Introduced Google Search by way of steady or limitless scrolling on cellular gadgets

Google announced yesterday that it introduced what they call “continuous scrolling” in mobile search results. Google doesn’t call it infinite scrolling because the scrolling doesn’t scroll infinitely, it should stop after page four or so – but nonetheless, continuous scrolling is rolled out on the phone.

We actually saw how Google tested that earlier this year, but Google is known for testing infinite scrolling over the years, including in 2019, 2015, 2011 and more.

This replaces the More results button for the first four pages. In my opinion, more results were renamed to “see more” at some point.

Here’s Google’s GIF of it in action:

How much does it scroll?

After scrolling a bit, it will eventually stop. The blog post explains more.

– Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) October 14, 2021

Going through four pages of results gives you a “See More” button when you want to see more. And when the button appears, that’s also where the footer information is displayed.

– Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) October 14, 2021

And Google posted more clarifications:

Continuous scrolling does not change how the position reports in Search Console work. The position reports remain as if pages did not load automatically.

– Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) October 14, 2021

According to Google, it will gradually be rolled out for most English searches on mobile devices in the US

In terms of Search Console reporting, it does not affect:

Nothing changes for the Search Console – position is position. We don’t follow any pages there.

I have no idea what third-party rank trackers are doing here – they usually work outside of our Terms of Service anyway.

– 🧀 John 🧀 (@JohnMu) October 14, 2021

The joke all SEOs say is you are all on page one now. 🙂

Impact on Google Ads

Doesn’t seem like it, Google wrote “This change will be introduced in the next two weeks starting today and will not affect the functioning of the ad auction or the calculation of ad rank.” Here is the Q&A posted:

Has there been a change to where my ads can appear on the search results page? Our systems recalculate ad rank for each search results page to ensure that the most relevant and helpful ads are displayed at the top. As part of this change to how search results are presented, we’re distributing the number of text ads that can appear between the top and bottom of the US English mobile search pages. Text ads can now appear at the top of the second page and beyond, while fewer text ads appear at the bottom of each page. Nothing changes in the way shopping and local ads are displayed.

Can my ads show more than once for the same search query? Yes sir. Ads were always eligible (based on ad rank) to appear on a search results page and again on a subsequent page. Our systems calculate your ad rank for each page and take into account whether your ad was shown on a previous page.

What can I expect from this change? Search, shopping, and local campaigns that serve ads for search queries in the United States may have more mobile impressions, which can result in a lower CTR. We assume that clicks, conversions, average CPC and average CPA will remain unchanged.

In addition, search campaigns may have more impressions from top ads and fewer impressions from bottom ads. To understand your performance based on where your text ads appear on the search results page, segment your performance data by “Top vs. Other” and review your awareness metrics. Nothing changes in these reports.

We encourage you to monitor your campaigns and further optimize them based on your business goals. This change in mobile search results is expected to be rolled out in more countries and languages ​​over the next year.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.