Will my popup get my store penalised on mobile?
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Describe your popup as it appears on a phone. The verdict against Google’s intrusive interstitial guidance appears once the four needed answers are in.
- What the popup is forNeeded
- How much of the screen it coversNeeded
- When it opensNeeded
- How it closesNeeded
- Which pages it runs onOptional
Read against Google’s published guidance on intrusive interstitials for mobile search. Google gives no screen percentage; the four shapes are this checker’s reading of “a reasonable amount of screen space”. Your answers stay on the page: they are not sent to us or stored unless you share or email the result yourself, and only an anonymous event that the checker was used is recorded. No store is scanned.
Once it is safe on mobile, see what a store uses to capture email or check the popup can be read.
What the interstitial guidance actually covers
An intrusive interstitial is a mobile popup that covers the page a shopper came for, on arrival or while they read, or that must be dismissed before the page is usable, so a full-screen offer on page load counts and a slim bottom bar with a close button does not.
Read against Google Search Central’s guidance on intrusive interstitials and dialogs. Google publishes no screen percentage and no measure of the ranking effect, so this page quotes neither. To see how a popup looks at phone size before you ship it, try the popup preview.
Google’s guidance on intrusive interstitials is short and deliberately qualitative. These are the pieces of it this checker reads your answers against.
- Intrusive interstitial
- Google’s term for a popup or overlay that gets between a mobile visitor and the content they came for. The guidance names three shapes: one that covers the main content on arrival or while reading, a standalone one that must be dismissed first, and a layout whose top half looks like one.
- Covers the main content
- The test is whether the shopper can still read the page. A slim bar at the edge leaves it readable; a centred box sits over the very text being read, and a full-screen overlay hides all of it, however beautiful it is. There is no published percentage, so this checker asks for the shape rather than a number.
- On arrival
- The moment a shopper lands, typically from a search result. It is the first case the guidance describes, and the one most welcome popups fall into when they open on page load.
- Legal exemption
- Dialogs shown because the law requires them, such as age verification and cookie consent, are named as not intrusive. The exemption covers the legal part only: a discount bolted onto a cookie banner is a marketing popup.
- Easy to dismiss
- Part of the carve-out for banners. On a phone that means a close control a thumb can hit first time: a clear icon in a corner, not a faint link at the bottom. Google gives no size; the 44 by 44 pixel tap target this checker suggests comes from the WCAG enhanced target-size criterion and the major mobile platform guidelines.
Nudgesmart is available on the Shopify App Store. Browse the template library or see what it costs.
Eight mobile popups, read against the guidance
Illustrative setups, not any real store. Every verdict comes from the same rules the checker above applies to your answers.
| Scenario | Covers | Opens | Close | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full-screen welcome offer the moment a product page loads | The whole screen | As soon as the page loads | A clear close button | Likely to count as intrusive |
| Same offer, shrunk to a slim bottom bar | A slim bar at the top or bottom | As soon as the page loads | A clear close button | Outside the guidance |
| Signup box after the shopper scrolls a collection | A box, with the page readable around it | After the shopper scrolls | A clear close button | Borderline |
| Most-of-screen spin wheel after a few seconds | Most of the screen | After a few seconds | A clear close button | Borderline |
| Email gate with no close button on a blog post | Most of the screen | After the shopper scrolls | No way to close it | Likely to count as intrusive |
| Full-screen exit offer with a tiny close | The whole screen | When the shopper looks like leaving | A small or hard to find close | Borderline |
| Upsell after add to cart | Most of the screen | After the shopper taps something | A clear close button | Outside the guidance |
| Full-screen age check on a spirits store | Any | Any | Any | Legally required: carved out |
What this checklist cannot tell you
It reads your description, not your store
Popups are added to a page by script after it loads, so a scan of the page cannot see them. The verdict is only as accurate as the answers you give; check on a real phone that the popup does what you described.
The bands are our reading, not a published line
Google describes intrusive popups in words, not measurements. The four shapes and five timings here are how this checker applies those words, and a borderline answer is borderline precisely because the guidance does not settle it.
Ranking is one signal among many
The guidance says pages with intrusive interstitials may not rank as highly, not that they vanish. A strong page can still rank with one, and a weak page will not rank because it removed one. The larger cost is usually shoppers leaving.
Desktop is judged differently
This checker is about phones, where a popup takes the whole viewport far more easily. A box that is polite on a laptop can be full screen on a phone, which is why the same popup needs checking at both sizes.
Mobile popup and search ranking questions
Will a popup on my Shopify store hurt my Google ranking?
It can on mobile, if it covers the page a shopper came for, straight away or while they read, or if it cannot be closed. Google’s guidance says pages with intrusive interstitials may not rank as highly in mobile search. A slim bar at the top or bottom that closes easily, or a popup that opens because the shopper tapped something, falls outside it.
Are exit-intent popups safe on mobile?
They are gentler than popups on arrival, because they open as the shopper leaves. But phones have no cursor to leave the window, so exit signals on mobile are based on things like a fast scroll back up, and can fire while someone is still reading. Keep a mobile exit popup below full screen.
Do cookie banners and age checks count?
No. Google’s guidance names dialogs shown for a legal obligation, such as cookie consent and age verification, as not intrusive. That only covers the legal part: add a signup form or a discount code to the same dialog and it is judged as a marketing popup.
How big can a mobile popup be?
Google gives no percentage. The carve-out is for banners that use a reasonable amount of the screen and are easy to dismiss. In practice that means a slim bar at the top or bottom with a close button a thumb can hit first time. A centred box is smaller than a full-screen popup but still covers the text in the middle of the screen, so on arrival or mid-read it sits inside what the guidance describes.
Does timing matter as much as size?
Yes. A popup that opens because the shopper tapped something, such as add to cart, is answering them rather than blocking them. One that fills the screen on arrival is the case the guidance was written for. Waiting for a scroll or a few seconds of reading moves most popups out of the riskiest band, though a popup that then covers the text being read is still described by the guidance.
Does this checker scan my store?
No. Popups are injected by script after a page loads, so a page scan cannot see them reliably. You describe your popup and the checker reads that against the guidance. Your answers stay on the page: they are not sent to us or stored unless you share or email the result yourself, and only an anonymous event that the checker was used is recorded.
A popup that waits for the shopper is not the kind the interstitial guidance describes.
Scroll depth, time on page and exit intent are conditions you set per campaign in Nudgesmart, so the popup opens once the shopper is reading.
