The Google Webmaster team recently announced that pages that have obtrusive app interstitials won’t be considered mobile-friendly anymore.
So what does that mean exactly?
It means that these pages will not be prominently displayed in Google’s mobile search results, which if you didn’t already know, is becoming increasingly important since a larger number of users are using mobile devices to surf the web.
This change shouldn’t be a surprise for webmasters though as Google previously warned webmasters about app download interstitials back in July where they specifically told webamsters to consider removing app download intersititals from mobile websites. At the beginning of September, Google took another step forward by announcing that pages with app download interstitials would be devalued in mobile search results at the beginning of November – a move which reinforced their stance on the topic.
With the algorithm update now in place, if your site has app download interstitials, you need to consider if it’s worth the potential loss of mobile traffic. Although interstitials may seem like an effective way to help drive app installs, Google has taken a hard stance stating that they create unnecessary friction for your mobile visitors. Instead, the search giant is suggesting that you try out more user friendly options instead such as the use of app install banners.
For the end user, this means you should hopefully stop landing on pages that can’t be read due to large and obtrusive app download pop-ups. Sites that continue to display app interstitials are starting to lose their mobile-friendly tags along with the rankings in mobile search.
The move should be one that hopefully helps to convince more webmasters/companies to do away with full page app banners. That being said, it’ll be interesting to see how many sites end up cooperating with the new suggested changes.
Source: Google Webmasters (Google+), Google Webmaster Central Blog (1) (2)
I like to call myself the 'cool guy' in the office, even though all of my work is virtual. If internet marketing is the jam of business these days, I am the nutella.
The Google Webmaster team recently announced that pages that have obtrusive app interstitials won’t be considered mobile-friendly anymore.
So what does that mean exactly?
It means that these pages will not be prominently displayed in Google’s mobile search results, which if you didn’t already know, is becoming increasingly important since a larger number of users are using mobile devices to surf the web.
This change shouldn’t be a surprise for webmasters though as Google previously warned webmasters about app download interstitials back in July where they specifically told webamsters to consider removing app download intersititals from mobile websites. At the beginning of September, Google took another step forward by announcing that pages with app download interstitials would be devalued in mobile search results at the beginning of November – a move which reinforced their stance on the topic.
With the algorithm update now in place, if your site has app download interstitials, you need to consider if it’s worth the potential loss of mobile traffic. Although interstitials may seem like an effective way to help drive app installs, Google has taken a hard stance stating that they create unnecessary friction for your mobile visitors. Instead, the search giant is suggesting that you try out more user friendly options instead such as the use of app install banners.
For the end user, this means you should hopefully stop landing on pages that can’t be read due to large and obtrusive app download pop-ups. Sites that continue to display app interstitials are starting to lose their mobile-friendly tags along with the rankings in mobile search.
The move should be one that hopefully helps to convince more webmasters/companies to do away with full page app banners. That being said, it’ll be interesting to see how many sites end up cooperating with the new suggested changes.
Source: Google Webmasters (Google+), Google Webmaster Central Blog (1) (2)