Google Search on mobile is getting updated with continuous scrolling, which will automatically populate more results when users scroll to the bottom of the page.
In an announcement, Google states:
“At Google, we’re always exploring new ways to help people find what they’re looking for quickly and easily. Earlier this year, we launched a redesign of the Search results page on mobile for a more modern experience that’s easier to scan and navigate.
Today, we’re making browsing search results more seamless and intuitive with the introduction of continuous scrolling on mobile devices.”
For searchers this is a welcome quality of life upgrade, as it’s now possible to scroll through an almost endless list of results to find right content.
Previously, Google’s mobile SERPs adhered pretty closely to the ‘ten blue links’ format that originated on desktop search.
Only instead of displaying a paginated list at the bottom of results, a mobile search page would display a ‘see more’ button.
Tapping that button on mobile is equivalent to clicking on page two of desktop search results.
Now, the ‘see more’ button isn’t gone for good, but Google says searchers will be able to scroll through “many more” results before triggering it.
This change can be hugely beneficial to publishers, because we all know page two of Google doesn’t see nearly as much traffic as page one.
Google says people seeking information may go as far as the first four pages of search results.
However, people are exceedingly unlikely to click on the results they see after the first page.
This is revealed in a 2020 study that finds the CTR of page two results is less than 1%.
Why people don’t click on page two results is uncertain, but it could have something to do with the perceived quality of content that didn’t make it to page one.
With continuous scrolling on mobile, it’s almost like all results are page one results now.
This change can create the illusion that the user hasn’t left the first page of SERPs, leading to them discovering and potentially clicking on URLs they otherwise wouldn’t have.
It’s a user interface design that works extremely well on mobile for apps like TikTok and Instagram’s Explore page.
On TikTok, users can continuously scroll down their feed and the app will keep populating more videos to look at.
This endless stream of content keeps people on the app for hours.
With the same design being applied to Google Search, this can increase content discovery significantly.
Websites ranking on the second page of Google (and lower) may start to see their traffic go up as a result of this update.
We’ll see as the months go on if this change helps increase traffic for low ranking pages.
It’s a good idea to pay attention to your Search Console reports and monitor the changes to your impressions and clicks on mobile.
Continuous scrolling is now rolling out to Google Search for most English searches in the US.
Source: blog.google.com
Featured Image: ChicagoPhotographer / Shutterstock
