Interstitial Google Penalty

[luxer]

As everyone is aware in January Google will be rolling out a new penalty against websites using interstitials such as the Sumome mat.

I have used the Sumome mat over regular smaller popups and increased sign up from 1 percent to 5 percent. So as annoying as it is, it truly does work. That 4 percent difference is huge if you follow up with helpful newsletters that add value to your visitors. As annoying as they are as a visitor they are incredible cash generators when used properly.

My question is this, is there a way to create it in such a way that Google sees it as a request for age verification or cookie usage which they say they will be allowing.

I have also reached out to Noah Kagan who is a connection of mine, he said they are monitoring the situation closely but so far do not have solutions. Perhaps we can come up with a hack?

 

[CCarter]

Wouldn't NOT doing SumoMe WelcomeMats on the first page they land on solve that problem? Doing it on the 2nd page they visit - so the people that do get into your captured list might be a bit more serious than a random person getting a popup on the site they've never visited and start filling out their information? You'll get less, but the people you do get are a bit more serious IMO.

For anyone not aware: Info regarding the penalty

 

[Stephen]

It is not a penalty, it is an algorithm change.

 

[luxer]

Its kind of a penalty disguised as an Algo change.

The conditions for the popup are not set for every visitor (using the frequency bar) and are set to show only once per IP. Yes marketers abuse this type of popup but is due to the fact that it works. That 4 percent change increased email signups to over 200 a day. Was it worth possibly annoying those who bounced right away. Hard to judge this.

Thanks for the helpful Sumome welcome mat alternatives link. Would it be difficult to setup display rules. Ie IOS users do not see the popup? I like the Sumome mat because it is incredibly easy to do A/B testing of what pitches are working and getting the best conversions.

Having it on the second page might be a very good option, and would help with lowering bounce rates and increasing CTR.. hmmm sounds like you may have solved this problem CCarter.

 

[Daedalus]

Is your audience tech savvy? I always wonder about the people that join an email list from a pop up like that. I've just started getting into building email lists and so far I've avoided popups due to user experience, but I didn't think they were that much more effective either.

 

[luxer]

Hey Daedalus, for that site the audience is looking for products. I was never a big believer in popups. I personally detest them. But the risk vs reward on being able to retain and reconnect with the customer ends up being worth it financially. Sure you will have some that bounce, but as long as you can offer them something valuable when you do email them it usually works out well.

Its a numbers game, if you can capture 5 percent of your traffic versus 1 percent. Even at a max churn of 1-3 percent you are still ahead. The real trick is to give them something for their effort, and have your email campaigns setup to recognize when to send follow up emails based on their browsing history and intent.

 

[Stephen]

Its kind of a penalty disguised as an Algo change.

.

It is algorithmic and Google is giving fair notice of their the guidelines so not really a penalty, much the same as Panda and Penguin which are also both mistaken as penalties.

 

[luxer]

Not really trying to argue semantics, you can have this one Stephen.

 

[Stephen]

Yeah, I just one of my geeky pet peeves! ;-)