What does continuous scroll involve?
Continuous scroll is the concept that many social media platforms are built on. For users, this means that their feed or news update rarely or never has an end point. In principle, you don’t need to refresh or update to see more content, which means you can end up spending hours scrolling through content.
The concept of “infinite scroll” was introduced by entrepreneur Aza Raskin in 2006, and has since become one of the most important features on many apps and social media platforms. The goal of the feature was to ensure that users spent more time on the platforms and apps where it was implemented. Now that Google is rolling out continuous scroll, it means you can scroll through four pages of search results before you have to click “see more”.
For users of Google’s search engines on devices such as mobile and tablets, this means that there is no longer a page 1, 2 or 3. The continuous scroll was launched on October 14 this year for English-speaking users in the US. It ensures that all search results appear on “page 1” without users having to click “see more results” at the bottom of the page.
Update: As of May 2022, this feature has also been rolled out in Norway for all mobile users!
How does continuous scroll affect SEO work?
Since the feature is completely new, it will be difficult to say for certain how it will affect SEO work. Here we have outlined five points that are likely to be important for SEO work going forward.
1. The importance of top ranking
With continuous scroll, it’s reasonable to assume that more users on mobile devices will scroll further down the page to find what they are looking for. This raises the question of how important the very top ranking will be if the feature encourages more scrolling. It may also be good news for small and medium-sized businesses, as the difference between, for example, 8th place and 11th place is likely to be perceived as smaller than before.
2. Meta titles, meta descriptions and mobile-friendly content
Since there will potentially be less difference between 8th and 11th place in the organic search results, this may indicate that the importance of strong, well-crafted meta titles is increasing. Right after a good meta title comes a compelling meta description that may provide more information about the topic than it previously would have. Perhaps the result in 6th place had a more engaging meta title and description than the one in first place, and therefore got the click? It may also be that you should place even greater emphasis than before on ensuring mobile-friendly solutions and content optimized for these devices.
3. Distribution of Click-Through Rate
Today, the first position for organic visibility in Google’s search engine accounts for 31.73% of the CTR. The percentage then drops sharply in line with lower rankings. It is possible that this curve will flatten out as more users may scroll further down the page to find what they are looking for. This is something that may undermine the importance of ranking on the first page of the search engine.
4. Structured data and Rich snippets
You may have searched for a recipe on Google and found a lot of relevant results, but perhaps you especially noticed the one with 5 stars and 3000+ reviews? This is structured data or Rich snippets and can help drive more organic traffic to your site. As the importance of ranking can be downplayed with continuous scrolling, elements like these may help your article stand out enough to generate more clicks to your website.
5. Unclear distinction between ads and organic content
Continuous scrolling may make it harder for more users to distinguish between organic content and paid placements. This is because ads can appear among the organic search results throughout the page, instead of only at the top and bottom. This is potentially good news for advertisers and, not least, for Google itself, as it creates more ad inventory to monetize.
Summary
It’s clear that the introduction of continuous scrolling on Google’s search engine for mobile users may impact the SEO work to be done. However, what this effect will be and the extent of it is difficult to predict. On social media platforms, this feature has led to more time spent on the platform, which benefits both the platform owners and advertisers buying paid placements. Another important factor to keep in mind is that it may increase competition for those who currently hold an organic top position in the search engine, as the importance of that position may be diminished. Writing compelling meta titles and meta descriptions, producing high-quality content, and, not least, ensuring well-designed solutions optimized for mobile use may become even more important than before.
