How has continuous scrolling on Google desktop affected SEO & PPC?

Google first introduced continuous scrolling to mobile in October 2021. Then, in December 2022, it rolled out a slightly different version of continuous scrolling for desktop searches in English, in the US only.

For users in the UK, continuous scrolling rolled out gradually for desktop during the first half of 2023. Now, continuous scrolling is the default experience for searches across desktop and mobile, which raises several questions:

• How does continuous scrolling affect the SERPs?
• What does this mean for PPC?
• What does this mean for SEO?
• How will this change user behaviour?
• How does this affect reporting?

Some of these questions will prove more difficult to answer than others and it will take time to analyse all the necessary data. At this point, we’re only just starting to get the insights we need to measure the impact of continuous scrolling.

The good news is, it doesn’t seem like continuous scrolling will shatter search marketing as we know it. In fact, early signs suggest the impact on desktop sessions could be even smaller than on mobile sessions.

What is continuous scrolling & how does it change the SERPs?

Continuous scrolling replaces the old pagination system in Google Search. So, instead of having pages one, two, three, etc., the first six pages of results incrementally load as users scroll down the SERPs.

This is the key difference between continuous scrolling on mobile and desktop. On mobile, results keep loading as users scroll down the results page, which essentially provides infinite scrolling for mobile searches. However, on desktop, the first six pages’ worth of results load continuously. When users reach the end of the first ~60 results, they’ll see a “More results” button.

Clicking on the “More results” button only loads ~10 more results so users will have to keep pressing the button to load another page of results at a time.

In terms of the results pages (SERPs) themselves, early analysis shows little has changed. For the most part, ads still load in the same positions although fewer text ads appear with continuous scrolling. Instead of ads showing at the bottom of one page and the top of the next, there’s one space for ads between results that were previously ranking on different pages.

What does this mean for PPC?

Aside from showing slightly fewer text ads, continuous scrolling could have other implications for Google Ads campaigns. Unfortunately, it’s too early to draw serious conclusions and we can only speculate until we have a lot more data.

The first thing PPC advertisers should look for is whether continuous scrolling increases the average. number of ad impressions per session. The question is, are users scrolling through more results and seeing more ads than they were previously? Answering this will require controlled eye-tracking tests or – at the very least – heatmap analysis.

If users are seeing more ads per session, this will have an impact on performance metrics like CTRs. When Google rolled out continuous scrolling for mobile searches, it warned campaigns could see declining CTRs.

“Search, Shopping, and Local campaigns that serve ads on US-English queries may see more mobile impressions, which could result in lower CTR. We expect clicks, conversions, average CPC, and average CPA to remain flat.”

It also suggested advertisers might see “more impressions from top ads and fewer impressions from bottom ads”.

Keep in mind that these comments reference continuous scrolling for mobile searches and don’t necessarily apply to desktop in the same way. It’s a good idea to keep an eye out for similar behaviour across both experiences but don’t make any assumptions about desktop, based on mobile sessions.

What does this mean for SEO?

Early data suggests continuous scrolling on desktop isn’t having a major impact on user behaviour or campaign performance. If you were hoping this update would make “page one” any less important, it looks like you’ll be disappointed.

Then again, the next time a new client says they want to rank on page one for every keyword imaginable, you can simply tell them there is no page one anymore.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise, though. In 2018, Nielsen Norman Group released findings from an eye-tracking study showing how user scrolling habits had changed over the years. Back in 2010, it found 80% of viewing time was spent above the fold but this dropped to 57% by 2018.

Source

Even still, despite new scrolling habits driven by the infinite scroll of social media apps like Instagram, 74% of viewing time takes place above the fold or directly beneath it.

Early analysis of continuous scrolling in Google Search shows similarly moderate results on desktop. The top three organic results are still getting over 50% of all impressions and 88% of clicks. Clicks outside of the top six positions may have doubled but we’re talking about an increase from 2% to 4%. That leaves 96% of all clicks going to the top six positions and 88% of those to the top three.

Yes, this could increase further over time but historical evidence suggests the desktop experience centres around the fold. People are used to infinite scrolling on mobile devices but this doesn’t appear to have carried over to desktop sessions.

Mobile impressions tell a different story with the top three results only getting 40% of all impressions. According to the same analysis, results ranking in positions 7-10 get 35% of impressions but this doesn’t translate to higher CTRs.

Even on mobile, the top three results take 91% of all clicks and only 3% goes to results ranking after position 10. Users are more likely to scroll through results on mobile but we have to remember that this doesn’t equate to action.

How does this affect reporting for search marketers?

If continuous scrolling’s influence on user behaviour is as small as it appears, the biggest impact for search marketers could be on reporting. Clicks might be relatively stable but the relationship between impressions, CTRs and traffic have changed. Users are seeing more results and more ads per session but clicks are relatively stable. As Google warned when it rolled out continuous scrolling for mobile searches, this affects CTRs and we have to get used to seeing lower CTRs across campaigns.

As long as key actions like clicks and profit-related metrics like CPC, CPA and ROAS remain stable, this isn’t really a problem. Yes, CTR is important for Quality Scores but relative drops for everyone shouldn’t impact campaign performance.

The bigger problem is tracking ad performance against ad positions now that pages are essentially no more. Google recommends segmenting your performance data by “Top vs. Other” and reviewing your prominence metrics to understand how placement affects ad performance with continuous scrolling.

On a broader level, search marketers will need to analyse the long-term implications of continuous scrolling. So far, the impact is minimal – especially on desktop – but this could change over time, especially as Google rolls out other updates in the future.

Other questions we want to answer

• SERP quality: How will showing up to ~50 results that wouldn’t make page one affect user perception of results quality?
• Scrolling depth: How far will users scroll, on average, before clicking or quitting the session?
• Scrolling speed: Will continuous scrolling affect how quickly users scroll, potentially skipping past relevant results?
• Relevance: Will the relevance of page titles, descriptions, etc. become any more or less important in driving clicks?
• Blue link visibility: Will blue links get lost in the pack of results, SERP features, ads, etc.?
• Ad visibility: Will continuous scrolling make it harder to distinguish ads from organic results and will this impact clicks in any way?
• Zero-click searches: Will the increase in results, info and SERP features increase the number of zero-click searches?
• Choice fatigue: Could continuous scrolling encourage users to quit the session by delivering too many options?
• Interaction: Will interaction with features like “People also ask” decline with more elements on the SERPs?

The list goes on but we can only answer these questions with ongoing analysis and experimentation. Google is constantly rolling out updates, which makes it difficult to pin down behavioural patterns to specific changes – and that’s before you consider seasonal patterns and other variables.

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