{"id":32963,"date":"2015-09-02T14:46:00","date_gmt":"2015-09-02T14:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.searchenginewatch.com\/2015\/09\/02\/google-gets-tough-on-mobile-app-interstitials\/"},"modified":"2019-11-14T17:46:13","modified_gmt":"2019-11-14T17:46:13","slug":"google-gets-tough-on-mobile-app-interstitials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2015\/09\/02\/google-gets-tough-on-mobile-app-interstitials\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Gets Tough on Mobile App Interstitials"},"content":{"rendered":"

As we already know, Google is not a fan of app interstitials<\/a> and the negative effect they can have on the mobile user experience.<\/p>\n

So, from November 1, Google<\/a> will no longer consider sites with intrusive app interstitials ‘mobile-friendly’.<\/p>\n

Google<\/a> explained this<\/a> on its Webmaster Central Blog:<\/p>\n

After November 1, mobile web pages that show an app install interstitial that hides a significant amount of content on the transition from the search result page will no longer be considered mobile-friendly.<\/p>\n

This does not affect other types of interstitials. As an alternative to app install interstitials, browsers provide ways to promote an app that are more user-friendly.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here’s an example of what Google<\/a> is talking about, from IMDB.com. The search result shows the site as mobile-friendly at the moment:<\/p>\n

\"imdb-search\"<\/p>\n

However, that looks set to change unless IMDB removes this interstitial promoting its app.<\/p>\n

It is certainly intrusive and it certainly obscures ‘a significant amount of content on the transition from the search result page’. All of the content in fact.<\/p>\n

\"imdb-interstitial-mobile\"<\/p>\n

It can be useful to be notified that there is an\u00a0app, but this kind of ad is likely to deter many mobile users<\/a>. Indeed, Google<\/a> may be doing such sites a favor with this update.<\/p>\n

Google offers an alternative in the form of app install banners, as shown below:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"google-mobile-app-banners\"<\/p>\n

These banners don’t obscure the content, yet offer the chance for users to either interact with them or close them down.<\/p>\n

This move follows a general trend of Google’s increasing use of user experience (UX) factors when ranking web pages.<\/p>\n

The mobile-friendly update<\/a> in April, otherwise known as ‘mobilegeddon’<\/a>,\u00a0forced sites to ensure their mobile visitors were offered a better user experience, and I’d expect more UX factors to be used by Google in future.<\/p>\n

As with other forms of interruptive advertising that many users despise, interstitials can work. No-one would be using them if they didn’t. However, there’s little doubt that they are bad for the user experience.<\/p>\n

Sites using these interstitials will need to choose between the benefits offered by such ads and the downside of losing out in mobile search.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Google says that sites using intrusive app download interstitials will find it harder to rank in mobile searches from November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":126,"featured_media":32964,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,5],"tags":[1247,37,341,1085,531,1050,22,727],"content_type":[27095],"class_list":["post-32963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile","category-seo","tag-app","tag-google","tag-google-algorithm","tag-interstitial-ad","tag-mobile-search","tag-mobilegeddon","tag-seo","tag-user-experience-ux","content_type-news"],"acf":{"tad_independentcommercial":false,"tad_content_format":false},"post_info":{"name":"Graham Charlton","title":"","thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/google-mobile-app-banners-370x229-120x90.png","category":"Mobile","timeago":"10y"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/126"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32963"},{"taxonomy":"content_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content_type?post=32963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}