Google to down-rank websites that aggressively promote mobile apps

Mobile users will soon be able to browse the net free of ads for apps on the websites they visit.

The number of users has increased over time and getting more installs for mobile apps is regarded a sure way for any business to retain viewers.

However, websites that overdo promotion of mobile apps for visitors, risk Google down-ranking them.

Many users find the aggressive popups promoting web apps annoying and have vented their ire against it through social media. Google has finally decided to act to curb the aggressive marketing of mobile apps.

Google will act only on a specific and aggressive popup advertisement that appeared on the mobile screen and usually covered the entire page.

Users have to find a "Close" button on the screen to get rid of such advertisements. Such websites will not be listed as 'mobile-friendly' in Google search rankings. With this step, users will also be discouraged from visiting those websites.

Daniel Bathgate, software engineer, Google Search, said on Google's Webmaster Central Blog, ''Starting today, we'll be updating the Mobile-Friendly Test to indicate that sites should avoid showing app install interstitials that hide a significant amount of content on the transition from the search result page.''

The actual change would take place on 1 November when the websites showing too many obtrusive app-install advertisements would no longer be listed as 'mobile friendly' in Google search results.

According to commentators even though this was a small change, it benefited a larger audience. It needed to be pointed out that Google would not punish sites that use the standard app install banners in Chrome and Safari. Banners  provide a consistent user interface for promoting an app and provided the user with the ability to control their browsing experience.

However, according to Google, webmasters could also use their own implementations of app install banners as long as they did not block searchers from viewing the content of the page. An interesting fact pointed out by TechCrunch was that Google, itself also followed this pattern.