How to Improve Your Website User Experience

Best Practices

Enhancing your website’s user experience (UX) involves making sure that your site is user-friendly and adheres to Google’s guidelines. A key aspect of this is avoiding intrusive interstitials and dialogs. This guide will help you understand how to create non-intrusive dialogs and avoid common mistakes.

Key Aspects to Consider

1. Intrusive Interstitials* and Dialogs:

  • These elements block users from viewing content, often for promotional purposes. They can cover the entire page or a portion of it.

2. Impact of Intrusive Dialogs:

  • Interrupting users with intrusive interstitials can frustrate them and erode trust in your site. It also makes it harder for search engines like Google to understand your content, which can negatively impact your search rankings.

3. Creating Non-Intrusive Dialogs:

  • Ensure that users can access your content without being interrupted by dialogs. This is especially important for promotional dialogs like app install prompts.

4. Using Banners:

  • Instead of full-page interstitials, use banners that occupy only a small portion of the screen. These can effectively capture attention without being disruptive. You can implement banners using browser-supported features or simple HTML.

5. Using Common Libraries:

  • Many content management systems (CMS) offer plugins that create standard dialogs and interstitials for common purposes, such as newsletter sign-ups. Using these plugins can help maintain consistency and improve recognition by search engines.

6. Avoiding Common Mistakes:

  • Unless legally required, avoid covering the entire page with interstitials or redirecting users to separate pages for consent or input.

7. Mandatory Interstitials:

  • Some websites, like those with age-restricted content, must use interstitials. In these cases, follow best practices by overlaying the content rather than redirecting incoming HTTP requests to a different page for collecting consent or data.
*An interstitial is a web page or pop-up that appears on a website, either before or after another page, or within a page as a user scrolls. Interstitials can be used for a variety of purposes, including advertising, lead generation, or to display important messages or regulatory information. For example, interstitials can be used to confirm a user’s age before showing age-restricted content, or to obtain consent to store cookies.