Google’s New Plan to Eliminate Intrusive Interstitials- How Does that Affect You?

google interstitials

Browsing the worldwide web is the order of the day for practically the whole world today. Everyone is always searching something on some site. Imagine that you are looking for some content that is so difficult to access online and then you find it. You feel like you have just won a jackpot, right? Wait a moment: afterwards an advert pops up on the content that you have been really looking for. Yes, it is so annoying. What makes it even worse is the fact that sometimes it makes it impossible to get to the content you actually wanted when viewing on mobile devices.

Google is also annoyed

Apparently, you are not the only one who is irritated by these ‘intrusive interstitials’. Google recently announced that they will be conducting a crack down on such interstitials starting from the 10th of January, 2017. The reason behind this plan is to improve the user experience of anyone who is surfing using Google. As you probably know, one of the biggest goals for Google is to make browsing a simple and exciting experience. This is the main reason behind these campaigns.

Google stated that this type of ad (intrusive interstitials) can be problematic on mobile devices because of their screen sizes, which are often smaller. Mobile search is the in-thing today. Very few people search for things through their laptops and desktop computers. It is tiresome and really pointless. The fact that you can access internet from just about any part of this planet makes it so much easier for people to browse. There is no reason why you should wait till you get to the office or your house so that you can do your research. This is another thing that Google is very big on.

The penalties

It is almost easy to guess what the penalties are going to be for those web pages that have these intrusive pop-ups. Lower rankings onthe search engine will most definitely be among the penalties. Google stated that the pages where content cannot be accessed with ease on the transition from the mobile search results will not have very high ranking. The search engine went further to explain they types of interstitials that are going to be a problem. These include:

  1. Display of standalone interstitials that the user has to close down before they access the main content.
  2. Showing a popup that hinders the user from viewing the content. This is for both the pop-ups that cover the content immediately after navigation to a page from the search results or while they are looking through the page.
  3. Use of a layout whereby the above-the-fold portion of the page ends up appearing like a standalone interstitial but the original content is actually in lined beneath the fold.

However, there are some interstitials that will not be affected. Terms and conditions apply though. For instance, interstitials that appear to be as a response to some legal obligation like for age verification or cookie usage will not be affected. They have to be used responsibly though, so that they do not affect the performance of the site.