- Google announced changes to its mobile search algorithm effective January 2017 to improve the mobile user experience by downranking pages with intrusive popups. - Many in the industry are discussing the impact on SEO and traffic from Google's "mobile-first" approach and recent algorithm updates that target pages with issues on mobile like popups. - The presentation evaluates removing popups and suffering losses, keeping popups and suffering losses, or implementing a solution like AddShoppers' Shopper Portal - a non-intrusive expanding message that allows users control and was shown to increase conversions and email captures in beta testing compared to popups.

1. Popup Doomsday Crash
Course
Navigating through Google’s update with a mobile-first solution

2. Your presenter
Peter Messmer
Director + Growth at
AddShoppers

3. I. Google’s announcement
II. Current state of popups
III. Industry Chatter
IV. Other issues from this
update
V. AddShoppers Solution
VI. Solution Beta Results
Summary

4. Google’s Announcement
Why are they killing popups…
and what does it mean for you?

5. Here’s what’s up.

6. “Pages that show intrusive
interstitials provide a
poorer experience to users
than other pages where
content is immediately
accessible.” - Google
“After January 10, 2017,
pages where content is not
easily accessible to a user
on the transition from the
mobile search results may
not rank as highly.” - Google
Straight from the horse’s mouth...
Source: https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2016/08/helping-users-easily-access-content-on.html

7. “Showing a popup that covers the main content,
either immediately after the user navigates to a
page from the search results, or while they are
looking through the page.”
What’s an “intrusive interstitial”?
Source: https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2016/08/helping-users-easily-access-content-on.html
Delayed modals too!

8. Some visuals:
Image courtesy of Googlehttps://webmasters.googleblog.com/2016/08/helping-users-easily-access-content-on.html

9. “Our algorithms will eventually
primarily use the mobile version of
a site’s content to rank pages from
that site” - Google
Then, another announcement
Source: https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2016/11/mobile-first-indexing.html

10. Causing a scene
Who else is talking?

11. “MozCast detected a major (106°) spike on
November 10th and another on the 18th. Industry
chatter was high during both periods, with some
suggesting that the second spike was a reversal of
the first update. Google has not confirmed either
event.”
Moz
Source: https://moz.com/google-algorithm-change

12. “...checking pages that dropped
across sites negatively impacted by
the November 10, 2016 update, I
saw a lot of mobile
problems...included popups,
interstitials, render problems, UIs
breaking, thinner and
disorganized content on mobile
urls, and more.”
GSQI
Source: http://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/google-algorithm-update-november-10-2016-mobile-first/
“With the mobile-first index, Google
will index the mobile page as the
canonical url, and if you’re providing a
popup or interstitial, Google can see
that as your primary content.”

13. HubSpot
Source: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/mobile-first-google-index
“While it seems that Google may
continue to build a separate mobile
index...they will flip the indexing from
desktop-first to mobile-first.”
“User experience and engagement
have become increasingly important
signals for search engines...In a
mobile-first world, consider the
experience of that one page, but also
how users travel between pages and
their experience between each step.”

14. This isn’t just a mobile
ranking problem
Knock knock, here are some more issues.

15. What’s at stake
1. SEO rankings -- desktop AND mobile
2. Traffic
3. Email subscribers & revenue
(Remember, you’re already losing 22.5% of your email subscribers
each year, on average.)
1
2
3

16. Enough doom and gloom
already...
What’s the solution?!?!

17. So what can you do?
Remove your mobile popups and suffer from
lower email capture rates.
Keep your mobile popups and suffer from lower
Google rankings.
Introduce a solution that provides the UX Google is
looking for, but doesn’t sacrifice email capture
1
2
3

18. 1. What happens
if you remove
popups?
Loss in email subscribers
and sales.
Current list growth
Look up your current average email list
growth per month. (Example: 5,000)
List growth from modals
Look up how many of those come from
mobile modals. (Example: 2,500)
Calculation
Divide #2 by #1 to get the percentage
of your list growth that’s driven by your
entry modals.
Example: 2,500 / 5,000 = 50%
1
2
3
How much? Calculate it:

19. 2. What happens
if you do nothing?
Potential traffic loss --
remember Panda/Penguin?

20. 3. What happens
if you implement
a solution?
No traffic loss, no email
subscriber loss, potential to
IMPROVE your mobile
conversions.
Average Conversion Rates
by device type
Desktop 4.66%
Tablets 3.89%
Smartphones
1.43% (2.3x
lower than
desktop!)

21. What does a
solution look like?

22. The Shopper
Portal
Knowing that Google is making changes to
mobile SEO rankings Jan. 2017, we created
a solution, not a work-around.
The Shopper Portal is a single solution
for all AddShoppers campaigns to enable
“developer free” promo launches.
With lightweight implementation, it is still just
as pain-free as our other Applications.

23. Why it works
(it’s a bigger solution than just
“replacing mobile popups”)
User controlled
Gesture based swipe & scrolling. Gives
users control of when they see
promotions.
Personalized + Mobile
Friendly
Built with 1:1 personalization. Also has
mobile styled alerts & notifications.
Google friendly
When expanded, the portal only covers
49% of a webpage. The webpage
content is still the main focus.
1
2
3

24. Shopper Portal Beta Results

25. Client A
Instead of popups, this clients’ customers
were greeted by an expanding portal entry
message that prompted them to explore a
holiday gift guide.
Over 5 days the Shopper Portal…
- Lifted their conversion rate 27%
- Made them an extra 47% in total
revenue.

26. Client B
This client used the Shopper Portal for their
2016 holiday shopping season promotion to
grow their database through email
acquisition + increase social engagement
to spread brand awareness.
The Portal helped them…
- Reach over 140k individuals
- Grow their email list by over 5k.

27. Client C
A week prior to the 2016 Black Friday +
Cyber Monday holiday shopping weekend,
our international client A/B tested different
methods for email capture.
The result?
The Shopper Portal captured 8.28%
MORE emails than the popup.

28. Recap
January 10th = D-Day for
mobile popups
Google has switched over to
mobile-first index
1
2
Solution: Remove popups, replace
with non-intrusive platform3

29. To learn more about AddShoppers, visit our
website:
addshoppers.com
Additional Questions? Follow Up?
peter@addshoppers.com
@TheBigCatSays