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Google to start punishing pages with pop-up ads on mobile in 2017

Posted at 8:06 AM, Aug 24, 2016
and last updated 2016-08-24 13:33:48-04

Google is aiming to make searching on mobile a little more user friendly.

In an effort to help users get to the content they want fast, the internet giant is going to start punishing sites on mobile that rely on pop-up ads or interstitials.

Google says on its blog that these ads are intrusive and a poor experience for people looking for information.

So, after January 10, 2017, the company plans to start penalizing those pages in mobile search result rankings.

Some examples of the no-nos are pop-up ads that cover the main content while users are navigating on the page or a standalone ad that people have to dismiss before reading.

There are exceptions. For instance, Google says pop-ups that ask for age verification or similar questions won’t be counted against the site.

Google reiterates that content is still king. So, if a site has really good information related to your search and it has a pop-up ad, it still may rank highly.

More from Google here.