Google Updates Say Popups Are Bad | Get Fact Up #44

Thanks for joining us for the 44th instalment of Get Fact Up! Wow - 44 episodes.

Google have recently announced some updates which effect every visitor to their SERPS and everybody listed. They’ll be removing the “Mobile-friendly” label from search results pages. Why you ask? We'll we're about to explain it to you!

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GOOGLE UPDATES SAY POPUPS ARE BAD | GET FACT UP #44

- G'day Australia, I'm Chris Hogan, founder and CEO of Me Media. It's time to get fact up on some recent updates that Google has announced, and one that we absolutely love. Cause it's all about popups, and popups are bad, m'kay?

- Peter Meyers from Moz recently released an article which stated how Google are leading by example on updates to their SERPS which include a serious move towards single column layout by removing ads from the right column. Knowledge panel has also been moved to the top left, and the local three-pack map listings are now at the top, also. Google's massive push for mobile friendliness means that they'll be removing their "mobile friendly" tag from the search engine results page listings. Google says that this change is designed to declutter its search results, and that 85% of all pages in the mobile search results are now mobile friendly. So, 15% of you are still not mobile, eh? Come on. Hurry up!\

- In other updates, TechCrunch says good riddance to popups, and Search Engine Land says, kind of politely, that they're really happy with this update as well. Google recently announced it'll be cracking down on intrusive interstitials on January 10, 2017. Because this type of ad can be problematic on mobile devices where screens are often smaller.

So what's an interstitial? Ah! It's a terrible word to say, for start. It's actually a full page ad, or gateway page, that you have to get rid of. It's damn annoying! Google went on to explain which interstitials are going to be problematic. These include popups that cover the main content, either immediately after the user navigates to a page from the search results, or while they're looking through the page.

Another one is standalone, full page ads that the user has to dismiss before accessing the main content. And the one above the fold ad, which makes the page appear similar to a standalone page, but the original content has been in-lined underneath the fold. So, stop trying to be so damn tricky, and just give us great content without making us have to click something.

Thank you Google for ridding the internet of these stupid popups. Because if you're gonna continue to use them, then Google's actually probably gonna lower your ranking.

And that's about all we've got time for. And, we're glad to say, these popups are going away. Stay awesome, Australia, we'll see you next week. And, make sure you're more mobile friendly. ♫Suddenly we roll♫ Popups are bad, m'kay? M'kay!