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Google Has Started Penalizing Mobile Websites with Intrusive Pop-Up Ads

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Re: Google Has Started Penalizing Mobile Websites with Intrusive Pop-Up Ads

#251

Post by GrinningFool »

edblarney wrote: post #223
Analemma_ wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's the thing: I don't care. I don't care if Google's algorithm makes life difficult for SEOs. I don't care if it prioritizes Google's own properties unfairly. I don't care if it hurts somebody's conversion rate. All I care about is the quality of my browsing experience, which takes a nosedive every time one of these fullscreen mobile ads shows up. As long as Google's algorithm ranks results roughly in the order o…

" I don't care if it hurts somebody's conversion rate. All I care about is the quality of my browsing experience" In the short run, it won't matter, but in the long run, it may likely affect your browsing experience on the whole. Google doesn't do anything well but search. So you are trading a slightly better search experience - which may cost you the death of several brands that provide much more than search outcome…

> Google doesn't do anything well but search. I beg to differ too. It's increasingly difficult to use google search effectively - it has no concept of content vs sidebar/nav, so searches (particularly technical) often turn up a plethora of unrelated* top ten list blog posts.

They're still the best in the game - but that doesn't mean they're still doing it well. Just better than the competition.

* "term A" is in the body, and "term B" is in the navlinks but has no bearing on "term A". Google search sees that the body includes both terms and include it in the results.

Re: Google Has Started Penalizing Mobile Websites with Intrusive Pop-Up Ads

#253

Post by GrinningFool »

quadrangle wrote: post #45

Use uBlock Origin people! In Firefox on Android. Don't see any pop-up ads! I can't believe how much pain people subjective themselves to needlessly!

I'd love to see uMatrix on FF Android. uBO has a habit of killing things needed for the content in my experience . The lack of a simple selective bypass makes it frustrating for the site that will not load correctly.

Re: Google Has Started Penalizing Mobile Websites with Intrusive Pop-Up Ads

#254

Post by dheera »

_delirium wrote: post #50
Animats wrote: post #47

What's really stupid are sites from which you can buy things, but then pop up an ad for something else. Fandango, which sells movie tickets, does this. As you're trying to get to the "buy ticket" page, they shove movie trailers for other movies in your face. I mentioned a site earlier today which sold plumbing supplies.[1] They pop up a "gimme your email" box which 1) cannot be dismissed , and 2) isn't even theirs, i…

Pop-ups asking me to please take a survey about the user experience of the website, too. Well, I was trying to actually buy something on your website, before your goddamn survey pop-up got in the way.

Also, e-commerce websites that require creation of an account to buy something. There were countless times that I had a credit card in hand, and I gave up when the stupid website required me to register a user account in order to pay and check out.

Extra negative points if your account creation process requires a phone number or e-mail address verification step.

Re: Google Has Started Penalizing Mobile Websites with Intrusive Pop-Up Ads

#255

Post by jmspring »

Animats wrote: post #47

What's really stupid are sites from which you can buy things, but then pop up an ad for something else. Fandango, which sells movie tickets, does this. As you're trying to get to the "buy ticket" page, they shove movie trailers for other movies in your face. I mentioned a site earlier today which sold plumbing supplies.[1] They pop up a "gimme your email" box which 1) cannot be dismissed , and 2) isn't even theirs, i…

Google searches where the first 5-8 results are google search ads? Happens on some obscure searches.

Re: Google Has Started Penalizing Mobile Websites with Intrusive Pop-Up Ads

#256

Post by fancy_pantser »

dheera wrote: post #254
_delirium wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pop-ups asking me to please take a survey about the user experience of the website, too. Well, I was trying to actually buy something on your website, before your goddamn survey pop-up got in the way.

Also, e-commerce websites that require creation of an account to buy something. There were countless times that I had a credit card in hand, and I gave up when the stupid website required me to register a user account in order to pay and check out. Extra negative points if your account creation process requires a phone number or e-mail address verification step.

Just like the "$300m button story" popular in UX circles: https://articles.uie.com/three_hund_million_button/

Re: Google Has Started Penalizing Mobile Websites with Intrusive Pop-Up Ads

#257

Post by shadowSeeker »

Many of these pop ups strategically block navigation options in the end adding up to unnecessary hits on some 2ndry linked page(via intrusive ads) or making sick stickies keeping us away from main material for which we were initially there making us dependent on AdBlockers. These sites find that out and stop access to their content(their concern maybe genuine but ugly process) until we stop AdBlockers taking away our freedom altogether. I have stopped going to most News Websites for this.

Re: Google Has Started Penalizing Mobile Websites with Intrusive Pop-Up Ads

#258

Post by zamalek »

_delirium wrote: post #50
Animats wrote: post #47

What's really stupid are sites from which you can buy things, but then pop up an ad for something else. Fandango, which sells movie tickets, does this. As you're trying to get to the "buy ticket" page, they shove movie trailers for other movies in your face. I mentioned a site earlier today which sold plumbing supplies.[1] They pop up a "gimme your email" box which 1) cannot be dismissed , and 2) isn't even theirs, i…

Pop-ups asking me to please take a survey about the user experience of the website, too. Well, I was trying to actually buy something on your website, before your goddamn survey pop-up got in the way.

The main problem I have is that these popups rarely preload the content. This means that if you are visiting the page internationally, you could be staring at a greyed-out page for a good second before the "X" loads. CTRL+F4 is now a reflex to that backdrop. If your page is less important than an advert then I can't imagine me finding it all that important.

Re: Google Has Started Penalizing Mobile Websites with Intrusive Pop-Up Ads

#259

Post by dspig »

ssharp wrote: post #115
baddox wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the case of Fandango showing an interstitial ad when attempting to check out, I can't imagine that wouldn't hurt conversion, and I can't imagine that conversion wouldn't be one the key metrics they would test with. I would guess it's more just a lack of care. Someone said "we need our website to make more money" and someone else said "okay, I hear that ads are for making more money."

It could be that the ads are making more money than they're losing from conversion decrease.

yes, they are already targeting someone who will buy stuff from them.

Re: Google Has Started Penalizing Mobile Websites with Intrusive Pop-Up Ads

#260

Post by LordDragonfang »

ams6110 wrote: post #178
lozaning wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Milk is kept at the back of the store because that's the easiest please to put it from a logistics stand point. The truck the milk comes in pulls up to the back of the store and can immediately unload it into the giant refrigerated rooms at the back of the store. The fact that it helps "build the basket" by being at the back is a happy coincidence for the store.

My supermarket has a stock of the higher priced name brand milk at the front of the store, near the checkouts. I assume that's to grab both people who forgot to get milk and don't want to lose their place in line, and people who are there only for milk and want to get in and out. The less expensive store-brand-label milk is at the back of the store where the big walk-in coolers are.

Contrary to what you would think as a consumer, grocery chains almost always want you to buy their brand (the less expensive one) because the margins on store-brand items are much better. That's why the stores bother selling them in the first place (and why margin-hungry companies like CVS will have every popular placed side-by-side with a store brand)
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