An interstitial ad is an advertisement that appears between two content pages on a website, often obscuring the main content and requiring user interaction to dismiss it.
Interstitial ads are common, particularly among news sites, but they can negatively impact page experience because:
- They interrupt the user's browsing flow, leading to a poor user experience.
- They can increase page load times, especially on mobile devices.
- They may cause users to bounce from the site, decreasing engagement and conversions.
- Google's algorithms consider intrusive interstitials as a negative factor in search rankings.
Google considers interstitial ads to be “best suited for apps with linear user experiences.“