Last month, Google rolled out continuous scroll to its mobile search results pages. For users, the change represents a minor tweak to Google’s interface, but the obfuscation of pages in the search results had SEOs questioning how that tweak would impact reporting and potentially affect user behavior.
Announced in October 2021, continuous scroll replaced Google’s traditional, paginated search results pages for mobile users. Instead of presenting users with a list of pages at the bottom of the first results page, Google now loads the next page of results automatically.
Up to four pages of results will automatically load (including the first page). At the bottom of the fourth page, users can tap on the “See more” button to load more results.
The potential impact on impressions and CTR
When continuous scroll initially rolled out, SEOs had questions about how reporting would work and how the change might translate to new user behavior. In short, reporting within Search Console remains the same as it did prior to continuous scroll, but impressions may increase for positions 11-20.
No change in Search Console reporting. “Continuous scroll also does not change how position reporting works in Search Console,” Danny Sullivan, Google’s public search liaison tweeted, “Positions reporting remains as if pages weren’t automatically loaded.”
“Nothing changes for Search Console – position is position. We don’t track pages there,” Search Advocate John Mueller reiterated.
How continuous scroll may impact user behavior. “I think CTR in positions 1-3 is unlikely to drastically shift, but people relying on 8-10 rankings for the bulk of their traffic might see some drop off in favor of former page 2 positions,” Tom Capper, senior search scientist at Moz, told Search Engine Land. “That said, relying on positions 8-10 as part of your strategy was always a precarious position, so perhaps this will make the impact of ranking fluctuations on those people a bit less harsh than has historically been the case,” he added, remarking on a hypothetical scenario in which a brand’s listings at the bottom of page one slip to page two.