Everyone is in high-hype after Google released its new mobile rules. No, it does not mean that every mobile site with a pop up will be lower ranked.  No, it does not mean you shouldn’t still be focusing on optimizing your mobile site. It’s all going to be okay…

Google wants to penalize sites that have “take-over” pop ups– pop ups that fill the entire screen, block all content, or position themselves to look like the real webpage even though they are not.  On the flip side, Google will reward the high ranking mobile sites that abide by their standards.  They want mobile friendly popups and engagements that are easily dismissed and positioned. Google will also start marking websites as “mobile-friendly” right in their search pages.

Image from https://webmasters.googleblog.com/

As an automotive dealership, it’s important that you recognize what this means. Check your mobile engagements.  And if you rely on a vendor for this, confirm with them that your site is in good shape.  If your engagements don’t fit the qualifications, your automotive website can be getting to low ranks and the rampant mobile user will not find your dealership website.

Here’s a quick summary of our latest post in Dealer Magazine– the best practices for a mobile friendly pop up:

1. Fat-Finger Friendly: Make the fields big and easy to fill out.  Being fat-finger friendly is crucial when engaging mobile users. You should also limit your fields- the fewer the fields to fill out, the more likely you’ll get a visitor to convert into a lead. Just remember, don’t let the fields take over the entire page of content. Find the right medium.
2. Size does matter:  Create new creative with optimized dimensions and sizes for your mobile pop ups. Fitting the sizes to a mobile screen will affect the mobile browsing experience.  If your pop up or chat box isn’t optimized, Google will see this as a strike-out. A nice way to get around this would be to position your pop up as a banner on top or a slider in the corner.  The text size also matters in this case.  If you’re using a text size or font that you have to zoom in to read, Google will no longer consider you mobile friendly.
3. The infamous “x” button: Make your pop ups easy to exit.  If you don’t have a clear “x” or “no thanks” button, you’ll probably be marked as spam by Google.  Don’t lock the website visitors into a commitment to convert.  It wasn’t really going to help you, and now it certainly won’t.
4. Nix the add-ons: If you have applications like Flash on your mobile site, take them out! This is not compatible with the new standards and will highly affect the ratings. For the dealerships that are using “click-to-calls” and live chat boxes, make sure you don’t have to download anything funky to engage your mobile visitors.

No need to freak out- Google will not punish you for having pop ups on your site.  In fact, Google will probably reward you if you have a compliant mobile pop up- so keep up the good work! For Google’s official guidelines, click here.

Want to optimize your dealership’s mobile site within Google’s qualifications? Tweet at @autoleadstar