How to make your website pop-ups visitor-friendly?
While call-to-action popups are one of the most effective techniques for growing e-mail lists and maximizing website conversions, popups are also considered a major annoyance when it comes to user experience. The reason for dissatisfaction mainly lies in the heavy abuse of popup techniques by many internet makreters and website owners. Did you know that recently Google has even "declared a war" against websites that use popups in the manner that hinders user experience? So the question is - how do you use the popup technology in a win-win manner where you meet your marketing goals without annoying your visitors and getting rightly shot down by Google. Here are some tips.
Show popups only to interested visitors
Almost everybody is annoyed by unprofessional brute-force salesmanship. Do not slap your first-time visitors in the face with a full-screen popup that opens immediately after they enter your website. This is exactly how the word popup has gathered its shameful meaning.
Give your visitor what they came for - your main content. And then see what happens. If they show enough interest by spending some time on the page or by scrolling deeply through the content, then you can consider presenting them with your call-to-action. This will ensure that you show your popup only to those visitors that are most interested in your offer. This technique will most likely increase your conversion rates and it is easily done with Engaga's popup tool.
Make your popups easy to close
If you do not want to loose visitors, you must absolutely make sure that your popups are easy to close. The X mark or close button must be big enough and clearly visible both by desktop and mobile users.
Use popups only to provide high value
Make your popups worth the distraction. Most visitors wouldn't mind to see a popup that provides free money. While this is a highly exaggerated example, it is a very good idea to communicate high value within your popup campaigns. Know your visitor and distract them only if you have something of value and relevance to give them. Here are some examples:
- Offer valuable content or advice, for example a free e-book or regular reminders about something your typical visitors are interested in.
- Offer deals and discounts of significant value that would appeal to most of your visitors.
- Notify your visitors about extraordinary opportunities or events that they would most likely be interested in.
- Greet your visitors on holidays and celebrations. Nobody is annoyed by sincere greeting.
Avoid showing the same popup multiple times
If your visitor has closed the popup that means NO. Do not annoy him ho her out of your website by showing the same popup again and again. Also, if visitor has already taken action (e.g. subscribed), they do not need to see the same popup ever again. Engaga's popup builder has this feature built-in and turned on by default.
Consider using slide-ins instead of pop-ups
Slide-ins are popups that do not cover the main content of your website. Instead they slide-in at the bottom or side of your website, creating a good balance between grabbing visitor's attention and providing unhindered user experience as your visitor may continue reading the main content.
Consider using top-bars or bottom-bars
Top and bottom bars are a good way of presenting important information and call to action without covering the main content. Promo bars are very user friendly and as far as we know do not go against any of Google's anti-popup policies. Want to grab attention in a more aggressive manner? Make your promo bars stand out with brighter colors or more attracting pitch.
Make sure your popups are mobile-friendly
Nothing is more annoying than broken popups that cover your mobile screen and do not let you get to the main content. Make sure your popups work well on mobile screens and that users can easily close them.
Avoid popups that cover main content on mobiles
Google is soon going to heavily decrease mobile ranking of websites that use intrusive, screen-covering interstitial popups. Websites that show popups and promos that are full-screen or cover unreasonable amount of the main content will be ranked lower in from 2017. Luckily Engaga is the first popup generating tool that addresses this issue. All our popups automatically show search engine friendly version on small mobile screens without any configuration or trickery. So instead of covering whole screen, Engaga's popups do not cover main content and take reasonable screen space on mobile devices.