Everybody hates pop-up ads, especially on a mobile device where they block the screen. But small businesses and others use them because the ads bring in money. Google doesn’t care about your revenue. It cares about easy access to content. So, in four months, on Jan. 10, 2017, Google says it will knock down your website’s rank in search results if you subject visitors to intrusive pop-ups. Here are a few examples of what Google considers intrusive from the August, 23, 2016 announcement on its webmaster blog:
You will be spared if your web content is awesome:
“The intent of the search query is still a very strong signal, so a page may still rank highly if it has great, relevant content,” wrote Google in its post.
Make sure yours do!