Google Goes After Intrusive Mobile Popups and How to Protect Your OpenCart Store

Popups that appear on mobile devices and are difficult to close are going to be the next target for Google. Websites using these popups will be punished with lower rankings.

Since mobile phones have smaller screens, dismissing popups can be a challenge. Of course, Google’s move makes a lot of sense because such popups definitely hurt mobile user experience.

It’s simple. The priority of Google is to give the most user-friendly search results. It’s natural that they are starting to hunt down websites that use intrusive popups and advertising.

You’re probably thinking “where is the line between an easy-to-close popup and a challenging one?”

That’s an excellent question. Let’s see what Google means by a good and a bad popup.

Bad popups

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The first image shows an example of an intrusive popup. Why is it intrusive?

Because it covers the main content, whether it appears when a user enters the page or scrolls down. Also because it does not have a Call-to-Action button.

The second and third examples are of standalone interstitials that need to be dismissed by the user in order to view the main page content. Again, no Call-to-Action.

Another bad example are layouts where the above-the-fold part takes up the entire screen and leaves the page content below the fold. Often, such layouts are used to display a promotion or invite new users to subscribe for a newsletter. Usually, they come with a close button or a scroll down button that lifts the layout, however this is still intrusive and prevents users from instantly accessing the main page content.

Using such methods will probably get you punished by Google. Now, let’s show the right way to use popups.

Good popups

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Popups used for legal purposes, such as cookie consent or age verification will not be considered as harmful to the user experience. You can see that in the first and second image.

The third example shows a banner that does not cover the main page content and uses a reasonable amount of screen space on the mobile device. Most of all - it’s easy to close.

A Solution for OpenCart Websites

PopupWindow and PopupUpsell are two perfect examples for extensions that can add pop-ups to your site but can be disabled on mobile devices.

The ability to disable your pop-ups for mobile devices works on two levels. First, it gives your OpenCart website the conversion and customer retention properties for higher business efficiency, as is the purpose of the pop-ups. Second, the option to disable them on mobile gives you peace of mind that your store will not be targeted by Google’s new mobile-friendly update.

Download PopupWindow                                         Download PopupUpsell

Takeaway

The news about the intrusive pop-ups on mobile was published just a few of days ago on August 23. The new update will be officially in effect as of January 10, 2017. Luckily, this means there’s enough time for store owners to rethink their pop-up strategies and adjust to the new rules before Google makes their move.