October 4, 2024

Popups are OLD SCHOOL! Very OLD SCHOOL, and annoying as ever. You would think that Webmasters (does this title even exist anymore) would know that. I think that Webmasers did know, the new Blogger/WebStar/Director of Web/Whatever Title does not. For some reason there is a resurgence of these popups, especially in the mobile world where their presence is amazingly irritating and annoying.

As a mobile user you find the story you want, tap the link and get ready to scroll. And as you start a pop up asking for you getting on some “list”.

First of all, you may have already signed up so asking over and over is stupid. In fact it shows just how little you care about your visitor. You should know who has been to your website!

Second, as you scroll, and you click you end up going to this “link”. Now you are try to get back to the intended story, and sometimes you end up out of the original publication you went to. Alas once you tap that “yes” you are gone.

If your website is useful, so fascinating I will end up signing up if I want more of it. Especially in more notifications or emails. You should make that available in an un-intrusive way.
Here’s are few spots to consider

At the top,
at the bottom,
maybe the middle

In all cases you already annoy with other ads. But at least they are not mandatory interaction taps or clicks.

So stop with the damn popups that I can’t help but click on whether I want to subscribe or not. That is NOT the interaction you want.

Its a pity that there are no popup blockers built into smartphones as the apps themselves drive the browse. In fact there are also still sites out there that make you turn on popups to visit their site when using your desktop computer. This is all very OLD SCHOOL v1.0 surfing. No reason for it.