Good news to practically everyone who has ever gone online and clicked on a web page, Google has started penalizing mobile websites with those annoying pop-up ads.
The pop-up ads and interstitial or full-page pop-up ads have been the subject of endless complaints and frustrations. It is, however, an integral part of earning one's keep through the internet. Despite that fact, Google deemed it better to protect its patrons by punishing these websites that have these intrusive ads.
The penalty will only be applied to mobile websites or sites accessed through a mobile device such as a smartphone. Google made the decision in line with its effort to create the perfect mobile experience for its patrons.
Google actually made two changes to mobile search results that are aimed at making it easier for users to find the content they are looking for. One of the changes that Google has come up with is to clean itself up. It will be getting rid of the "Mobile-friendly" labels that were introduced through its algorithm update from a couple of years ago. According to reports, this change was necessitated by the fact that around 85 percent of the sites in mobile SERPs are already mobile-friendly.
The bigger news is the penalty. Google described three ways that a website may incur the penalty. One is when the pop-up covers the main content of the page. This usually happens right after accessing the page but may also occur while the user is scanning the website.
A standalone pop-up or interstitial which requires to be acted upon by the user before he or she can proceed with the website is another example along with those that use a layout in which the above-the-fold part of the page look like a standalone pop-up but with the original content inlined underneath the fold.
Google made the announcement through a post update on the Official Webmasters Blog. The decision to penalize erring websites was actually decided upon around August last year but it was only on Jan. 10 of the current year that the decision was finally carried out.
