Bad Popup. Look At What You Did!

Bad PopupWebsite popups. Arts marketers use them to gather much needed patron contact info but they can do more damage than good when applied in a ham-handed way. If you’ve been willing to run that risk, you should know that Google decided to make you an offer you can’t refuse in order to get you back on the right path.

Simply put, google is starting to ramp up search rank penalties if your organization’s website serves certain types of popups on mobile devices. In short, if you use the same type of popup on mobile that you do for desktop (one that blocks content until the user converts or clicks past), you’re going to get penalized in the form of showing up lower on search results.

I published an article at ArtsHacker that provides everything you need to know to tell if your site is using good or bad popups. If you end up in the latter group, it also provides what you need to begin fixing them.

Why That Popup You Want So Badly Is Probably Hurting Your Search Rank

About Drew McManus

"I hear that every time you show up to work with an orchestra, people get fired." Those were the first words out of an executive's mouth after her board chair introduced us. That executive is now a dear colleague and friend but the day that consulting contract began with her orchestra, she was convinced I was a hatchet-man brought in by the board to clean house.

I understand where the trepidation comes from as a great deal of my consulting and technology provider work for arts organizations involves due diligence, separating fact from fiction, interpreting spin, as well as performance review and oversight. So yes, sometimes that work results in one or two individuals "aggressively embracing career change" but far more often than not, it reinforces and clarifies exactly what works and why.

In short, it doesn't matter if you know where all the bodies are buried if you can't keep your own clients out of the ground, and I'm fortunate enough to say that for more than 15 years, I've done exactly that for groups of all budget size from Qatar to Kathmandu.

For fun, I write a daily blog about the orchestra business, provide a platform for arts insiders to speak their mind, keep track of what people in this business get paid, help write a satirical cartoon about orchestra life, hack the arts, and love a good coffee drink.

Related Posts