One of our least favorite website designs is the infinite scroll sites that seem to have popped in around the web over the past couple of years. They lack organization, can be disorienting for viewers and often have several short blurbs of text.

So what do search engines think about this design? One could argue that it’s a win-win because it continually puts new content in front of visitors and would seem likely to increase time on page. On the other hand, there’s less opportunity for click-through links to deeper site content meaning that Google Analytics could register fewer pages per visit.

In our research, we came across a great blog by Bruce Clay that breaks down the central issues:

• JavaScript-enabled features can be difficult for the search engine bots to crawl. If crawlers can’t access your content, it’s unlikely to surface in search results.”
• Many visitors like the choice to navigate with well-labeled, well-placed links and menus. With infinite scroll there is no satisfactory sense of completion.
• Etsy’s implementation of infinite scroll was such a failure that they removed it. Clicks, favorites, and purchases from search all dropped.

If you are dead-set on implementing an infinite scroll design, we urge you to thoroughly review Google Webmaster Blog’s recommendations for best practices to be sure the search engines can crawl your content.

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