Option 2: Dynamically Load the Modal Content in After a User ActionThis is the “AJAX”-style approach. In this case, the content may not be indexed as part of the page because search engines will not take that user action to trigger it loading.Depending on how it’s loaded, this could also cause other issues.I’ve seen some sites that have all their modals as separate .html files that are then dynamically loaded on a user click.Not only did Google not associate this content with the page, they actually indexed the separate .html pages containing that modal content – which aren’t really an ideal spot for users to enter a site.In that case, we had to re-examine how we coded the modals, or at least get creative with robots.txt, nofollow, and noindex tags (again, a topic for another post.)A good way to test both of these methods would be to disable JavaScript and view the source of your site in a browser. If you can see the modal text in the HTML source, then so can search engines.In most cases, I advise clients to use modals and popups and overlays as sparingly as possible.A commonly acceptable use is for viewing an image at a larger size, or for content that doesn’t require a new page load but isn’t related to the page content – like a login box, tooltip, legal disclaimer, etc.Other Considerations to Keep in MindDoes the modal load automatically or when a user clicks it?Is there a set time frame before it pops up?Does it pop up on every page?All of these things could potentially harm performance and conversion rates, as well as SEO – if they’re deemed to be annoying or intrusive like an ad.

Option 2: Dynamically Load the Modal Content in After a User ActionThis is the “AJAX”-style approach. In this case, the content may not be indexed as part of the page because search engines will not take that user action to trigger it loading.Depending on how it’s loaded, this could also cause other issues.I’ve seen some sites that have all their modals as separate .html files that are then dynamically loaded on a user click.Not only did Google not associate this content with the page, they actually indexed the separate .html pages containing that modal content – which aren’t really an ideal spot for users to enter a site.In that case, we had to re-examine how we coded the modals, or at least get creative with robots.txt, nofollow, and noindex tags (again, a topic for another post.)A good way to test both of these methods would be to disable JavaScript and view the source of your site in a browser. If you can see the modal text in the HTML source, then so can search engines.In most cases, I advise clients to use modals and popups and overlays as sparingly as possible.A commonly acceptable use is for viewing an image at a larger size, or for content that doesn’t require a new page load but isn’t related to the page content – like a login box, tooltip, legal disclaimer, etc.Other Considerations to Keep in MindDoes the modal load automatically or when a user clicks it?Is there a set time frame before it pops up?Does it pop up on every page?All of these things could potentially harm performance and conversion rates, as well as SEO – if they’re deemed to be annoying or intrusive like an ad.