HAVING A POPUP WINDOW ON HOMEPAGE AFFECTS SEO?
-
Good evening,
I currently have a blog that uses a popup window after 15 seconds that is used to add visitor to my newsletter.
My question is : Does it have a negative effect in SEO?
Thanks in advance
Maria Jesus
-
I'd say it has a negative effect on SEO as SEO is also to do with user experience. moneysavingexpert.com used to have a pop-up that appeared just after the site loaded and blacked out the whole of the rest of the screen - I found it hugely annoying; just as I'd started to read the content it disappeared and I had to close something to continue reading. If I didn't already know the site was genuine I would have thought it was dodgy and pressed back or close straight away.
I'm not 100% sure but I think it was the owner of daniweb.com who said she introduced something similar to encourage people to sign up to her forum. Her bounce rate increased dramatically so she took it off as soon as she realised, and the bounce rate recovered. Bounce rate is something that can be measured by the search engines, along with other metrics related to user experience that will be taken into account when calculating the ranking of a page.
Alan's idea, to do something more subtle, is a good one. If it was unique and done really well, you might even get extra links because of it, rather than potentially less links as Matt Cutts suggested in the video Ryan linked to.
-
I find that as long as it does not repeat,or block content, move main content, it would be ok.
even a quck glow.
I dont believe that you can change peoples minds much, you can only suggest. If they are not interested, the the hard sell will only anger.
Internet customers are like rabbits approching food, anything suss or the slightest wrong move, and they are out of there.
After all your compedtors are only a few clicks away
What I rerally hate are these walk on videos
http://www.mediastreams.ca/servicepackages/custom_walkon_video.htma lot fast moeny SEO's have them
-
There's a creative idea Alan! You can have a bird move on the page after a few seconds and "land" on the content you wish the reader to see. The implementation would be key. Done correctly, it would be just a tiny bit of movement to catch a reader's attention. On the other hand, it could be done in an annoying manner as well.
-
As others have stated, its a bit in your face to the user.
May i suggest rather then a pop-up, just insert it somewhere un-obtrusive, after a few seconds, a simple bit of movement is all that is needed, and it would not stop the user from reading your content
-
Thanks Ryan. I like your more detailed answer on user experience, spot on!
-
I agree with Simon. Prior to Panda pop ups had no effect on SEO. You can hear Matt Cutts share this directly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_0WI75X4U4
I would add that many users perceive pop-ups to be unfriendly, and in our post-Panda world it may be a ranking factor. I would suggest taking a close look at how users perceive the popup. Find a way to sit people down in front of a pc and get them to visit your site. Watch their reactions to the popups. If 2-3 of the react negatively then take that as a strong indicator and consider it surely is a negative user experience and could be a negative panda factor.
-
Hi Maria, this usually has absolutely no effect at all on SEO, though can't be completely sure without seeing it and your website. The main consideration with such pop ups is User Experience rather than SEO. Hope that helps, Simon
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
In seo is it nesseccary ro optimize images as well?
Is it right Image optimization creates many advantages such as better user experience, faster page load times, and additional ranking opportunities. And, it's becoming an increasingly more important role in the website? Because I start a blog https://coinmasterfreespinslinks.com/ and need your suggestions seniors. Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | adsdsadsacd0 -
Removing navigation menu items/links on homepage
We are redesigning our website after a long stint with an SEO firm who also handled our design/dev. We want to clean up the links on our homepage but don't want to screw up our IA or SEO. We want to delete some navbar menu items and a whole bunch on random links to our evergreen content below the fold. Would we need to reposition those navbar items/content links to our footer or somewhere else on the homepage to maintain our internal linking structure? It would be great if you could take a look at our site and give us any suggestions or advice on the best way to go about this. Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | Lorne_Marr1 -
Yoast SEO plugin
I love Yoast's WP plugin, but is there one of comparable quality that analyzes for more than one KW at a time?
On-Page Optimization | | SSFCU0 -
SEO targeted text on Mobile Site Version
Hey Mozzers, I run SEO for a retail site www.uncommongoods.com. We are building a mobile version of our site on m.uncommongoods.com On each of the category pages of www.uncommongoods.com, we have included a few lines of text at the bottom of the page to get some of our target keywords into the body. As an example, if you look at this page: http://www.uncommongoods.com/office/journals-stationery/journals You'll see this copy at the bottom: "Find unique journals and diaries at UncommonGoods. Our creative journal gifts are great for marking special occasions with sentimental keepsakes." We are debating whether or not to remove this copy on the category pages of our mobile site, just to keep the pages as clean as possible. Would there be any risk in leaving this out ? Thanks for your help on this! -Zack
On-Page Optimization | | znotes0 -
SEO Title Tag Best Practice?
Hi, I would like to know if appending site name at the end of page title ( page title -_ Site Name/Site URL_ ) is a good/bad practice in reference to SEO? If a good practice which is better ( Site Name or Site URL )? Example: 20 Things you didn't know about zombies - coed.com Thanks in advance
On-Page Optimization | | COEDMediaGroup0 -
Are sliding text SEO friendly?
Hi mozzers, I am wondering if sliding text SEO friendly such as this webpage: http://www.questexchange.org/?s=faq If it isn't is there a way to make it SEO Friendly? Thank you!
On-Page Optimization | | Ideas-Money-Art1 -
N/A For On-page SEO Report
I have 8 errors and 44 warnings last week. Over the week, I corrected broken links, duplicate titles, meta tags, and duplicate page content. Now after it was run again, I'm getting an N/A. Does N/A mean there are NO errors at all on the site? I didn't fix all of the errors and warnings but most I did. My website is also up and running. Please let me know if I'm missing something or if I did that good of a job for my client's on-page SEO stuff, which I doubt despite moving the needle forward. Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | JQC0 -
Do you ever forget the SEO basics?
We all get a little sloppy at times. Just yesterday , someone pointed out that I accidentally blocked the robots from one of our primary pages, because it was being included in a wildcard match on one of the disallow commands in robots.txt. Sometimes the mistakes are very basic. The one below is just too funny. I thought I would share the love. Search Google for "MD care" MD Care Inc. - Welcome<a id="LXPLSS_979677678U1">
On-Page Optimization | | irvingw</a> <cite>www.mdcarehealthplan.com/</cite> This is an SEO description that will be seen by the search engines and used in the search results. The meta keywords tag is even funnier: <meta name="keywords" content="spam,the,keywords,here,like,this,and this,good" />
2