When people go online, they click, download, share, like, post, send, and search. But before, during, and after they take all those actions, people scroll.
That’s why Google is introducing continuous scrolling for mobile search results. Social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have successfully designed their sites to keep users scrolling through news feeds and content — and now Google wants to provide users search results that have the same addictive, can’t-look-away qualities.
This development is important for agents. Changes to Google’s scrollability affect how people engage with search results and the advertisements and content that populate them. Scrollability may prove quite a shift from traditional SEO, as users won’t perceive different pages of search results.
Google’s emphasis on scrolling is a component of the search engine’s broader goal to become more intelligent and user-friendly. Here, agents can learn about the change to scrollable mobile results, the ways it will affect their marketing strategy, and what strategies they can take to continue to earn new leads and clients.
Continuous Scrolling: What’s Changing?
Just about everyone is familiar with the traditional Google experience: You type a query into the search bar and 10 results appear. You scroll to the bottom of the page, and if you haven’t found what you’re looking for, you click “next” or a page number to access more results.
But times are changing. Google results are now much more dynamic, informative, localized, and interactive — and the switch to scrollability is a continuation of this trend.
Interactive elements in Google’s search results include paid advertisements at the top of the page, “three packs” of local search results that appear at the top of the page, shopping results that highlight specific products, “people also ask” boxes that feature a few related questions, and “featured snippets,” in which a blurb from a web page is displayed at the top of the search result page.
The move to continuous mobile scrolling represents an effort by Google to help users interact with these elements more seamlessly. With continuous scrolling, Google can intersperse these elements with traditional search results. In addition to standard web links, users can scroll and engage with related questions and blurbs and shopping results, making for a more dynamic experience.
Overall, the shift to continuous scrolling is an indication that Google is becoming more intelligent and committed to keeping people viewing search results for longer and engaging with the results more meaningfully.
How Should Agents Adjust to Continuous Scrolling?
Being “findable” on Google has long been a priority for savvy agents, since more than 90% of real estate searches begin online and because Google is, by a wide margin, the most used search engine in America.
The most important change related to continuous scrolling that agents should prepare for is the discontinuation of “page one” results. In the past, landing even on the bottom of the first page of Google search results was valuable, because the vast majority of searchers would not progress beyond page one.
Now, more results will load as users scroll, lessening the advantages provided by being the eighth or ninth or tenth search result, but heightening advantages for agents who are “Google screened” via Google’s Local Services Ads and appear first in real estate agent related results.
Google’s Local Services Ads seamlessly facilitate contact from homebuyers and sellers to real estate agents in their market. The most valuable feature of Local Services Ads is that they enable prospective buyers and sellers to call listed agents (via their desktop or mobile device) directly from the ad itself. This makes getting the Google reviews necessary to become screened a must for agents.
Without a page one, agents should prioritize being at the top of Google searches, so that people see them before scrolling deeper and deeper into the search results. The best way to rocket to the top of search results is with Google’s Local Services Ads, which agents receive access to when they join Homesnap Concierge.
With Concierge, agents receive assistance placing Google’s Local Services ads that appear above traditional paid ads and deliver direct, live phone calls from ready-to-transact leads.
Google search results — and digital marketing more broadly — are only getting more complex and holistic. Use Concierge to save time and leverage the digital marketing expertise necessary to earn leads from the world’s most popular search engine.
