Pop Up Advertisement - Bad for SEO?

[kchandler]

So i have been working with a company running their SEO for close to two years now. Since i started to engage with them they have always used a very simple pop up for the first time an end user visits their website (via javascript and cookies). The pop up simply ask them if they would like to download a solutions brochure  from their website. So as far as pop ups go, it is at least relevant. The client loves this pop up, i do not.

For a while we have always held spots #1-3 for a lot of our keywords but we have started to drop to lower on the first page. So i have been researching to see if some of the new algorithm changes are targeting sites with this type of functionality. If i have some data i could definitely get them to remove it. So the question is, do pop-ups hurt your organic ranking?

Thanks for the input!

• Kyle

[kchandler]

Good point on the a/b testing, perhaps i move forward with that first to help build some data to support my case. I agree to the end user pop-ups are terrible but i am still intrigued if any data supports it is terrible for SEO?

[Raydon]

I would generally stay away from pop ups as much as possible. Consider user experience. Do you like pop ups? even if its a totally legit chat or form window. How about the guy on mobile or with a slower mobile?

from a conversion rate and bounce rate stand point, pop ups typically work against you, regardless of their use.

HOWEVER, obviously the more popular and unique that particular resource on the net, the less this negative impact. ie Yahoo or Google using a pop up is one thing, vs. your small biz site. user reactions do differ based on who it is, and what is being pop up.

if you want to do a test, i suggest using optimizely for A/B testing and seeing how the two compare instead of risking ruining your live stats big time for a test that may end up not being worth all the damage it may cause.

[kchandler]

Good call rick, i will check out the stats and let you know what i find.

[Chris.Menke]

Kyle,

It is possible that it could impact your search results if the pop up is increasing your bounce rate.  Can you compare current bounce rates of new visitors before with that from before the implementation?  If it's not that, I wouldn't consider the pop up to be an issue.