Google: App Interstitials That Hide Signficant Amount Of Content Will Not Rank Well In Mobile Search Results

Google announced that app interstitial ads that covers a “significant amount of content” on your page will be considered NOT mobile-friendly and thus not rank as well as mobile-friendly web pages.

Google said this will kick in on November 1, 2015 but that the mobile-friendly testing tools will show them as not mobile friendly today. Google wrote:

After November 1, mobile web pages that show an app install interstitial that hides a significant amount of content on the transition from the search result page will no longer be considered mobile-friendly. This does not affect other types of interstitials. As an alternative to app install interstitials, browsers provide ways to promote an app that are more user-friendly.

Here is a picture of what app interstitials make your web page not mobile-friendly:

Here is an app interstitial that will still be mobile-friendly according to Google:

So the native Apple supported Smart Banners and Google Chrome supported App Install Banners are all mobile friendly with Google. It is just the big ones that cover a significant portion of your content that are not mobile friendly.

Make sure to test your pages that have app interstitial to see if they pass the mobile friendly test or check out the mobile usability test as well. These two tools will show you immediately if you have problems with ranking and app interstitials.

Go to our Google mobile friendly page to learn more about the mobile friendly algorithm.

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