Is google penalizing for PopUps

[needsomehelp]

I am trying to figure out why several of my sites have dropped over 100 positions in the last update. the only correlation between these sites and sites that have not dropped are popups.

Is google enforcing some sort of penalty for using PopUps?

[Mike_Mackin]

Not that I know for sure BUT were they exit PopUps fed from another site?

[Dino_M]

Lets hope so

[nutsandbolts]

Let's hope not

[needsomehelp]

Where they exit Popups fed from another site?

No, one was an Exit PopUp fed from the same site and the other was a click on PopUp from same site.

[john316]

The google ceo does not like popups.

Stop scaring users [internetnews.com]

Maybe google is filtering to avoid scaring the searcher. It could be a policy to enhance the google experience.

[needsomehelp]

Good article. Thanks.

What is the consensus? Could this by why my rankings have been so negatively affected?

[jdMorgan]

Is google enforcing some sort of penalty for using PopUps?

No, but users and other webmasters are!

Voluntary (opt-in, click-on) popups are OK by me, but I won't link to a site with "automatic" pop-ups. IMHO, they are rude. Why abuse your visitors? If you do, can you honestly expect them to come back?

The trend in new browsers is to include a pop-up-killer function, so the writing is on the wall for pop-ups. Nothing personal here, folks - I wish you all success, but please do read that wall! :)

Jim

[Dino_M]

Google want to provide quality results that keep the user happy, sites with popups / popunders are not going to make users happy, therefore they give lower rankings to sites with popup/popunders? It wouldn't supprise me at all.

Anyone else's site got a beating for having these type of adds?

[heretic]

We had a nice discussion about this where I was suggesting that Google penalize sites with popups...hmmm...quite a few people disagreed with me...could it be they saw it? :)

naaah...

[nutsandbolts]

No - all of mine improved this update. I use pop-unders simply because it's the only way to pay the bandwidth bills.

[needsomehelp]

Maybe you did not get filtered this update.

[heretic]

I've always wondered if they were at all effective those popups and popunders?

I know some products/services that I have banned from my life because of their appearance as popup/popunder...

I tend to think for the most part they don't work well at all. I rarely click banners at all, but ups and unders I avoid altogether...and view very negatively...

But I checked out your site...no offense but it's definitely not the kind of site I would ever visit...maybe for your target market it works? What kind of traffic do you get, in terms of quantity and personality type? Do you have any interactive sections to your site?

[rfgdxm1]

Dunno if Google has started penalizing sites for pop-ups, but from what their CEO said it seem like this is something Google may well do.

[Dino_M]

They could kill the popup problem in one update!

[heretic]

Well this should be easy to check...did Yahoo's PR go down? ;)

[curlykarl]

Google definetly does not like pop ups / unders / exit pop ups etc.

I have tried to post the contents of an email I received from google, telling me that my adwords campaign has been suspended due to popups but it was edited out.

Anyone interested in the contents, should sticky me for the exact details.

All popups from all of my sites have now been removed, I have seen a good rise this update on all sites, I assume this is due to lack of popups, maybe? maybe not?

CurlyKarl

:-)

[nutsandbolts]

If Yahoo! and Dictionary.com go down a Pagerank then you know it's serious ;)

curlykarl: That's just one of the rules when you advertise with Adwords. Has always been like that...

[edited by: nutsandbolts at 4:00 pm (utc) on Nov. 1, 2002]

[needsomehelp]

Feel free to chime in GoogleGuy :)

[rfgdxm1]

The pop-up penalty wouldn't (and, shouldn't) effect PR. However, as it has been stated here many time there is a lot more to the algo than just PR. It would be easy to assign a penalty to pages with pop-ups in the algo.

[ikbenhet1]

Maybe we're only allowed to have popups if we're pr>6 .

[europeforvisitors]

The New York Times, the Washington Post, and other large companies use popups or popunders, and they haven't incurred penalties. (Both the Times and the Post are PR 9, and About.com--which has been known to launch three popups or popunders from a single page--has a PR of 8.)

As much as I'd like to see Google apply a "weighting factor" for things like popups (and maybe excessive download times, too), I don't think that will happen as long as big commercial sites are among the sinners. Google's credibility would suffer if it arbitrarily stripped PageRank from the Washington Post or the New York Times.

[heretic]

haha...dictionary.com? screw 'em...but yahoo generates a lot of revenue for Google. I can be all high and mighty and say penalize 'em, but I know if I were google, there is no way in hell I'd have the guts to bite the hand that feeds me...and it is only proper for them not to touch that one with a 10 foot pole.

So I would bet that google has a penalty but exempts yahoo...and we can expect not to hear a peep from anyone at google officially, because people will cry foul if everyone but yahoo gets a penalty. So we can just speculate....either way re: this development, me likey :)

[Dino_M]

As much as I'd like to see Google apply a "weighting factor" for things like popups (and maybe excessive download times, too), I don't think that will happen as long as big commercial sites are among the sinners. Google's credibility would suffer if it arbitrarily stripped PageRank from the Washington Post or the New York Times

a weighting factor against popup/popunders would not be the same as stripping PageRank!

Google's credibility would only suffer if due to the addition of a weighting against popup/unders they started to return poorer search results.

Also why would cheeking yahoo PR let you know if they had put in something against pop ups/unders in the algo?

I'm confused PR is a part of the algo not the whole thing!

[heretic]

Hey Europe...you posted while I was typing...good info there..

But, Google lose credibility for penalizing them? Not a chance...they'd GAIN a tone of credibility for having the guts to do that. The ones that lose credibility are those huge sites who have the gall to assault us like that. About.com? Take 'em down to 7. Even AOL finally realized that popups are bad.

[nipear]

penalizing for pop-ups would kill a huge revenue source and advertising median on the internet. It will never happen. As many of you know pop ups actually work for insite promotions as well as for advertising.

We use pop ups only for insite promotions and they work 5x better than insite banners.

Not being able to use adwords bothers us, but the response and ability to move traffic to the areas of our site that give us high conversions and high margins is critical for the success of our online business.

[europeforvisitors]

heretic wrote:

But, Google lose credibility for penalizing them? Not a chance...they'd GAIN a tone of credibility for having the guts to do that. The ones that lose credibility are those huge sites who have the gall to assault us like that.

Well, The New York Times and the Washington Post are excellent sites, and I wouldn't question their credibility as news sources just because their ad salespeople are desperate to make a buck. :-)

I visit both sites daily--but I turn on my popup filter before I do!

[rfgdxm1]

>penalizing for pop-ups would kill a huge revenue source and advertising median on the internet. It will never happen. As many of you know pop ups actually work for insite promotions as well as for advertising.

Google's interest is more the searchers, not the webmasters with pop-ups.

[needsomehelp]

It seems that it would be simple for Google to create a group of high profile sites that would not be effected by a filter.

[rfgdxm1]

True, Google could whitelist sites that use pop-ups if they thought they were exceptions to the rule.