Googles crusade for a mobile-friendly web has already seen it implement the so-called Mobilegeddon – a refinement of its search algorithms that saw non-mobile-friendly websites suffer. Now, it is addressing another bugbear, in the form of full page app install ads.

“When it comes to search on mobile devices, users should get the most relevant answers, no matter if the answer lives in an app or a web page,” said Danial Bathgate, software engineer for Google Search. “However, sometimes a user may tap on a search result on a mobile device and see an app install interstitial that hides a significant amount of content and prompts the user to install an app.

“Our analysis shows that it is not a good search experience and can be frustrating for users because they are expecting to see the content of the web page.”

The search giant is hoping to encourage web-masters to adopt more user-friendly ways of promoting their apps by updating its mobile-friendly test algorithms to spot sites that do this, and classify them as not mobile-friendly.

Google is hoping to smooth this transition by also updating its Mobile Usability report, which developers can use to check how well their site is rated by Google, enabling webmasters to identify the number of pages across their site that have this issue.

Google has also recently changed its search engine to look for content within apps, making it easier for developers to get their applications viewed by people searching for topics that their app specialises in.

From 1 November, any mobile web pages that show a large app install interstitial when a user first arrives from search results will no longer be considered mobile-friendly, and consequently will begin to drop down the Google search results on mobile devices. Other types of interstitial, like ads, should not affect a sites search rankings.