Infinite scrolling is incredibly trendy right now. Want your website to look current? Infinite scrolling may be the way to go. However, what’s the best way of designing an infinite scrolling page? You need to consider user experience and SEO when planning out your trendy new website design.
Many website owners are turning to an infinite scrolling page not only because it is trendy, but because it can be a great way to increase engagement and retention. As users scroll down a page, they become increasingly engaged. The design can be very effective, but it needs to be applied correctly. Also, infinite scrolling isn’t for every website.
Before we get started, let’s look at the concept as a whole. What is an infinite scrolling page? An infinite scrolling page is exactly like it sounds, it allows a user to scroll down a page without reaching its end.
As you near the bottom of an infinite scrolling page, it loads more content. Infinite scrolling is usually achieved with JavaScript to asynchronously load additional content as a user scrolls past a designated point at the bottom of the page. A phrase such as “load more content” is often displayed at this point to make it more user-friendly.
A common example of an infinite scrolling page is on Facebook. Ever notice how you can scroll mindlessly on this social media site without reaching an end point? This is infinite scrolling at its best. Other social media sites like Twitter and Pinterest also use infinite scrolling. Google uses infinite scrolling for its image search results pages. The news site, Mashable, also uses infinite scrolling.
Take a minute and browse a few of your favorite websites. How many of them use infinite scrolling pages? The answer is probably more than you realized. When setting out to design an infinite scrolling page, the scrolling should be seamless. Users need to be able to effortlessly scroll your page without even noticing it.
Pay close attention to user experience and engagement when designing an infinite scrolling page. Work with your web designer to ensure a seamless browsing experience. Your page elements and content must be engaging. Otherwise, your users will lose interest and become irritated as a result of the endless scrolling.
Infinite scrolling is not ideal for goal-oriented website pages. As a result, you may want separate goal-oriented tasks from the infinite scrolling pages of your website. Provide users with a quick and easy way to find information and complete tasks such as signing up for your mailing list or printing off a promotional coupon. You can still use infinite scrolling pages in your website design, but you’ll need to implement it selectively.
Because most infinite scrolling pages use JavaScript, they can be problematic for search engine optimization (SEO). However, you can avoid a SEO nightmare by creating an infinite scrolling page and then creating additional pages. This is called infinite scroll with pagination.
With this design, you can maintain the benefits of infinite scrolling and at the same time, make it easier for the search engines to direct users to relevant content. Ultimately, infinite scrolling with pagination is going to improve engagement, usability and SEO. As a result, it is going to be the best way of designing an infinite scrolling page for most websites.
