If you’re wondering what an infinite scroll is, the answer is in this post. Also known as endless scrolling, infinite scrolling is a design technique that allows your web visitors to view more content as they scroll down a page.
This pervasive technique works by loading content continuously rather than stopping at the end of a page or breaking it up into separate pages (known as pagination). The goal is to enhance the usability and user experience of websites.
If you want to consider taking advantage of this WordPress feature, knowing the benefits and consequences is essential for making an informed decision. Here are the pros and cons of including infinite scroll on your website:
Pros of Infinite Scrolling
Infinite scrolling keeps users interested and engaged on the page. Plus, here’s how it can benefit your bottom line:
- Increase user engagement: Because content is updated frequently, users scroll and interact with new content in the form of pop-ups. So, if you want your visitors to stay on your page longer and reduce bounce rates, this is the trick.
- Easy browsingThis is the simplest navigation technique: you just ask your users to scroll down the page for more content. Your visitors will not leave your site because they find it easy to use.
- Helpful for mobile users: Touch-screen devices are designed for swipe motion, and infinite scrolling works well for that purpose. This feature creates a seamless experience for mobile users, keeping them engaged with your website for longer.
- Excellent for visual display: Infinite scrolling perfectly fits images and videos on your site to create visually appealing visuals.
Disadvantages of Infinite Scrolling
While infinite scrolling works are great, it also has technical and design drawbacks that outweigh its benefits. For example:
- Foot inaccessibility: Skips the footer information as the content continues to load.
- Slow load times or crashing: Sometimes the page freezes due to endless scrolling. When this happens, the site will slow down or not work at all.
- Similar design: Typography and layout look the same, which makes a website generic and boring.
- Poor SEO: Google may consider the page as a single piece of content as bots do not load much. Hence, it lowers your page rank with Google.
How to Enable Infinite Scrolling on WordPress
Would you like to enable infinite scroll on your WordPress blog? Achieving this requires only a simple process.
There are several methods to enable infinite scrolling. Two, in particular, make the most sense.
If you are looking for a new theme for your blog, check out Neve. It also comes with easy-to-use infinite scroll functionality that you can configure to match your needs.
Alternatively, if you’re not planning on changing your theme anytime soon, consider getting a plugin like Catch Infinite Scroll. This allows you to add infinite scrolling functionality to most themes and WordPress setups.
For more information on how to get one of these methods working, read our guide.
Final thoughts on What is Infinite Scroll
So, what is Infinite Scroll? It is a design feature that provides benefits for your website. However, when deciding whether or not to implement infinite scrolling on your site, you must first consider how it affects the user experience, functionality, and aesthetics overall. As discussed above, this feature has its pros and cons, which are worth considering before making a final decision.
As discussed above, this feature has its pros and cons, which are worth considering before making a final decision.
