Google’s Mobile Interstitial & Popup Change Now Live: What to Know
Google’s change that would see pages devalued for using popups and interstitials for mobile users coming the Google search results is now live. This means if you are showing either popups or interstitials to Google traffic, that your pages will be downranked in the Google search results. Here are the changes and what you need to now.
Mobile traffic only
Google is only applying this change to mobile searches only. So you can still use interstitials on desktop without issue unless you have a desktop-only site. In those cases, because the desktop version is the mobile version, expect those pages to not rank as highly.
Only clicks from Google count
Sites can still use popups and mobile interstitials for the second page view from a Google referral. Google only looks at the page as a searcher sees it when they arrive from Google for their first pageview. Likewise, if a searcher arrives from another non-Google traffic source, then site owners are free to show interstitials and popups to that traffic on the first pageview.
Also, don’t forget that when you view to see what your competitors are doing, that you need to check their sites via a Google search referral, as they might also
Source: https://managewp.org/articles/14176/google-s-mobile-interstitial-popup-change-now-live-what-to-know
source https://williechiu40.wordpress.com/2017/01/11/googles-mobile-interstitial-popup-change-now-live-what-to-know/