Exit Popups Impact On SEO

[MBASydney]

Hi looking for any research on the impact of using exit popups (when a visitor is exiting the site), and the impact on it from SEO perspective.

Regards,

Mike

[DennisSeymour]

it's just about the code and how it's applied on your site but mostly it's not that big of a deal unless you are running a huge site. Try out Ron said though if you have time.

[Ron_McCabe]

In general terms the effectiveness and the SEO effect related to the pop up is all about how you implement it. As referred to in this article http://unbounce.com/conversion-rate-optimization/conversion-heroes-chris-goward/

A pop up is employed by the NYT newspaper that is on the side that draws you into something more interesting thereby increasing their chances of conversion without damaging the brand or upsetting the person experiencing the pop up. This is not likely to have an SEO impact as this will not cause traffic to exit the site as quickly as possible and the user is more likely to return.

The other end of the spectrum is what i'll call the "As seen on TV" popup.  These tend to be minor brands that do not care or even think someone will come back again.  They know they have one shot and they want to convert at any cost. This type of pop up is more akin to a thug standing in the doorway.  It is very invasive and makes it very hard to leave the web site without buying anything.  Some people may not mind this but most people will.  This type of approach is going to return a negative user experience which will track to your site performance and may affect your SEO.  If Google flags your site and does a manual check your site will probably be downgraded.

So in my opinion the trick is to figure out what the fine line is between being so unobtrusive that the popup is ineffective and being so invasive that you get what you want on conversion but lose a customer or referral.

Here are some things you may want to consider doing with the page and the pop up as you implement it.

1. I would use a tool like Optimizely to optimize the page itself before implementing the pop up. You may be able to get an acceptable conversion rate without implementing the pop up.

2. If you still need to implement the pop up I would set up several off line variations along with the optimized page without pop up.  I would use a paid service like Ask My target Market ( http://aytm.com ) to get feedback from a target group that fits your visitor profile.  If there is not a conclusive result or if there is a lot of feedback that initiates changes I would consider making modifications based on the first survey and running a second survey.

3. I would then use Optimizely again to set up a series of scenarios based on what you have learned so far to test on paid traffic.  I would set up a simple advertising campaign that will drive clicks to these off line pages. Again based on responses and conversion rates I would make a another set of modifications.

4. Finally I would test the winning scenario on your live page and monitor your conversions. based on how the traffic converts you may want to consider doing anther set of A/B testing on the page itself.

There are extra steps in here to avoid a negative impact to your target market. Based on the value of your brand, market size, and product price point you will need to evaluate how aggressive you want to be in each of these steps.

The main pice of input I would give is that it is important to test multiple scenarios and follow the measurable numbers. What we think the result should be is not what people actually do. Remember if you can't measure it; it is not true ;).