Google Search Now Supports Continuous Scrolling In The U.S. – What Does This Mean?

Google announced on October 14th, 2021 that mobile search results will now have a “Continuous Scrolling” feature. This feature was initially released only in the United States of America.

You won’t need to tap to navigate to the next page if you reach the bottom of a set of search results on your phone. You can scroll down to see more information when the next set of results loads.

Google adds “continuous scrolling” feature to its iOS and Android Search apps

For the time being, the change will be available on the mobile site and in the Google mobile app for iOS and Android in the United States for most English-language searches. You might notice that some results scroll while others do not because this is a staggered release.

Most people find what they are looking for in the first few pages of search results, while those who want more information tend to go through four pages of results. That is the reason Google is making the adjustment. Clicking the “see more” button at the bottom of the page will no longer be necessary.

Google Search is About to Become a Lot More Immersive

This could be useful for searches where people are looking for more than a quick answer to a question.

If you are used to using your phone to search for things, you will probably see that you no longer need to click to navigate.

Continuous scrolling, Google hopes, will encourage searchers to look at more search results, and that a larger number of results is preferable for open-ended search questions. “most people who want additional information tend to browse up to four pages of search results,” according to a blog post.

When searching on your phone, you’ll notice that continuous scrolling only lasts four pages until the typical “see more” link appears. When Google loads the next page of search results automatically, it also places an ad in front of it.

Google Page 2 SERP Results Are Dead On Mobile

In reality, Google SERP Pages 1-4 are now page one for a mobile search.

There is not any clear answer about Google’s plans for rolling this out to desktop searches yet. Only time will tell.

How Will Google Continuous Scrolling Affect Advertising?

The lower the CPM the more mobile impressions the campaigns will see, which is what could result in the search, shopping, and local campaigns seeing more mobile impressions. Average CPA, average clicks, and average conversions are expected to stay the same.

How Does Google SERP Continuous Scrolling Affect SEO?

Google has made some changes to its search results pages that have resulted in more organic traffic being directed to mobile pages. This is great news for those who have been struggling with getting their sites ranked well on Google. It also means that people are searching for your products and services on their phones. If you haven’t already started optimizing your site for mobile, it’s time to start.

Google states that positioning is not affected by this change. Page ranking should remain the same. Google is simply displaying more results on page 1 than they did previously.

Base on their statement, your SEO efforts should remain unchanged.

The one good thing about this change is, if you are ranking for the top 2 pages in the search results, you could see an increase in impressions and click-through rate (CTR). This will bump up traffic for your website via mobile searches if your pages are well optimized for SEO.

Search Engine Journal revealed, in a 2020 study, the CTR of page two results is less than 1%.

In addition, there was another interesting finding from the report: The CTR of page three results increased significantly when compared to page two results.

This suggests that as long as you’re ranking high enough on page one, you can expect to get higher CTRs on page 3 or 4. With this new Continuous Scroll feature, your visibility on mobile SERPs should increase drastically providing you are optimized with the proper meta description and a title that entices clicks.

What Should You Do Now?

You may be wondering how to take advantage of these new features. Here are some tips to help you optimize your content so that it performs better on mobile devices.

  1. Your web pages need to load quickly on mobile devices.
  2. Make sure your web page is responsive.
  3. Optimize your title tags and meta descriptions.
  4. Use Schema markup.
  5. Include relevant keywords throughout your content.
  6. Add images where possible.
  7. Create shorter articles.
  8. Keep your writing concise.
  9. Write unique content.
  10. Focus on quality over quantity.
  11. Keep an eye on your analytics.

In summary, make sure your content works across all platforms including desktops and mobiles.

Wrap Up

All in all, I think we’ve seen a lot of positive things from Google lately. They seem to want to improve user experience and provide users with the information they actually care about. The fact that they continue to roll out updates like this shows us that they really do value our feedback.

I’m excited to see what else comes down the pipeline! If you need help getting your pages ranked higher in Google, give ITDwebdesign.com a call or email us.

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