The mobile intrusive interstitials penalty
In 2017, Google started rolling out the mobile intrusive interstitials penalty.
In August 2016, Google announced plans to lower the rankings of pages “where content is not easily accessible to a user on the transition from the mobile search results” – and that crackdown would begin on Jan. 10, 2017.
Why did Google do this? They believed this type of ad was “problematic” on mobile devices with smaller screens.
Google explained which types of interstitials were going to be problematic, including:
- Showing a popup that covers the main content, either immediately after the user navigates to a page from the search results or while they are looking through the page.
- Displaying a standalone interstitial that the user has to dismiss before accessing the main content.
- Using a layout where the above-the-fold portion of the page appears similar to a standalone interstitial, but the original content has been inlined underneath the fold.
Read all about it in: Google confirms rolling out the mobile intrusive interstitials penalty yesterday.
Also on this day
Google’s page experience update coming to desktop next month
2022: This was just a reminder about an update that wasn’t expected to be big.
Microsoft Advertising Shopping campaigns reporting enhancements
2022: Plus, Microsoft Audience Network, Similar audiences and in-market audiences expanded.
Google updates the Search Console coverage report
2021: The updated report gave specific categories and labels for errors and responses.
Facebook blocks Trump for remainder of term while Twitter sets permanent ban
2021: Numerous advertisers had paused their social media campaigns over the events at the Capitol.
Video: Phillip Thune on FindWhat competing with GoTo, Overture, Yahoo and Google Ads
2021: In this installment of Barry Schwartz’s vlog series, he chats with Thune about the early days in the search industry, his role in running Textbroker and more.
Sitelinks tip: Set your sitelink descriptions or Google, Bing Ads can do it dynamically
2019: Adverisers who hadn’t set up manual sitelink descriptions in non-brand campaigns probably wouldn’t have liked what they saw.
Smart speaker sales grew 103% last year
2019: The virtual assistant devices became the fastest-selling consumer technology, dramatically outpacing wearables and VR.
What Time Is The Super Bowl? Google & Bing Are Confused
2016: The information showing was for last year, including listing the teams for last year.
Alice Paul Google Doodle Marks 131st Birthday Of The American Suffragist & ERA Activist
2016: The Google Doodle honored Alice Paul, the American suffragist who played an integral role in getting the 19th Amendment passed, giving women the right to vote, and was the original force behind the Equal Rights Amendment.
Analyst: Mobile Continues To Take Share From Desktop Search
2013: Overall query volume appeared to be declining as mobile devices cannibalized traffic.
Why Asking StumbleUpon To Remove Your Links Is Dumb
2013: StumbleUpon was getting regular requests each week from people asking for it to remove links to their sites. Why? They were worried that being linked to by a popular and long-standing social media sharing site was somehow hurting them with Google.
Yahoo Brings Back Flickr/Creative Commons Filtering To Image Search
2013: An image search feature that was often used by bloggers and other content producers returned – and it expanded to image searches on mobile devices.
Search In Pics: Panda & Penguin Speakers, R2D2 Android & Google Workshop
2013: The latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more.
Real-Life Examples Of How Google’s “Search Plus” Pushes Google+ Over Relevancy
2012: A closer look at the changes, including how they turn Google+ into an essential social network for any search marketer.
Google “Search Plus” Impact on Local: Limited So Far
2012: Based on an unscientific query survey, the impact seemed to be minor.
Reports: Mobile Search Impressions Explode, CTRs Beat PC
2012: Mobile [paid] search ad spend was up 269% YoY and impressions were up 317%.
Google Flight Search Expands, Now Showing More Routes
2012: Google remained tightlipped about exact numbers, but a spokesperson confirmed that “since launch we’ve more than doubled the number of domestic (i.e., U.S.) routes available in the feature.”
Google Logo For Nicolas Steno: Father Of Modern Geology
2012: The logo symbolized the study of the earth, from the ocean to the mountain tops.
Tim Mayer: Search Vet & Ex-Yahoo Lands At Trada
2011: Mayer joined the crowdsourced SEM marketplace as its Chief Strategy Officer, overseeing sales, marketing, product development and operations.
Google Eases Management of Negative Keywords, Changes AdWords Display
2011: Google changed its AdWords interface to allow marketers to use a single negative keyword list across multiple campaigns.
New AdWords Tool Introduced For Better Understanding Of Mobile Searchers
2011: With mobile searches growing by leaps and bounds, Google introduced an option on its keyword tool that let marketers find keyword suggestions for mobile devices.
Yahoo-Bing Gaining On Google In Some Paid Search Metrics: Report
2011: The transition led to small drops in click share and spend share, and a larger drop in overall paid search ad impressions for Yahoo-Bing. But, the flip side of that was a gain in revenue-per-click (RPC).
Google Pushes Hotpot Activity To Maps’ Home Page
2011: Anyone logged into a Google account would see recent activity from their Hotpot friends in the left-side window.
Off The Radar: Why Airlines On Travel Search Engines Are Going Missing
2011: It was a standoff between online travel agencies and airlines.
Foursquare Improves, Expands Information For Businesses
2011: Foursquare went after local businesses and major brands with an improved and expanded content section that explained how they could take advantage of Foursquare’s platform.
Google Launches A Worldwide Science Fair For Teens
2011: Google itself was basically a science project developed by its founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, way back when.
German Govt. Says Google Becoming ‘Giant Monopoly’
2010: Germany’s justice minister threatened government action if Google didn’t become more transparent.
Yahoo Beefing Up Social Scientist Staffing In Yahoo Labs
2010: The company was beefing up Yahoo Labs, hiring a range of social scientists and academics and doing new research
The End of Yahoo Shopping? Company Substantially Outsourcing To PriceGrabber
2010: Merchant listings would now come from PriceGrabber and ecommerce sellers would only be able to get into Yahoo Shopping via PriceGrabber or Yahoo Search (Bing).
Google News Fast Flip Featured Topless Playboy Model
2010: Google News marked the article in the “most viewed” section of Fast Flip – go figure!
Bing Flashes Their Basketball Skills With NBA Results
2010: Bing’s results for NBA got “smarter”.
The Big List: 2010 Marketing Predictions & Resolutions
2010: Links to so many articles offering predictions and resolutions for 2010.
Get A Free Link From Wired
2009: But only until Wired put a robots.txt block on links coming out of the semi-Wikipedia challenger.
Google Launches Google Checkout Trends
2009: Google Checkout Trends was a flavor of Google Trends, but limited the data to that collected from Google Checkout merchants.
2009: The images appeared on the left side of each sponsored result within the directory pages.
The New Yorker On Google: Avoiding Regulation, Arrogance
2009: How Google’s growth frightened those with vested interests (Viacom, Microsoft), as well as consumer and privacy advocates.
Isabel Aguilera, CEO of Google Spain & Portugal, Leaving
2009: She became Google Spain’s CEO on March 1, 2006.
Facebook’s Zuckerberg In the Hot Seat In Upcoming “60 Minutes” Interview
2009: Where he would be asked about the Beacon controversy and the challenge of leveraging the social graph for the benefit of advertisers.
Yahoo Moves Metasearch Engine FareChase To Travel Homepage
2009: Attributed to the nearly $200 million acquisition of SideStep by competitor Kayak
Microsoft Business Division Head Raikes Retiring
2009: He would be succeeded in that same role by Juniper Networks’ COO Stephen Elop.
Search in Pictures: Jeremy Zawodny Weds, Google’s Mascot, Yahoo’s Clothing Line
2009: The latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more.
New AOL Finance Gains Market Share To Become Top Site
2009: AOL’s new finance site passed Yahoo Finance and MSN Money to become the web’s top finance destination.
January 2007 Update On Google Indexing & Ranking Issues
2007: PageRank updates, supplemental listings, filetype command changes, lost home pages in country-specific results, an update on the disappearing sex blogs, concerns that CSS is being spidered to detect hidden text, duplicate content worries, the Minus 30 penalty and what to do if Google thinks you are a malware site.
More Rounds In The “Is SEO Overrated” Debate
2007: The seemingly never-ending debate continues.
Interview with Ask.com “Head Chef” and CEO Jim Lanzone
2007: On his vision and his role within both Ask and parent company IAC.
Zuula Meta Search Engine
2007: It provided access to search engines in the areas of Web, News, Images, Blogs and Jobs. It displayed results from one search engine, searchers click on another engine tab and it displays results from that one and so on.
SEMPO Board Of Directors Nominations Open
2007: For the 2007-2008 Board Of Directors election.
From Search Marketing Expo (SMX)
Past contributions from Search Engine Land’s Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)
These columns are a snapshot in time and have not been updated since publishing, unless noted. Opinions expressed in these articles are those of the author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.
< January 9 | Search Marketing History | January 11 >
New on Search Engine Land
About the author
Danny Goodwin is Managing Editor of Search Engine Land & SMX. In addition to writing daily about SEO, PPC, and more for Search Engine Land, Goodwin also manages Search Engine Land’s roster of subject-matter experts. He also helps program our conference series, SMX – Search Marketing Expo.
Prior to joining Search Engine Land, Goodwin was Executive Editor at Search Engine Journal, where he led editorial initiatives for the brand. He also was an editor at Search Engine Watch. He has spoken at many major search conferences and virtual events, and has been sourced for his expertise by a wide range of publications and podcasts.
