Google’s Continuous Scroll can Impact SEO //

Google added continuous scroll desktop search results in December. SEO professionals anticipated the impact of the move immediately.

This article will provide insights into continuous scroll’s relevance and potential impact on the search experience. It also discusses how SEOs can adapt to it.

To scroll or to click? It’s not the right question!

Continuous scroll, as I see it is, signals a departure from the old “page” metaphor.

Since the 1990s, webpages has been used as if websites were printed on paper. Despite 20 years of technological advancement, this flawed metaphor persists even in Google’s SERPs. It might soon disappear.

Scrolling is a common feature of the internet today. Scrolling is the easiest way to navigate websites. Most webpages extend “below” the fold.

This is why scroll users have been able to enjoy a more consistent experience in recent years. By doing this, web content can be loaded as the user scrolls, thus the name ” infinite Scroll.”

It’s technically not infinite, since the scroll lasts as long as there is content. Instead, “continuous scroll” is the correct term.

This approach is used by most social media platforms to offer users an endless stream of content, which can be addictive. People are increasingly using Freedom to block infinite scroll sites and eliminate distractions while working.

Some publishers have even begun to combine pagination and scrolling approaches. Users are presented with a new article after they reach the end if they read a post.

SEO heavily depends on page metaphors to assign keywords to specific pieces of content.

DuckDuckGo and other smaller search engines have served search results without pagination since quite a while.

The user must click on “More Results” to see additional organic SERPs.

It is much easier to scroll than click. It’s just psychology.

It’s easier to continue moving in the direction you already have started than to stop and do something else.

“The best place to hide an unclaimed body …’

It is no secret that searchers click only on Google’s Page 1 results.

SEO professionals have a joke about the small chance of being found on Page 2.

“Page 2 of Google’s search results is the best place to hide a body dead.”

Oh! Think about all the dead bodies that have been hidden on pages two over the years. They will soon all be discovered.

SEO experts joke that Google may not be able to recognize the importance of the “page” metaphor in search results. Let’s look at the data and learn from our experience.

We have seen over the years studies that analyze click distribution in search results, and user experience tests to see how scrolling (or the fold) affects page elements’ visibility and usability.

The top organic result, which is between 20 and 40%, gets the most attention and clicks. However, the second and third results still receive double-digit percentages. It’s over half of all clicks.

What about the rest of this page? The rest of the page?

The majority of click distribution studies showed that clicks only 2% to 9% are generated by the rest of the results.

Above the fold: Truth and myth?

The idea of “above-the-fold” is a concept that has its roots in traditional newspapers. Newspapers were large enough that they could be folded in half and carried around on their own.

Passersby were able to see the headlines by casually scanning them and placed the most important news stories on the first page.

Many website owners began to apply the same rules to online content after the metaphors of the page and the front page were moved to the internet.

Is “above the fold” only applicable to newspapers? There are many opinions.

Experts believe that it is vital to place the most important elements at the top of the page so they are visible without scrolling. This is similar to traditional newspapers’ “above the fold” concept.

Others believe that the fold is a myth because most people scroll down to see the rest of the webpage.

Experts, regardless of whether they agree or disagree with the idea, agree that landing pages and homepages should be as large as possible.

This is because 80% of website visitors won’t see more than one page and will return to the site without clicking anything.

A combined solution is the best option. It displays the most important elements (i.e. value proposition, CTA and contact) above the fold while the rest of the content can be seen on scroll, without having to rely on clicks to other webpages.

Designers can even add fancy effects to enhance the experience of scrolling through pages or content.

This is apparently the same approach Google uses for search results.

Google needed more space in order to push organic results down the SERP, given the growing clutter over the years.

What will the impact of continuous scrolling on search experience and SEO?

Continuous scrolling can have many possible impacts on the search experience in Google and therefore SEO practices.

Here are some suggestions from me and other SEO professionals discussing the topic of change.

There are no more “Page 1” results

Let’s begin with the obvious. There won’t be a page 1 anymore.

SXO strategist Lucas ROgala makes it funny

• “Now everyone can rank on [the] top page.”

Andrew Prince, Wayfair’s senior SEO analyst, said it more clearly

• “This could end the “we want to rank at Page 1” requests, since there will be 6 pages of results while scrolling down.

You will see more results

Because of the convenience, it’s more likely that people will scroll down further than usual to see the top 10 organic results.

This conclusion is supported by Areej AbuAli (technical SEO, founder of Crawlina),

• “Humans are scrollers in nature.” This is good news, and it will likely translate into higher click-through rates on lower ranking domains.

The attention of the top three may be lost

The top three results currently account for the majority of organic clicks. While this won’t change much in the near future it could be that their dominance may diminish.

This has been possible over the years due to:

• Additional features
• Various page elements.
• You can find more content types.

The inverted pyramid of click distribution has been diluted by this expansion. Click heat maps showed a bias towards the number one spot in Google search results, when more than 40% clicked there.

As Backlinko, Sistrix click through rate studies have shown, the top organic spot now earns approximately 28% of clicks.

People might become more comfortable scrolling down and less on the top results due to the extra options.

You will find more ads and features at the top

Google has more space for ads and special features than other search engines, so it is easier to push organic results down.

You can expect to see more of the special features at the top, as they cannot be displayed properly below continuous scroll results.

Even though they have infinite scroll functionality, websites with footers can be a nightmare to use. To reach a footer link, users must chase the disappearing footer and click it.

We may not see as many ads or features in organic results. They can be placed anywhere Google will. The “middle” section before the next section, which was previously displayed as a separate webpage.

Tobiasz Szlek , SEO manager, expects will see a lower CTR due to this:

• “… We should expect to see more zero-click search results as Google will present more information directly on the result pages …”

One website may have fewer or more result groups

You could have two results on Page 1 or 2 or two different results on pages.

You might see two results for the same website if you change the display settings to 10 results per pages to 100. This is despite them often being displayed more than a few places apart. For example, an article ranking 9th will be combined with one ranking 55th.

It will be fascinating to see how Google handles this issue. These combined result clusters might become more common in the beginning, but they will be less frequent once Google adjusts their relevance to the new reality that continuous scrolling presents.

Why? Let’s face it, just because there is a second result on the same site doesn’t necessarily mean that it is more helpful than the first.

SEO experts can still optimize and adapt.

How can we as content creators, publishers, and SEO practitioners adapt? It all depends on the impact.

These changes can be made to your SEO strategy and long-term content marketing plans, based on past developments.

Concentrate on the lowest-hanging fruits that could rank in the top 3.

It is still recommended to rank in the top 3 and not “Page 1”, “Top 10”, or “Top 10”. Without pages, the former is useless.

It’s better to optimize pages that rank low for keyphrases and find those fruits before they reach the top 3.

Page titles will help you stand out in search engine results pages

It’s becoming more difficult to stand out among the many organic results that people are going to be looking at in the near future, given the number of SERPs.

Here are some techniques you might consider:

• Featured snippets
• Other characters
• Emojis.

You should optimize page titles and meta description so search engines don’t just pick the one with the most numbers in front of it or the one with the most recent date before it.

Use Google features such as images and “People Also Ask”

Join them if you can’t beat them. Google owns the “SERP real property” and it’s difficult to compete with them.

Google will require you to follow their rules. If they tell you to stay below the fold, you are obliged to do so.

You can still get special treatment from Google by optimizing your content to use their features.

A more specific query is a good strategy. This is often shown as “People also Ask” (PAA) questions.

You have to wonder if searchers make grammar errors or if the algorithm is displaying potential questions in the most appropriate and context-sensitive manner.

No matter the reason, there are many questions you can answer by simply looking at the search results for keywords you are optimizing.

Image and video content are another way to fast-track your way up the ranks and be more clickable than your competitors. You can repurpose your written content in images and videos with different formats.

You can increase your chances of being clicked by creating dedicated images (photos and visualizations, infographics), or videos (interviews tutorials, reviews, etc.)

How Google’s Continuous Scroll can Impact SEO appeared originally on Search Engine Land.