Replace Full-Screen Popups With Small Banners
Google advises against interstitials that obscure the whole page and against redirecting visitors to a separate page to collect consent or input. It recommends banners that take up a small fraction of the screen instead. Legally required interstitials, such as age gates, are exempt, but should overlay the content rather than redirect (Google Search Central, 2021).
What Google’s guidance says
An interstitial is anything that appears between the visitor and the content they came for: a full-screen newsletter signup, a discount offer, an app download prompt, or a page they are sent to before they can continue. Google’s guidance treats these as a problem for people arriving from search, because the visitor clicked a result expecting an answer and got a barrier instead (Google Search Central, 2021).
The guidance draws a clear line. A small banner that leaves the content readable is acceptable. A dialog that covers the page, or a redirect to a separate page, is not. Required notices are treated differently, as long as they overlay the page.
What it means for a business website
Popups are common on small business sites because marketing plugins make them easy to add. On a phone, a popup that would cover part of a desktop screen often covers the entire content area, so the visitor sees the offer and nothing else.
One warning sign to look for in your own analytics is low mobile scroll depth on pages that show a full-screen popup on arrival. This is a practical inference, not a measured result, but the pattern suggests visitors are leaving at the barrier rather than reading.
What to do
- Replace full-screen popups with a banner along the top or bottom edge that leaves most of the screen visible.
- Stop redirecting visitors to a separate page for signups or consent.
- Keep required notices as overlays on the page.
- Check every popup on a phone, where the impact is largest.
Sources
- Interstitials and dialogs. Google Search Central, 2021.