad .
Pop-up ads are annoying because they distract us when we’re trying to do something (which is ironically what they’re designed for). Commercial sites install pop-ups to show big numbers on their monthly report.
SEO penalties for pop-ups on mobile
Even Google has agreed that a bad georgia phone number library user experience just isn’t worth it.
To improve the mobile search experience, after January 10, 2017, pages where content is difficult for a user to find when navigating away from mobile search results may not rank highly.
This means that as of January 10, 2017, pages that display intrusive pop-ups and interstitials will appear lower in Google’s mobile search results.
The ranking changes do not apply
To pages with pop-ups that take into account the accessibility of the page content. The same applies to ads that take up a small amount of space have you heard seen the beach’s and do not interfere with users’ access to information.
If you must use pop-ups, use them responsibly.
Whatever your reasons for using pop-ups, remember that they are intrusive. Before you launch one, consider whether users will find the pop-up consumer data annoying or helpful.
If you must use a pop-up, either by necessity or direct order, use it wisely.